Tuesday, October 7th, 2003:

We finally made it after 4 days of traveling!! Words cannot express how tired and hungry we were. Never again will I travel without Meran or a good friend with me.

We traveled from Nashville to Chicago, Chicago to Jordan, and Jordan to Syria by plane. That leg of the journey was fairly good; Albeit we had a 12-hr flight between Chicago and Jordan, but problems with the boys were minimal. Although, honestly, with 3 boys, aged 6, 4, and 18 months, I was waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Food was good until we got to Jordan. There a can of soda cost $2. I only got bread, cheese, and a drink for the children.
When we arrived in Damascus, Syria that was the turning point of the trip. We had to bribe guards at customs, inserting a 20 dollar bill into our passports as we passed them inconspicously to the guard who would look at them, check the computer, and then nod and mutter something, stamp it, hand it back, and wave for us to move on.

Then we had to hurry to the baggage area and get our luggage before someone either stole it or picked it up and demanded a tip for their services, unsolicited at that. We had 12 suitcases total, of which only 3 were mine and Abdullah's (Meran's 18-year-old cousin). All 9 other bags were the two ladies that were traveling with us, Khiyal and Badria, and would eventually go to another northern Iraqi city called Zakho.

One of the ladies had a friend meet us at the airport in Damascus. He had been waiting for awhile when we arrived Friday at 11 PM. He had brought his brother-in-law's van for us. These guys were experienced!!! Somehow they managed to fit all the suitcases, our carry on luggage, and us (3 ladies, a man, and 3 children), plus them (2 guys) all in one van.

They took us to an old part of Damascus, where the streets were tight and you could barely squeeze your car through. This area I nicknamed "Little Kurdistan", a Kurdish version of Chinatown, because it was all Kurds in that part of town. This man took us to his sister's house. These people were not that well off. They didn't have much, but they offered us water, tea, and a chance to stretch our legs and rest before continuing on later that night. Around 1:30 AM we left their house and started on the long car trip across the Syrian landscape that would last over 10 hours. We found out later that our driver had taken us the long way and there actually was a route that would've cut a couple hours off.

It was a little before noon Saturday morning when we arrived in the border city of Qamishlu, Syria...