Filed under: Syria
Holy flying carpet! Perched on top of a craggy mountain overlooking a seemingly barren landscape was our respite for the next few days- the monastery of Mar Musa, on the map a couple of hundred kilometres north of Damascus. This monastery is a place of religious solitude and reflection; I can see your eyebrows already raising, but believe me, it was just what the travel weary pigeons needed, a bit of Jesuit-style R&R. Of course daily duties aside such as washing dishes, serving food and chaotic Persian carpet cleaning, we were able to witness somewhat of a miracle as Arab Christianity is indeed flourishing in Syria as we stayed there with spiritual seekers and young locals alike. Mass was held in the evenings after meditation by the larger than life Padre Paulo, a Jesuit who had painstakingly restored the 11th century frescoed church and built an attached monastery. Let’s just say it was a moving multilingual multi-faith ceremony as the father cited the liturgy in Arabic, spoke of Jesus in French and thanked the Lord in English under candlelight and smouldering frankincense late into the night. This was followed by our grumbling tummies welcoming a communal dinner of goats’ cheese, olives, pita bread and copious cups of black sugary tea, before a quick chat and lights out, the men left the safe walls of the church for their lodgings and the womenfolk could quietly sleep in separate quarters or for the more faithful, in the church itself. Nothing could beat the tranquillity of counting the stars in the desert sky in absolute silence. Of course not all was rosy and tranquil as our faith was tested by a daily task of cleaning the church’s carpets. Easy you think to just skirt around with a vacuum however, led by Brother Peter, a monk with Rasputine qualities, we were organised with the sole Arabic word of Y’alla (c’mon) which is rather limited as we were expected to understand with clarity the Syrian ways of rug cleaning with powdered Jiff and lots of water. Although chaotic it was loads of fun with the devilish thought that the wet dog smelling carpets slung over the monastery walls could potentially fly off into the secular world below.
Brother Peter got the hose, the rest are doing the hard work
Crouching Pigeon's Flight 