Welcome

At the end of 2009 I spent a month in Syria, initially on a ten day tour of the country, provided by the explore company, and then two and a half weeks living in Damascus old city sharing a house with 2 great landlords and two very kind Italian post grad student girls studying Arabic, I had such a positive experience and so many of my preconceptions were shattered that I have been motivated to share some of these, hoping that it may inspire others to have a similar experience.
In these pages you will find details of my own personal experience, people I have found very trustworthy and helpful.

  Syrians work very differently from us English, with our ubiquitous yellow pages and Google, whereas we/I tend to use such things as a primary source of much information, i.e. for getting a plumber – etc. the typical Syrian sees this as a alien concept, local community and family/friends are the primary source of information, with each person building up a personal portfolio of recommendations.  I hope this world view comes through from the experiences discussed on these pages.

Robin Beaumont 2010 robin@organplayers.co.uk