Dave Votaw, Supervisor, The RTI Project

24 May 2019

In the last few days we’ve been to the BUH-zar, joined a restaurant full of Muslims for Iftar, and visited the site of an ancient church from about 1500 years ago.

I’m going to post some pictures below and their captions will tell the stories. Click on the pictures to see more detail. Enjoy!

For a new experience, we decided to take the bus. All buses in this city (so we’re told) go to the bazaar. When do they go? When they’re full of people. So you just approach a bus that has space, get in, and wait until it’s full. Then a driver magically appears, and the bus goes to the bazaar.

How do you pay? You pass your money to the person in front of you. Eventually, all of the money gets to the front row, and that person gives it to the driver. That’s why we sat in the back.

The bazaar (are you pronouncing it BUH-zar in your head?) is huge. It goes on for blocks and blocks. Unlike the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul (which is what I was kind of expecting) it’s not all just one building. It’s like a mini-city, all shops. Much of it is under a roof, and in there you walk from shop to shop. But then you come out, and go into a different part. It is jammed with people, and beggars (mostly small children).

The bazaar has everything. Except a directory. That’s why you have to do what we did: take a local person with you.

When we decided that it was time to leave the bazaar we took a taxi (there really isn’t any other way). While we were driving, Karen took this video.

This section of the bazaar, of course, looks just like a street in the commercial section of the city. It just goes on and on.

In this photo Karen has decided to buy some scarves, and Benny (our local friend whom we brought along for this purpose) is negotiating the price for her.

In an old section of the bazaar we visited this men’s tea house. It’s for men only, and has been there for more than 100 years. We ordered tea, and it was good!

Samson told Karen “you are the only woman in here” and Sam added “yes, and we’re the only young guys.”

The place was full of retired men. Personally, I felt right at home, except for the smoking. The ones sitting right behind us were playing backgammon – very rapidly. They were scary good.

For lunch we walked into this very nice mall – really, its quality was just as good as any mall at home – right in the middle of the bazaar. We went into an Arabic restaurant where we had an excellent meal. I have enjoyed all of the different restaurants we’ve tried.

I must confess that I don’t understand the wide variance in building quality here. Obviously they have the technology and skills to build buildings really well – but only rarely do they actually do it.

That night we decided on a restaurant called “Sardar.” The word means “treetop” which seems somewhat random. It was just a big room full of tables and chairs, no decor really. But Caleb advised us to arrive by 6:15 if we wanted to get a table. So we did. There was a little plastic bowl on the table that had some dates in it, so I took one and ate it. Then Sam said “No one is eating.” Oops. He was right.

Servers came around and took orders, then brought us little salad plates (pink cabbage, not my favorite) and water. No one was drinking water either.

The server came by with a cart full of glass mugs containing white liquid. Samson said “Don’t drink it!” but I took a glass anyway, knowing that it was liquid yogurt. I’m tough, I can handle it. Besides, there was a ice cube in it and I think it was the first ice cube I’ve seen in this country. But I didn’t take a drink.

Samson checked his phone and learned that sundown was scheduled for 7:05 – still 20 minutes away. People continued to come into the restaurant. Women were dressed up fancy, men not so much. There were lots of children and babies. All the tables were taken, and still more people came in. 

Servers began to bring food. This server pictured above must be world champion; he successfully balanced at least 20 plates on that arm. I am not going to arm-wrestle with him! Still no one took a bite or a drink, at any of the tables.

We felt like we were in Times Square on New Years’ Eve, waiting for the ball to drop. The plates just kept piling up on our table (see photo at the top of this post). People were standing around the tables, waiting for a place to sit.

Finally at 7:05 came the sound – very much like the call to prayer that we hear all the time. And everybody dived in.

The food was wonderful! Having to wait so long may have helped, but honestly I haven’t had a bad meal here. There was no way we could finish it all.

We were stuffed, but Samson ordered tea – that’s a traditional way to end a meal here. They bring a big thing of sugar with it. We just piled all of the plates up in the middle. Finally we got the bill – less than $30 for the four of us.

We gave our money to Samson, and started to get up. Before we even left the table people started sitting in our chairs.

By the way, this was Iftar – the traditional breaking of the daily Ramadan fast. It was a fascinating cultural experience.

I had asked Caleb if there are any biblical-era sites nearby, so today he offered to take us to Bazian. It’s less than an hour’s drive away, and there are two things to see there. There’s a wall in a mountain pass that has been reconstructed from a foundation that is still partially visible. This dates from the days of the Persian empire, and basically served to protect it from invasion.

When we arrived, a goatherd was leading his goats down by the wall and into the nearby pasture.

In this picture (right) Caleb is showing us the nave of the sanctuary. The curved structure is most interesting; it could have been the altar area, or it could have been the foundation for stadium-style seating (which would have been made of wood).

We waited for the goats to pass by, and then were able to proceed into an archaeological site, a ruined church from the Byzantine era – probably just before the Muslims came.

These 3 spaces may have been niches for sculptures.

Here’s a picture of the full site. I found a web site about some work done here by French archaeologists a few years ago, but it doesn’t look like anything is going on here now. The site is not protected in any way, and Caleb has already noticed significant damage in the year since he last visited. This is often what happens with ancient sites in Arab lands.

I’m glad that we came; it gives us an insight into the history of God’s work in this area of the world.

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