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{"id":24813,"date":"2016-04-10T09:10:32","date_gmt":"2016-04-10T13:10:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theexpeditioner.com\/?p=24813"},"modified":"2016-04-11T07:47:16","modified_gmt":"2016-04-11T11:47:16","slug":"like-visit-syria-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theexpeditioner.com\/wordpress\/feature-articles\/This-Is-What-It-Was-Like-To-Visit-Syria-Before-The-War\/","title":{"rendered":"This Is What It Was Like To Visit Syria Before The War"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n
We had our visas but we were nervous. We had not yet been okayed to enter Syria and our Turkish van and driver had returned to Turkey. The minutes dragged as we tried to glimpse Meli, our Turkish guide, through gaps in the shaded windows of the Syrian border station. Would they be more responsive to a Muslim guide from Turkey than to American heathens? Might they send us back? Jail us? We hovered in the sunny, treeless parking lot, trying not to look too American.<\/p>\n
It was April of 2011 and our group had shrunk from 12 to 8 as people canceled out of this tour after the State Department issued a warning that they could no longer guarantee our safety in a country on the verge of war. But the trip was on. If Meli, forceful in spite of her almost 5′ 0″ height, was willing to take us, we were willing to go.<\/p>\n
We watched a gardener ineptly pruning roses outside the customs building. \u201cThink of the shape of a chalice,\u201d I recalled from learning to prune my own roses at home in Seattle. Finally, Meli came out of the building with our passports stamped for entry.<\/p>\n