This week in Beirut

• Standing at the main gate of AUB (American University of Beirut) on a Sunday morning, waiting for a (rare) ride up to Meeting. A soldier in fatigues hails a shared taxi, it stops and he climbs in, holding a cigarette in one hand and his automatic rifle in the other. He says “Good morning” to the occupants.

• A visiting Quaker teacher from the UK, currently working at a Lebanese school that has Quaker roots, had ordered some posters that say in large letters: Shalom (in Hebrew), Peace (in Arabic), and Peace (English). In small letters at the bottom is Quaker Action or something like that. The Clerk of the Meeting sees the posters and is shocked--“How did you get those into the country?” he asks. “They came through the mail.” “It is not a good idea to post them at the school,” he says. Our turn to be shocked. “If you cut off the “shalom’, maybe”. Serious shock. Isn’t the promotion of peace something we can all support? I have a bright idea: let’s take them down to Beirut and post them on a street corner. “Then you have to cut off the ‘Quaker’ at the bottom”. Triple shock. Peacemaker communication stifled from an unexpected direction.

• I learned at the tailor that “Tric-trac” is French for Velcro. Fun when words sounds like what they mean.

• Street realities:
  Thick metal posts set in concrete in the sidewalk, so people won’t walk (or drive??) on them;
  On a main street, along the curb, electric (?) wire drooping down to chin height from above. Would you see it in the dark??;
  Just as you round a corner, a board with nails sticking up blocking the sidewalk, outside a temporary work site

• A sign: “We sell all kinds of pure dogs”