on the road in Damascus.....

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.....poor title i know; but i had to try!

it's been a really interesting work week - interesting in that the level of work in relation to the level of pay is a joke (£800 for 5 to 7 days work); but i took a job that would normally have gone to a Turkish national for whom this would be a more than OK wage and it got me out here on a press visa for 2 weeks; something normally very hard to achieve...and more imporantly i'm sitting in 16'c sunshine whilst Europe and Istanbul bask in the freezing cold and have 6 days to myself...........marvellous!

Syria - wonderful, lovely friendly people where i'm constantly greeted with "welcome to Syria" in English. Out here I'm travelling on my Irish passport once more; i figure it's much easier and so far access for photographs is proving reasonable. There are however Kalashnikov laden security guards, army and police on every corner - and a photograph of the outside of the central bank, health ministry or a police car is not worth the risk.

the work is now finished and i'm into personal work now......

I'd decided that i would see what turned up during the first week of working here; and it was a conversation with a girl in the local office of my employer. She's one of 10% of the Syrian population (20m in total) that is Christian; the most sizable minority group here after Muslims and there are Churchs dotted all around the place.

This has prompted me in my 5 remaining days to explore the different religions here. Yesterday a chance meeting led to tea and meeting Palestinian refugees who drew me a map of a homeland they have never visited; on Friday they're taking me to their home 500m from the wire and the border with Israel. Early this afternoon i'm meeting a catholic priest shortly and then later to the Hamas area called Sidd Zeinab outside Damascus for "tea" this afternoon......tea with insurgents.....mmmm.......

The one subject area i really want to get to do, and i'm working on at the moment is gettting to meet members of the Jewish community in Damascus. There are only 5 jewish families left in all of Syria..........