The Road to Damascus

I leave for Syria tonight (a plane ride to the Turkey-Syria border and then a long bus ride over the border)...but Syria has little to no internet access...only through internet cafes, so it is unlikely that I will post much for the next week. I wanted to leave an overview of what is upcoming in my life:
As I said earlier, I leave for Syria soon. Tonight the group will arrive in Hama, the third largest Syrian city pre-1982. In that year a huge fight broke out between the central government in Damascus and the local Muslim Brotherhood members who were fighting against the corruption and opression. So the president, Assad, decided to deploy the military to Hama and eventually, the whole entire town was leveled. Not one building escaped unscathed. So, we are staying one night in Hama, and then moving on to a crusader castle which is known to fulfill every little girl's fairytale fantasy....I am pretty pumped, it is called the Krak de Chevaliers. That is on the road to Damascus, where we will be staying for three more nights, exploring the Old City, going to a traditional bath house, and enjoying the Syrian culture. Our main events are a visit to the U.S. Embassy in Damascus, and a lecture from an American couple who have lived in Syria for five years. They are alums of the program I am on, and they are working with the Mennonite Central Committee. Syria is a little bit lighter on the "work" side of life, but that is highly refelctive of the fact that people there are not allowed to talk about government and/or politics. The government is authoritarian and controversial. All that means is that we will be doing a lot of reading about Syria.
After that, I hope to have a little more internet usage, because we leave for Jordan sometime in the latter part of next week (dates are hazy at this point)...but that is a rough overview of the next week...reflections will come later (insha'allah)...peace and love.

1 country down, 3 to go.