Anne in Syria

Visit my new blog:

2009-11-06T15:12:00.001+02:00

www.anneinsudan.blogspot.com

As you might know I have left UNDP and Syria in order to start a new position with Danish Red Cross in South Sudan. As always there will be a new blog ready....

Field Visit

2009-09-14T11:55:00.008+03:00

In August I finally got to go on a field visit out of Damascus. The purpose was to visit two of the projects I am on charge of, to see the progress in the work and to participate in a workshop on drought.

The first day was spent in Deir Ezzor, a town in the Syrian Desert mostly known for oil and the Euphrates River. I went to see the old souq that UNDP is working on restoring, I visited a training center where UNDP provides business related training for young people in the region and finally I went to the municipality building to see the site identified for a UNDP supported one-stop window for the citizens of Deir Ezzor.

As always the most interesting sights were the ones seen after working hours such as the suspension bridge of the Euphrates and dinner by the river smoking shisha with an actual apple on top.

Second day of the visit was spent in Raqqa with initially a visit to the newly renovated one-stop window at the municipality and a visit with the governor of Raqqa in his overly impressive office. Finally, I participated in a workshop on drought where MPs and farmer unions, etc. were busy pointing fingers at each other….

Nice to finally get out of the office for a change.

Another weekend in Beirut...

2009-06-04T09:54:00.016+03:00

As you might know there is election coming up in Lebanon and as always it is hard to predict what will happen when democracy hits the Middle East.

For this reason I felt it would be a good idea to hurry up and have another weekend in this amazing country. Beirut is a great city and I will let the images speak for themselves:

Ok, maybe I will write a bit: the Gemmayzeh neighbourhood is super charming and filled with restaurants, cafes and bars - my favorite place to be.

Next to Gemmayzeh is Downtown with the famous Al-Omari mosque also known as the Blue Mosque. The mosque was built by Rafik Hariri, former prime minister who made a fortune on the rebuilding of Beirut after the war but mostly famous for being killed in a car bomb in 2005 - presumable by the Syrians.

Unlike the Blue Mosque, which is very new, the Martyr's Statue was there during the war. The Downtown area lies where the green line divided the Muslim and Christian neighbourhoods during the civil war and it is clear from looking at the Martyr' Statue that it was right in the line of fire.

The actual reason for me going to Beirut was to meet up with a good friend from Bangladesh, Norwegian Nina. We have not seen each other since I left Bangladesh in 2004, so it was a great reunion celebrated with red wine and nargileh.

The road back to Syria offers many exciting experiences - besides the crazy way people drive in the mountains. During the Israeli attack on Lebanon in the 2006 war the bridge on the road to Syria was bombed. The Americans are now funded the reconstruction of the bridge but as you can see on the photo it seems some problems have occurred on the way!

Last experience on the trip was a stop at the Kefraya vineyard. Here we have a delightful wine tasting and a lovely lunch.

Syrian wedding

2009-06-03T14:03:00.010+03:00

Not so long ago I was invited to the wedding of one of my favorite colleagues, Rania. She is a very sweet girl, but facing the same issue as most Syrian girls – moving closer to 30!!! In her late 20s it was definitely time for her to get married and so she did.

The wedding party was women only. This is very common in Syria but a first time for me. The reason for the women only choice is based on religion. At these parties all women participating at the wedding can feel comfortable taking of their hijab (veil) and dress a little less modest that they would do normally. The bride can show her beautiful dress and the nice hair that must have taken hours to do. In order to make sure all 300 women at the party can see her from all angles three big screens were placed on the back wall and a camera crew (women only) would follow her around.

The bride spends most of the time on a podium dancing, sometimes alone and sometimes with friends. Often the women dancing with her are single women hoping to make an impression on some of the older ladies attending in the quiet wish that one of them might be found suitable for a son and thereby the next one staring in the dance show that the wedding is centered around.

After a few hours of dancing and the dinner a sudden commotion starts. Rumours are spreading that the groom is on his way. Quickly, women start to cover up and not soon after the groom shows up – a bit nervous, but then again who wouldn’t be having to enter a room of 300 women all waiting to see you. He goes up to the bride and offers her a tray full of what seemed expensive jewelry. Together they exchange rings and dress up the bride with the jewelry. She then dances for him and then the wedding cake is cut. The whole thing projected onto the big screens so everyone can follow the festivities.

The wedding is over within 3 hours, everybody goes home and the bride and groom can now look forward to a happy life together – starting with a honeymoon in Thailand! At UNDP we can look forward to a future without Rania, since she now has taken on the position of full time wife!

As you can probably guess I was not able to take photos of the bride. However, I did get a few shots of the very impressive cake!!!

Spring Specials

2009-06-01T12:19:00.004+03:00

After a long and hard winter spring finally arrived and it was time to get back in gear. Those of you who have been following me on Facebook know that I have been spending almost a much time out of Syria as in the country. However, I have had time to spend a few hours in the office – occasionally – and this has paid off with some exceptional experiences.

In April I was lucky enough to receive an invitation for a visit to the Tishreen Palace to meet the First Lady of Syria, Asma Al-Assad. The meeting was in connection with the NGO project I am working on (see previous post) – a project that the First Lady is actively supporting. It was an experience to meet this remarkable woman and to visit the Tishreen Palace which gates I drive past every day to work.

In May I was put in charge of a project focusing on capacity building of the Syrian Parliament. In this connection, I was invited to visit the parliament and got the great big tour of the place. The Parliament or People’s Council is a very impressive place and it was quite the experience.

Unfortunately, I was not able to document the visits to some of the highest institutions on Syria. However, I am able to share a few photos from the most special spring experience – my visit back home. Denmark in May is just amazing and I must admit to a small feeling of home sickness sneaking up on me. Spending time with my sister’s wonderful children just added to that feeling…

Long weekend in Lebanon

2009-03-17T19:51:00.007+02:00

Finally came spring and along with it a nice long weekend thanks to the Syrian Revolution Day and the birthday of the Prophet. With no intention of spending a four-day weekend in Damascus I went with two friends to Lebanon. Roheet and Bo had spend some time preparing this trip, I only decided to go the night before, so I didn’t quite know what I had agreed to….but as most often it is at those times the best experience occur – and this time was no exception.

Most of Friday was spend in Beirut looking for a slightly reliable car rental company. Obviously, rental cars are not insured there and it took us a while to find a place when the writing in small did not imply bankruptcy for all of us in case of an accident or theft. However, eventually we managed to get a car and get out of Beirut.

Lebanon is a very small country and easy to travel in. We drove into the mountains with great views of snow topped mountains on one side and the Mediterranean on the other side. We made a small stop on the way in Deir al-Qamar, a cosy small village, for some lunch and supplies. We then continued to El Barouk where the entrance to Chouf Natur Reserve is. Here we found a wonderful guesthouse with the best home cooked food I have had so far in this region.

We were planning on a full days hike in the park. Supposedly there would be nicely marked trails and lots of beautiful nature. Whether this was the case we never found out since the place was buried under about a meter of snow. It takes more to stop us though and we managed to hike for five hours in the snow. Though it was cold for the feet, the sun was shining and the views were amazing.

Next day we continued our road trip. First stop was Beit Eddin and a nice old palace, we then continued on to a marsh area and ended up – by accident (I shall say no more but those of you how knows how bad I am at giving directions can probably guess) - in Baalbek. Besides from being Hezbollah land with lots of signs thereof it is also home of an amazing old ruin town – definitely worth visiting.

Last night was spend in Beirut and lucky for me and my credit cards there were room for three hour power shopping Monday morning before heading back to good old Damascus.

Petra - a new wonder of the world

2009-03-17T19:11:00.000+02:00

Situated in Jordan, more than 2000 years old Petra is one of the biggest tourist attractions in the Middle East - I went straight on the beaten track....

Working with civil society in Syria

2009-02-24T12:47:00.004+02:00

I came to Syria one year ago to work as programme officer with UNDP in Damascus. My area of expertise lie within civil society and gender. Before arriving in Syria I was working with civil society in Nepal where the playing field is very different from here. After 12 years of civil war in Nepal the government is often non-existing outside of the major cities and civil society is filling the gaps both in terms of charity, development and advocacy. Coming to Syria the picture is quite different. At first glance it is difficult to recognise the civil society and the organisations involved within this field. However, it is there and it is very active. The Syrian civil society is characterised by being very diverse and nuanced - both in terms of geography, working areas, professionalism and community ties.

