TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Life In Mideast Holds No Conflicts For Land O' Lakes Teacher

ADVERTISEMENT

By GEOFF FOX, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 13, 2008

LAND O' LAKES - Lori Brenneise said she feels safe walking alone down the worst streets in Aleppo, Syria.

She wouldn't do that in many parts of Tampa, she said.

For the past 3 1/2 years, Brenneise, 38, has spent much of her time in the northwest Syrian city, where she is one of three teachers at the National School of Aleppo with a degree in elementary education. The ancient city is west of the Mediterranean Sea, just south of Turkey and about two hours from Iraq.

A self-described history buff and Old Testament scholar, Brenneise said she started looking for jobs in the Middle East well before the Sept. 11 attacks. She previously taught at Outreach Christian School in Odessa.

"I saw an ad for a teacher overseas," Brenneise said. "It sounded like a chance to see Syria. It's a really nice country and it's very cheap to live over there."

In Aleppo, she said, you can buy a pound of tomatoes for 5 cents.

She and her boyfriend, Mohamed Jabakji, spoke about the country as they prepared to return after a recent visit to her parents in Land O' Lakes.

Unlike some areas of the Middle East, they said Syria is marked by little violence, and there is little, if any, strife between religious groups.

"There aren't really any problems," Jabakji said. "There's no fighting. I have friends of many, many religions."

To illustrate his point, Brenneise produced a picture of five students in her third-grade class. Three of the children were Muslim, two Christian.

She said her students are arranged in teams named after NASA space shuttles.

"One of my little boys wrote once that his hero is Rick Husband, commander of Columbia's last mission," she said of the Muslim student. "He said Rick Husband was a Christian and an American, but he had people on his team with different religions from different countries, and he made sure that nobody fought each other."

Because "there are absolutely no drugs and no kidnapping, the kids are more relaxed and eager to learn. And the parents, on the whole, are a lot more supportive."

Brenneise speaks from experience. Besides Outreach Christian, she also has taught in Atlanta and Nevada.

Not that Aleppo is a teacher's paradise.

"Here, I've never had to start the year without books because our depository in Beirut was being bombed," she said.

Still, she said many of her students are the children of business and political leaders, and many of them speak several languages.

As a couple, Brenneise and Jabakji seem as serious as they are conflicted over where they want to settle. Brenneise obviously loves Syria, and Jabakji said he feels welcomed by Americans. Among other things, he has developed an affinity for Cracker Barrel.

Besides Syria's tolerant cultural climate, Brenneise said most Americans likely would be surprised at how popular American items are. She produced a picture of an Aleppo taxi with a Tampa Bay Buccaneers logo on the gas tank.

"Anything American goes," she said. "The flag means 'don't touch,' because it's the gas tank. I've seen about three taxis with that on there."

Of course, that's not all there is to see in Aleppo, one of the world's oldest continuously-inhabited cities, according to www.atlastours.net.

An engineer's assistant, Jabakji has worked in a 1,000-year-old home and an even older castle. The couple have dozens of pictures of amphitheaters, ancient ruins, open-air markets, mosques, all manner of ornate architecture and scenes shot at the Mediterranean Sea.

But there are other issues that make Syria appealing for Brenneise.

"Over here, I have a problem getting medical insurance," she said. "Over there, doctors make house calls for $10."

Medical insurance is obviously a concern for many people, but for Brenneise, the need is a bit more pressing. She is one of an estimated 30,000 Americans diagnosed with a connective tissue disorder called Marfan syndrome, according to the National Marfan Foundation.

Some experts think Abraham Lincoln suffered from the disease because of his long limbs and unusually tall stature. The disease also can cause a person's aorta to burst fatally.

If the condition is something that Brenneise worries about, the perpetually smiling educator doesn't show it.

"Over here, they thought I'd have to have surgery," she said. "Over there, they can control it with the right diet and the right medication."

Reporter Geoff Fox can be reached at (813) 948-4217 or gfox@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT