Heaven to hell
Damascus is rapidly becoming a new Baghdad: carbombs, IEDs, nighttime gunfire, check points, suicide attacks. And all the rest: paranoia, mukhabarat, internet failures, histerical journalists, visa’s extensions, drunken UN guys, stringers, drivers, fixers…
Early on Wednesday “terrorists” stormed the premises of the semi-official tv channel Ikbariyah: they killed seven people and ransacked the building before setting it on fire and turn it into ashes. And Thursday two bombs went off at midday in a downtown parking lot, next to the gate of the old city’s Hamidiyya suq.
Yesterday I spent the morning in Maalula, a quiet and mostly pro-Assad christian village on the slopes of the Anti Lebanon mountain range. In the ancient greek orthodox St. Tecla monastery I sat sipping tea with mother Belajia Sayaf, while fifteen black clad nuns were busy preparing jars of apricot jam. To the pilgrims they offer olive oil and holy water from a spring, flowing from the cave where the original church stands. They speak Aramaic, Jesus’ language. And of course St. Tecla is doing miracles. “Oh yes, many many miracles!” claims mother Belajia.
But then we drived through the bloodied Damascus’ Douma suburb and rushed to the bomb site. I jumped from the car and started shooting with my camera. There were several vehicles on flame, smoking billowing from the charred wrecks, smell of gasoline, burnt metal and plastic, smashed windows, firefighters, soldiers, policemen, secret service and people gathering in the square. I climbed the stairs of a building to get some pictures from above. I didn’t see dead bodies this time. Only three wounded, this time.