Syria has a long and proud tradition of charity based work. The country has a large number of charity organisations working with different marginalised groups in the country. Within the last 6-7 years a new trend has been noticeable. A new type of organisations are being established, namely development oriented organisations or as we know them, NGOs. These organisations focus more on long-term impacts and empowerment of people. In other words, where as the charities would give women and men a fish to eat, the NGOs are giving people a fishing pole and teaching them how to fish. Finally, there is also a growing number of advocacy NGOs mostly within the environmental area i.e organisations focusing on the rights of the people fishing.

As mentioned these new organisations have been growing steadily in number and size for the past 6-7 year. This is a very positive trend and UNDP is dedicated to support this process and these organisations. For this reason UNDP has been working with the Syrian Trust for Development, a newly established NGO in the country to develop the framework for a platform for NGOs in the country. It has been a long and hard process and we are still only at the beginning of the journey. The idea is to provide the civil society with a place to come together to network, discuss development issues and learn from each other. It is extremely important that the platform is driven by the member, that is serves their needs and that they see an added value in participating in this work. We have therefore been working hard throughout the last year talking to the organisations in the country to make sure that it is their needs that are reflected in the design of the platform.

In December we had a large national dialogue workshop with 30+ organisations participating. After an introduction of our work and surveys conducted on civil society in Syria the participants broke into working groups to discuss what they needed from a platform catering to NGOs. The outcome has now been formulated into a 3-year project we are hoping to initiate in the spring.

During these 3 years we will be setting up the actual platform including membership criteria, organisational structures and applying for legal registration with the government. Additionally, the platform will be offering several services identified by the members themselves. First and foremost, we will concentrate on establishing networks for the organisations to participate in. A network can be focusing on specific developmental issues such as women’s rights, environment, etc. This all depends on the interest of the members. The NGOs can then come together to discuss how to address these issues and learn from each other. Civil society in Syria is very scattered and diverse. Often they are not aware of the work or even existence of other organisations working within the same field or in similar areas. During our many meetings with organisations last year including the national dialogue this came out very clearly and already several ties between organisations have been established in informal ways. Establishing networks for the NGOs to get together will be very beneficial to the members of the platform.

Finally, the platform will work with developing the capacities of the organisations. As with many newly established organisations the NGOs in Syria is often characterised by a few persons getting together with a interest in making a difference in their community. The will and interest is there but often there is a lack of capacities to do the actual project management, to report back to donors and to apply for the funds. The platform is hoping to be able to address this issue through capacity building activities and the establishment of a grant clinic.

All in all, it is a very exciting project. The past year has been very interesting in terms of having the possibility to work with these organisations and learn more about the situation of the organisations and the challenges they face as well as the opportunities that are present now. It has been hard work to develop this new 3-year project and we have often had to change certain things based on the input we received from the organisations. Based on this process however we are certain that the project developed is based directly on the needs and wishes of the future members of the platform.

As mentioned this is only the first step on a long road. It is well known that in Syria nothing happens overnight and just like Rome was not build in one day neither will this platform be. The next 3 years will be interested and exciting. I have one year left in the country and will not be able to follow the project all the way. However, this is the life of a development worker and hopefully the platform website will be up and running within this year and I will be able to follow the process online from wherever my next job will take me.

Visits from back home

2008-11-14T19:01:00.004+02:00

One of the great advantages of living in Syria is that I now live closer to Denmark than ever before. This also means that more people come down for a visit.

October was a particulary busy month. First two guests were my cousin, Martin, and his friend. They stayed with me for a couple of days, together we went to Palmyra for one of the biggest events of the year: The Camel Race

The two travellers then ventured off to see not only Syria but also parts of Jordan - in two weeks they covered almost as much ground as I have in a year....

Following this my parents came to visit. As always it is great to have them visiting and a great part of their time here was spent on eating, drinking and talking. Still, we managed to find time to travel around the country, see some of Syrias amazing sights, shoppe and dress up!!!

Now I am looking forward to 2009 and even more visits from around the globe - great!

