Things I Like About Damascus
I’ve known for a while that if I came back to live in the Middle East, I wanted to live in Damascus. Of course, this may have been because my first visit to Syria came after living in Amman, Jordan, and after three and a half months straight of that city, any other country was bound to look like paradise. It’s not really heaven on earth, of course, but my first few weeks here have born out my assumption that Damascus would be a thoroughly pleasant place for me to live. Here are just a few of the reasons why:
1. It’s a city I can walk in. I hate driving and going places in cars, so sidewalks and street life are important to me.
2. Good city planning (or lack of stringent city planning). In many U.S. cities, zoning ordinances prevent mixed-used neighborhoods: a given block is usually designated as residential or commercial, and not both. In Damascus, as in the rest of the Middle East, most neighborhoods contain several of the kind of tiny stores that sell whatever I might need in daily life. Just on the short walk from the main road to my apartment, I pass a cheese/milk/olives/bread store, a vegetable store, a pharmacy, a stand selling baked bread with various toppings (called mana’ish), and a tiny stand with just soda, ice cream, and chips. Having most basic goods just a short walk away makes life indescribably better.
3. Relative lack of harassment. Harassment of women in particular and foreigners in general has reached epidemic levels in Egypt, where I first studied. Ranging from common hissing and catcalls to the rarer groping, it made going anywhere alone somewhat daunting. Perhaps I shouldn’t complain; while my blond hair drew attention to my presence, it also protect me from the worst harassment that fell on the Ethiopian, Eritrean, Sudanese and other refugees there. In Jordan and Morocco, where I’ve also lived, harassment was much less intense but still existed at a higher level than what I’ve found here. Harassment exists everywhere in the world, of course, including New York, but it’s not a daily worry here.
4. A plethora of parks and other public spaces. I love being able to meet a friend at the tiny park located at the convergence of three streets near my house to eat hummus and fuul (fava beans in oil) outside.
5. Public transportation. A system of public buses and shared taxis or minibuses (one is called a service, pronounced serveess, and the plural is seravis) makes it easy to get to and from school. The service routes are clearly marked and at peak hours they come by several times per minute.
6. A friendly atmosphere. I cannot emphasize enough how many genuinely nice and welcoming people I’ve met here, or how much easier of a time I’ve had making friends than in other places I’ve studied. Of course, there are plenty of nasty ones, too, but overall the atmosphere does remind me more of my hometown of Portland, Oregon than anywhere else.
7. Relatively cheap cost of living…for me, at least. Here’s one of the many places in which my privilege as a foreigner enters the bargain; Syria remains affordable for Americans despite a declining dollar, but it’s significantly less affordable for Syrians themselves, a great many of whom work two or three jobs. Occasionally a shop clerk still insists on giving me something for free (and on a cultural note, I still haven’t figured out how many times I’m supposed to resist such an offer), and when I ran into two girls I recently met at Damascus University while waiting for a service, one immediately presented me with the bottle of guava juice she’d just bought. It was not the juice, of course, that made an impression me, but her eagerness to make some welcoming gesture to a foreigner.
8. A mix of new and old. The presence of the past in Damascus is one of those rather cliched topics that guidebooks love to expound on, but I have to concur: the architecture that dates back hundreds of years mixing with much newer buildings does give the city an undeniable charm (and I hope it’s not just some orientalist mindset at work).
For now, I’m quite content to be living here.
yo mama said,
June 27, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Ahhh! I can’t WAIT to visit!
cousin sean said,
June 27, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Howdy Sara!
“Perhaps I shouldn’t complain” – sure you should. Since when does a relative benefit make chauvanistic levels of abuse okay? (By the way, I think you meant epidemic, not endemic? Had to look it up, myself.)
Hey – I just realized you have two 3s. Are you trying to play with my mind?
“buses several times a minute” – holy frijoles! Seriously? That’s a lot of buses.
Do you have a camera? Are you taking pictures, orientalism be damned?
cousin sean said,
June 27, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Jeez, did I spell your name right?
blogandshower said,
June 27, 2008 at 5:29 pm
hey sean, several good points! i guess i should edit more. but yes, it is sarah with an ‘h’. there are indeed buses several times a minute, but they’re minibuses, more like vans, so they only fit about 10 people. as to the complaining…i guess i am complaining, and i complained a lot, but it seems appropriate to acknowledge that it could have been much worse. i do have a camera and i’ve taken pictures, but i’m having some computer issues so i haven’t taken them off the camera card yet…plus i’m back to using dial up (that goes on the list of things i do NOT like about damascus) so up and downloading is a laborious process.
hope you’re well!
abufares said,
June 28, 2008 at 7:47 am
I couldn’t find any of the obvious traces of orientalism in your writing. What I found instead is the joy of accepting that life comes not only in different colors and shades but that we have to be at the right vantage point in order to appreciate it: Right in the middle of it.
Naji said,
June 28, 2008 at 10:15 pm
Abufares,
Wherever I find you, you have the coolest commentary…!! If Sarah has not met you yet, then she still has the best thing about Syria to discover…!
Kinan Debes said,
June 29, 2008 at 10:14 pm
Nice post!
I’m a Syrian native and I’d like to welcome you -once again- to Syria..
The points you mentioned here never seemed to be a luxury to me. But I like how you enjoyed them, really, and then I felt how Syria is a special place to live.
I know that every country has its own individual lifestyle, but I always thought of Syria as a dull place, and that’s why you surprised me with your post. so welcome again..
BTW it’s kinda strange for a foreigner (especially for females) to use our ‘excellent’ seravees system!! You may have noticed they’re mostly used by poor people, which occasionally frighten tourists and foreigners. But anyway, you’ve proven to be courageous enough to at least try it! Good job, I’m impressed!
I really wish you good luck, and have a pleasant stay in Syria.
blogandshower said,
June 30, 2008 at 11:45 am
thanks!! I do really enjoy living in Syria, or at least I have so far. I wasn’t aware that the seravees were that scary to many people–I know that a lot of foreigners don’t take them, but I thought that was because they were unsure about their grasp of Arabic. At any rate, thanks for the welcome! I know that not all Syrians love living in Syria, and I know it’s a privilege for me to be here and to be able to live outside of my own country–I’m not sure I would feel as enthusiastic about my home city if it were as difficult for me to travel outside of it as it is for many Syrians to leave the country. But I really do enjoy being here and I’m really looking forward to the coming year.
Also, I’ve read Abu Fares’ blog–the world according to a tartoussi, yes?–but not met him! maybe I’ll have that privilege at some point
.
abufares said,
July 3, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Sara
The pleasure would be mine and I look forward meeting you as well. Just make sure of one thing. Now that you’ve crossed half the world and came to Syria don’t stay put by closing the doors of Damascus. It’s a great city indeed, but the real gem (among many) is 250 km to the northwest
elowmevome said,
August 3, 2008 at 2:45 am
Brilliant!
علوش said,
December 19, 2008 at 7:54 am
If you liked Damascus you will also like Aleppo, give it a visit.
The Damascus tourist takeover – part 2 | Syria News Wire said,
September 8, 2009 at 8:15 am
[...] who wrote what is still one of my favourite odes to Damascus: Cultural Capital. Orientalista, The Blog and the Shower, Ali Khan and Jillian C York may not be Syrian, but they made a habit of writing colourfully about [...]