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3id is the word for feast. We are having the feast after the month of day fasting (they only fast during the daylight hours for 30 days). It amazes me every year how many women and girls there actually are. All year long you hardly see them out and about, but because they have to visit their families they are crawling the city.

I made an apple pie today. It was good. I had to make the crust and peel the apples, because I made it from scratch. My Scandinavian friend was impressed, because I usually just make stuff from a box. Anyway that’s what I accomplished in the past couple of weeks. I baked a pie!

On another note–I am now the assistent scoutmaster in charge of new scouts. I am excited and hope to get the younger boys to rise in rank and past first class. Next week we are going to meet the US ambassador who will talk with the scouts about their rights and obligations as a US citizen. It is a first class requirement. That should be cool.

–Chase

I went to the US emmbassy yesterday and today I had to get new pages in my passport. It was kindof disapointing. You go through 3 security checks and then they cram you into a small room to fill out paper work. That is it. They did at least have a water canister with cold water. The embassy is a big complex, but you only get to see about a 30 meter strip of a park, one building and 3 rooms. That’s it– that is after the first 2 security checks. Anyway I got my passport and am ready to fill the rest of the pages with new and exciting places. I would like to go and travel through the India region. I wish I could get there by traviling through to there and not flying.

Well I thought I would never get into Syria, because I was certain that the relationships between the governments is not the best. I never tried, because I had been told it costs 70 dollars to cross the border and you might wait for 4 hours to cross. However, I had a friend going up to visit some people so I asked if I could get a ride to the border and then he could go on. We got to the border and I went to apply for a visa. It only cost 16 dollars. Then after my friends left, it only took about 30 more min and I got a 15 day visa. That was great. I was just hoping for a 3 day visa or a 24 hour one. Since I hadn’t planned to have that much time, I didn’t know what to do with my self. I had been advised to see certain things and luckily I brought along a guidebook, “The Lonely Planet.” I headed off to Homs. Nothing is there but someone I knew so I stayed with them for 2 days. On the 2nd day we went out to their farm, and that I enjoyed so much. I asked if I could go walk in their field. They thought this was so strange but I went anyway. All of the children went with me. They basically all live next door to each other. As they get married, they move out and build their own home right next to the parents’ which is smart because it takes up less farm land. I got some dirt for my dad from the farm. The funny thing is: there are a lot of rocks in the soil the size of golf balls. You can’t avoid them. It makes me gratefull for the land I farm at home. My hosts knew some people in Lattikia (Lathaqia in Arabic) and called them to say I was coming. So the next day I went first to a castle. The Arabic name is Hosn after the town there. The other name is a French name I can’t remember. The French name means “the castle of the knights.” I thought it was amazing. It had a great view. It was beautiful. From there I went to Lattikia and met the other people. That evening we went to the beach and watched the sun set. It is the fourth time I have seen the Mediterranean and I still have not swam in it. We watched the sun set while drinking coffee. It was great. The next day I took the train to Aleppo (Halab in Arabic). At the train station I meat a man known to the guy in Lattakia. I had lunch with him and then got to explore the old city. There was a park very near the old city that I slept in for 30 min. I went to church that night in Aleppo and the next day I headed back to Homs. This time they took me to the down town area and made me eat everything we passed by. Some things where better in Syria. They are famous for their sweets but the sweet cheese (konafa) is better in Jordan. They put pistachios on it. After a day there I headed to Damascus and met some people I knew. They took me to a mountain over-looking Damascus. We had to pay 12 dollars to sit in the shade. We didn’t know until we were leaving that we had to pay for shade. It wasn’t like they where cramped for space. The place was empty. I was quite disappointed. I mean when you have to pay for “shade.” According to the proprietor who said he doesn’t get to keep this money, it goes to the government thanks to socialism. You could tell by the look on his face that he meant it or he just pulled the wool over our eyes. I was disappointed in the system another time when we had to sit for an hour and a half just to get some diesel. There is a shortage and yet the price is still 10 cents. Supply and demand means nothing here. Blarg. In that case we should just do away with money all together because it doesn’t really mean anything.

Syrians are so in love with their country. It is almost like it can do no wrong. They are a very proud people.

Back to the rest of my trip–after the expensive shade, we went to the old city and walked around. And then went to their favorite fruit juice stand. It was basically on the other side of the city but since Damascus is flat, we just walked to it and then went to their home. In the morning I left for home. Syria was nice. It is a good place to visit. Put it on your list.

I was put in charge of a summer fun club for kids. Yes, that is what we named it–cheesy? I think so but that is ok. The first week went well and we are hoping we can top ourselves each week. Being in charge of something finally is nice. I use alot of my boy scout stuff like “thorns and roses” to help everyone express themselves. It is hard to get people to say how they are doing but once you get them talking on something you can help them say what they want. I am in charge of games and scout stuff. It’s funny–we plan about 4 games and we always only get to one game at a time. That is fine; it just means we can use them later.

I also went to another wedding last night. It was fun. A lot of guys were dancing the debki. You could join and not be the focus of attention. They were real bedoo, and it was nice.