Sorry this is too crazy - but not unexpected unfortunately

2008-10-08T11:53:00.000+03:00

In gender-sensitive Iran, a car designed specially for women

Robert Tait and Noushin Hoseiny
The Guardian,
Tuesday October 7 2008
Article history

Iran's biggest motor manufacturer is to take the country's gender sensitivity to new levels by producing a car specially for women.
It will be fitted with features common on the international market but seen as female-specific in Iran's male-dominated culture. These include an automatic gearbox, electronic parking aids, a navigation system and a jack designed to make it easier to change a wheel, suggesting that women drivers lack the mechanical competence of their male counterparts. Alarms may also be installed to warn of flat tyres. The vehicle will be painted in soft "feminine" colours and include interior designs tailored to women's tastes. There will also be audiovisual entertainment systems for child passengers.
Iran Khodro, the state-backed manufacturer, said it would put the first models on sale next June to coincide with Iranian women's day. The car will be part of the Samand range, which has been exported to allied countries such as Syria and Venezuela. However, the women's car will initially be aimed solely at the Iranian domestic market.
Vahid Najafi, managing director of Iran Khodro's order unit, said the design was prompted by a sharp increase in women drivers and car owners and was based on research into their preferences and needs. Cars will be built in response to orders from customers.
"Women's necessities are different from men's," Najafi said. "For example, a woman goes shopping, takes children to school - so this car is going to have some visual distinctions that will separate it from other cars. It will be more beautiful. Cheerful and attractive colours will be used - for example red. A series of decoration pieces will be added to the interior, on the dashboard for example. What's important for women is that the car should be comfortable and handle well."
The idea is in line with gender separation officially encouraged by Iran's Islamic authorities. Last year they backed a proposal for a female bicycle designed to conceal the rider's legs and upper body. Women are discouraged from cycling, mainly to preserve notions of female modesty, and are banned from riding motorcycles, except as passengers.
A women-only taxi service, with women drivers, was recently launched in Tehran and other big cities. Men and women are segregated in buses and on Tehran's underground.
Iran Khodro last year announced plans for an Islamic car - with a navigation system designed to locate Mecca - to be produced jointly with Malaysia and Turkey.

Ramadan in Syria

2008-09-21T20:08:00.002+03:00

September 1st 30 days of Ramadan started for all Muslims around the world and Syria was no exception. In my office the change was felt immediately; working hours were cut by one hour pr day and despite that people still showed up half an hour late – “it’s Ramadan!”

The water cooler (and heater) was emptied and turned off so I have to bring my own bottle of water with me to the office and can forget everything about a cup of coffee during the day. Luckily, the Syrians are very relaxed with non-Muslims not fasting and my colleagues have given me permission to drink and eat at the office. Same understanding does not exist with Muslims not respecting the Ramadan. A friend of mine was scold for drinking a beer – by the waiter that served him the beer!!!

The first two weeks are supposedly the worst – close to 15 hours without food or water in 40 degrees just can’t be too much fun! I have witnessed a lot of road rage and have been yelled at by cashiers and taxi drivers. Basically, people have more of a temper – understandably.

My Arab teacher has suffered a great deal from lack of food and as a consequence my vocabulary has been filled with food related words, which I guess is very useful.

As the clock approaches 7 pm the city changes dramatically. The streets are abandoned and the few cars left on the road are driving as fast as possible to their homes and the great Iftar – at sunset it is time to break the fast and finally eat. At restaurants great iftar menus are the only thing on offer with lots and lots of Arabian food. And though I love the local food I have to admit that after a few Iftars it is nice with a few friends how are willing to break the fast with lots and lots of sushi instead!

Mini break in Egypt

2008-07-01T09:55:00.002+03:00

Finally, finally did I manage to take a few days of from UN and Damascus – and it was much needed!

My good friend, Bodil, and her husband, Sigge, have been living in Cairo for the last three years. Since they are now leaving it was last chance to visit.

Though Cairo is a big and interesting city where we easily could have spent 5 days the three travelers, Sophie, Steve and I, agreed that a few days by the Red Sea was a must.

So first part of the break was spent on the beach and in the sea including an amazing trip with snorkel. Following this we went to Cairo to spend a day at the Giza Pyramids and a lovely evening on the Nile. Bodil and Sigge had prepared a wonderful picnic that we had on a small Nile boat while the sun went down – a dinner I will late forget!

