Fatoush and the Druze

This past weekend I've spent a lot of time at home. I know I've said it before, but my host family is really really great. They have good advice, make fun of each other, and for the most part, we all have a good time.

Am Anas has started showing me how to cook Syrian food. I made fatoush with her in the kitchen twice this weekend, and the big test is when I went to Max's and we made it together... I think I passed. Our fatoush tasted almost as good as Am Anas's (she has the best in the country). So in case you're interested... fatoush is a delicious salad. Ingredients: romaine lettuce, mint leaves, special leaves you can only get in Syria (Am Anas says without them, its not fatoush, though I think I'll let that slide in the states), tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, ground mint leaves, olive oil, apple vinegar, salt, and fried pita bread. Just add everything together in the right quantities (to your taste) and voila! Delicious fatoush. Regular Syrian salad is pretty much the same, except you use lemon juice instead of apple vinegar and no fried pita. Don't worry, I think I'll be making a lot of fatoush once I return.

Wednesday night, Max and I joined Astrid in Jaramana - a neighborhood somewhat on the edge of Damascus where most of the inhabitants are Druze. Astrid lives with a Druze family in Jaramana, and it was my first time visiting the neighborhood. It feels like its own city. The streets are lined with little shops, and life carries on in its normal (dis)organized fashion. I'm still trying to understand the nuances of the Druze, but to sum up what little I know, it's a sect, or denomination of Islam, though unlike other muslims, the Druze are allowed to drink alcohol, and women do not wear the hijab (though some traditionally wear a thin scarf loosely around their heads). The religion is closed, meaning no one can convert to or from Druze. You also must marry within the religion. Druze believe in reincarnation. Men are reincarnated as other men, and women as women. I don't know much else other than that. I believe even within the Druze, there are heirarchies of people who know certain amounts of information regarding the religion.

I'm sadly approaching my last week in Damascus. I'm trying to organize the days - must go to the hamam one last time, buy last minute presents, see what I haven't of the city, etc etc. But as I've come to know so well, you can never fully organize your life in the Middle East, because, in shah Allah, plans easily change, things take longer than expected, and you are constantly reminded to just sit back and enjoy the Arab pace of life.