My brother came to visit me. He arrived and his wife was to come about an hour after, but was delayed and her flight got cancelled; so we had to come back the next day to get her. Her bag didn’t get there, so instead of going ahead and going on to another place we just stayed at my house and went out to eat with some of my friends at a really neat bedo restaurant. The next day we went out to Mt. Nebo where Moses saw the promised land and then died. Afterward we went to the Dead Sea. Thankfully we had rented a car. That was the best thing for all the airport runs and we were able to do so much more in such a short time for they were only here for 6 days. The Dead Sea was nice. We drove down to Karak Castle of the Crusades era. We then drove down to Petra where we spent the night. That was a good idea so we could get in early enough the next morning when there weren’t many other people and we could do it a lot faster and get out befor the sun was going down. On the way back we all rode camels. That was nice. It was my first time to ride one. We then drove home and got to go to my best friend’s home and have real Arabic hostptality. We were served coffee, tea, juice, macloobi, and even argila. It was weird though, because it was the first time I have sat with his wife. Usually she is in the back, but because my sister-in-law was there, she sat with us. It was different and nice, because it was like I was accepted by the family. The next day we went to Jarash. It is the most well-preserved city from Roman times. It was very cool. I had never been. The next day I took my brother to the gym and we played some basket ball. That was fun. Then we had some tea at my neighbors. Then I took them to the airport, and off they went.

Well, Egypt was great once again, and I was still happy to come back to Jordan, to be back “home.” This time I went north of Cairo and stayed with a friend’s family; so didn’t go to upper Egypt this time. But then we went into Cairo for a day before we flew back. That night I went looking for some food because everyone else was a party pooper and stayed in the hotel . As I was walking, one guy looked at me like I didn’t fit in; so I asked him in Arabic, “Is there a place to eat around here?” He said, “Yeah just go straight. I will take you.” We walked for about 5 min. down the street and came to a place. I said thank you and he just looked at me (mind you the whole time we talked in Arabic) but at this point in time he looks at me and says “dollar.” Well heck no I’m thinking, so I looked at him and said, “No, I wont pay you; but you can come eat with me.” So of course he ate with me. After he scarfed down the food he said he had to go smoke outside that it was not allowed in the restaurant. No matter that there were ash trays on the table and after I got done, other people smoking and no one seem to care. When I got out side he was gone. So, okay. Then I had to find my way back and decided to go walk another way and found another main street. Some street kids found me. One started to follow me and asked for money. I said no but then asked him if he wanted bread. “No,” he said, ” just money.” I asked, “Do you want juice?” No, just money. He had shoes. He had dirty clothes, but still he was happy. Maybe some chocolate. No, just money. I told him no. Then one by one they started to accumulate around me and they were all happy. They didn’t want food or drink, but one girl didn’t have shoes. So I asked, “Where can we buy shoes?” Well they all knew of a different place and argued amongst themselves until I just started walking in a direction, and they just followed. We found a shoe store and for 50 cents bought her some shoes. The kids all loved it. After that we bought some bread and started to eat it, and that is how I left most of them. A few more followed and then realized I was going to my hotel so they left. But one was very insistent and wanted to shine my shoes. I had tennis shoes on; so I asked him if he needed anything. He said money. “No,” I said, “money is evil.” We talked for a while and realizing I would never give him anything, he said, “I need a hat.” “Okay,” I said, “let’s get a hat.” So that is what we did. We found him a hat for 2 dollars and to bed I went.

The next day we were to meet at the pyramids at 12, the hot part of the day. Our hotel was basicly beside it, so we got there 30 min early and then the other people were an hour and a half late. We sat outside the pyramids me wanting to go in. But no, we had to wait. More complaining , more waiting. We actually saw people going in and coming out because we were there so long. There is no shade; so we sat out there and thinking it would be an hour long excursion I just brought a liter of water and no sunbloc. We got sun burned and drank all my water until the rest finally showed up. To make it go faster we got a taxi to take us to all of the pyramids. We went inside one and took many pictures. I got some sand and then forgot it in the taxi. Sorry, Dad. That pretty much wraps up the Egypt trip.

Two more days of school and I’ve already done the test; so these last 2 days are going to go by quite fast. After this I am headed to Egypt for a visa renewal. When I get back, I’ll tell you all about it.

Well this entry is only to complain about my allergies. The funny thing is: last year I didn’t have them, but this year my eyes are sealed shut when I wake up in the morning and my nose runs non-stop. It runs so much it has made it hard to breathe and I always feel out of breath. I sound like all of my frineds that have asthma. So I wonder if that is it. I haven’t had asthma since I was 5, so I hope that isn’t it. But man the past few days have been horibble. I got some medicines and today I feel better.

I met a few guys from down south and they invited me over because they heard I knew how to make chili. I thought “Sure, why not go over and cook some chili and have a nice night with some respectable young men.” Two days before I gave them some pinto beans to soak and cook then refrigerate them. We would need to put them in the chili. (I am a staunch No-beans-in chili eater but we had about 10 guys and I wasn’t buying that much meat. So beans it is.) They soaked them, but forgot to cook them. At least they had been sitting in water for 2 days. It still took an hour and half to get them eatable. So we went to get ingredients for corn bread and made some of that. While we were waiting for the beans we started discussing many things like of course pride fighting and the UFC. Like the good southern boys we were, we downloaded a few videos of fights off you-tube (oh wow my first reference to another website). We ate our chili and watched the videos and of course the trash talking began. So with a few matresses on the ground and pillows on the side and a couple of ground rules off we went. Bellies full of chili, wrestling all night long only 2 at a time and with only one guy throwing up. We had fun. Afterwards we watched “The Simpsons” till everyone fell asleep on the matresses. When we woke we were all sore especially our neck muscles.