A trip to the desert

2008-06-05T09:28:00.001+03:00

The vast majority of Syria is desert and after 4 months in the country it was time to go out and look at it! 3 hours from Damascus is Palmyra, an oasis in the middle of the desert interesting not only for the bare landscape but also for the incredible beautiful ruins situated just outside the town.

We spend a full day in the burning sun by these ruins. Despite the impressive attractions there were very few tourists and we enjoyed walking around taking in the ruins and the desert by ourselves. Once in a while we were “interrupted” by a guy on a moped who had spotted us and came out to try and sell us a soda or homemade necklace.

In Palmyra we were lucky enough to made a new friend. Muhammed is a real Beduin disguised as a business man – or was it the other way around? He has 60 camels and runs camel trips into the desert for the tourists. One of his camels, Casanova, came in second at the yearly camel race – an event I will make sure to witness. I was fortunate enough to get a few moments on Casanova and there is little doubt that he is a winner!

New York New York

2008-05-28T15:14:00.008+03:00

As part of my introduction to UNDP I get to go to New York for a three week course at the Headquarters. I will not bore you with details from the course that was from morning till evening about UN, fortunately, there were lots of interesting participants who lived and worked in many different and exciting places in the world. Despite the many different nationalities and language we had one big thing in common: we all worked as programme officers with the UN. During the three weeks we had lots of good discussion and many interesting examples from the work of UN in as different places as Cuba, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Maldives – the list goes on….

Though the majority of my time in New York was spent in the course or in meetings, there was still some time to shop, enjoy the good restaurant and vibrating night life. Weekends were spent at Yankee Stadium, Brooklyn Heights, Coney Island – and naturally on the cafés of Manhattan.

The Great Race

2008-04-17T03:31:00.002+03:00

Already when arriving in Damascus in February had some friends invited us to participate in the Dead Sea Marathon - the 10 km part of it! For some reason, we have said yes immediately, thinking it would be a fun thing to do. The race took place April 11th by the Dead Sea, Jordan side. We went with two good friends, Sarah and Sophie, in a taxi to Jordan for a weekend of race and relaxation.

The race took place early Friday morning - it gets hot pretty quick when you are 400 meters below sea level. The 10 km went great for all of us and we were feeling pretty good about ourselves when we returned back to the hotel for a delicious champagne breakfast buffet and a full day by the pool and floating around in the Dead Sea.

I think we might be back for the event next year....

Aleppo

2008-04-01T03:56:00.002+02:00

During Easter we went to Aleppo - a beautiful old city 350 km north of Damascus close to the border of Turkey.

We left Thursday afternoon with the famous fast train. The train is known for its fancy design (from Japan) and fastness, so we were excited about the trip. It was a nice train and it felt more like being in an airplane on business class with comfortable seats and staff serving coffee and tea. There was even a small screen and small headsets making it possible to watch a movie during the ride....

However, the fastness of the train was questionable since max speed was 50 km per hour - still, we made it to Aleppo and on time!

Like Damascus Aleppo claims to be the oldest inhabited city in the world and is a very beautiful city with a fascinating old and new city parts. The old city has a famous souq (market) that opens out to an increible citadel/fort. This place is a very present reminder of the history of the crusades. The citadel was used to protect the citizens against the crusaders - and with success as well. It is still standing but lost of work needs to be done. This doesn't stop the locals from flocking to the place for picnics and family outings.

Also the "new" city is impressive. Small cobblestone streets with plenty of charme and life. This is the Christian part of the city and we were lucky enough to meet the priest of the Armenian church. He took us on a small tour of the many churches in the area and due to Easter there was lots of life and activities in most of these churces.

We also had time for a small trip outside of Aleppo to the ruins of a Byzantian church from the 5th century. According to legend a monk by the name Simon went to live here to meditate without any disturbance. However, the rumour of this monk all alone on a hill spread and people came from all over to see the guy. Simon was not too happy about this and decided to build a pillar to sit on creating some distance from the crowds. More and more people came and it is said that the last pillar that Simon built was close to 40 meters high and that Simon slept with a chain around his foot to avoid falling from the pillar....

Simon died in 459 and today there is little left of his last pillar - apparently pilgrims have taken small souvenirs of the pillar with them leaving little left for tourists to see...Surrounding the pillar a church was built to honour Sct. Simon - and though everything is in ruins today it was a beautiful place to visit.

Weekend....

2008-03-03T14:41:00.003+02:00

Unlike life in the Nepali countryside there are several forms of entertainment in a city like Damascus. Already this week revealed some of these….

Here the weekend starts on Thursday afternoon and what a perfect start; I went with 5 female colleagues to the Hammam (Turkish bath) for three hours of steam, Jacuzzi, scrubbing, massage and lots of gossip – ending the evening at a cozy little restaurant with good food and wine (something that can be hard to find in this city).

Friday night we went to the Opera – yes, there is an opera house here. We saw Carmen, and though I must admit that the Carmen I saw in Buenos Aires was of a different quality, it was worth the trip. To finish the experience with a touch of sweetness we stopped by at the Benetton Café for cheese cake….

With one day left of the weekend we decided to get out of Damascus to go and visit a small monastery 80 km. north of the city. Rural Syria quickly revealed the great issue of water shortage in the country the landscape was little more than dry, brown dessert with small half-dead bushes. Occasionally, a small house or village emerged from the dust.

The monastery was rather isolated and well hidden about 1 mile up a mountain side, it was a bit of a hard walk up there. It was abandoned in the 1900 century but has recently been restored and has been turned into a bit of a tourist attraction. It is possible to come and stay there for as long as liked, participate in the services or just hang out and talk. The price is nothing more that a bit of help with the cooking and cleaning! It was a mixed group of visitors including nuns, school children and the mandatory dreadlocked backpacker, the guy with the guitar and the hot chick that sings away and fascinates everyone on the mountain.

Yes, quite the weekend...

Damascus – first impression

2008-02-25T08:05:00.003+02:00

We have now been in Damascus for three weeks and it is time to share some of our experiences and impressions with you:

The Syrians
People here are incredible sweet and friendly and on top of that they have another quality which Anne after 1½ years as the Giant Woman of Nepal appreciates highly: they are tall! As predicted by Steve the men all have moustaches and smokes argileh (water pipe). To our big surprise argileh is extremely popular amongst all walks of life here even on the most hip cafés you see young students, males and females, smoking away on this fascinating instrument. In general, it seems that smoking is big here. Everybody smokes and you can be sure that the taxi driver would have managed to smoke at least two cigarettes before you reach your destination – now matter how short the ride might be.

Damascus
Damascus is an increible city and despite more than 6 million inhabitants it seems very small. It offers a bit of everything from the old city with its small narrow streets and Arabian houses to an Opera house with lots of cultural experiences and the Shalaan neighbourhood in the centre with the many shops and cafés. Last but not least you have Sheikh Mouhiddin, our neighbourhood. About 10 minutes walk from the heart of Damascus it lays at the beginning of Mount Mezzah with small street crawling up the side of the mountain. It has a large number of beautiful mosques (kept us awake for the first night in the apartment) and is famous for the local vegetable market. We have found a very nice apartment here and are busy turning it into a home in a city we feel very comfortable in.

The job
UNDP Syria has so far offered plenty of pleasant surprises such as having the Danish Embassy as its neighbour. Having a staff consisting of 80 % women – something the boss (a man – of course) jokingly mentions as an issue simply because the office is too efficient. I have some amazing colleagues who have received me well. The atmosphere in the office is open and cheerful. There seems to be plenty of communication and cooperation across the different sections, something I greatly missed when working with MS in Nepal.
We are still working on specifying my tasks more clearly but everything points toward working with gender mainstreaming of the organization, coordination of donor aid in Syria and finally focusing on including more civil society organization in the development work of UN and the government. So as it seems now there will be plenty of interesting work - I will try to keep you updated on this blog.

…and in the end
After having made it through both Christmas and January in Denmark without too much distress I was somewhat surprised to find myself lost in a snowstorm on my way to an inauguration of an e-library for the parliament. But that’s life; strange and unpredictable….

Welcome to our blog!

2007-12-19T10:47:00.000+02:00

New country, new adventures, new blog!!!

We hope to be able to start blogging here from February.Until then Merry X-Mas, Happy New Year and Good Luck getting through January!!!

Anne & Steve