General update

On the hour long bus ride to Meeting, Cam and I pass near an area where there had been a car bomb, or maybe it was two?, last year. I reflect that we have been car bomb free for a good long while--since last April, I think. And there had been one in January 2008 as well. And then, of course, there was all that “trouble” last May, when Hezbollah and allies took over Beirut, and our neighborhood was under siege. The calm since then is certainly worth noting.

It was Cam’s last week in Lebanon, before heading to Gabon and points west: Gabon, to reconnect with people there and take harp lessons; Mexico, conference of ibogaine providers; Washington, basic EMT training; Nebraska (advanced EMT training); and Vermont, Goddard College in the Fall. Wow.

We filled him full of as much good mezze (yummy Lebanese food, e.g. humous, babaganouj, tabbbouli, grilled meat) as possible and tried our luck at finding him another pair of pants that were PLAIN and CLASSIC, a major challenge in Beirut’s shops, where fashion and fancy are the by-words.

I have started a new Arabic class, at the French Cultural Center. It is a particular challenge as I have the opportunity to use my inadequate French as well as stumble along trying to understand the Arabic. I am not the very most lost person in the “False Beginner” class, which helps, but I am close! My classmates are more fluent in putting sentences together, but don’t necessarily have formal training. All that work conjugating verbs is serving me well. It’s an interesting group--all women: several French ladies, one Spanish, a Brit, one Turkish, one Ukrainian, one from Belarus who speaks perfect French, and one Iranian who owns a house in DC and who runs a salmon farm! Most have Lebanese husbnads. The class is entirely focused on speaking, 99% of the time in Arabic, leaving us to try to follow as best we can. It is way scary but seems just what I need now. My teacher has some tiny shred of the warmth of my former colleagues Thong and Mary Beth, which helps enormously. Previously I had been in a one on one tutorial with a talented Palestinian teacher whom I liked a great deal, but it was expensive ($25/hour) and I think being in a class adds a useful dimension.