Flying in after a 24 hour trip, to a full moon over the Mediterranean. I recall how to say “15 thousand,” the figure I will barter for a taxi ride to Hamra. The plane passes over Cyprus on the descent. I can see the eastern coastline and it’s like a map unfolding. I spot the areas lined with hotels = lights. We were there! In fact, we avoided those areas.
As we land in Beirut, the passengers clap. It is 27° C (81° F) at 10:30 pm.
As my taxi arrives, the familiar attendants at the hotel across the street recognize and greet meet me. Tomorrow I will give them almond rocas “from America”. From “my city”.
Within minutes of arriving in the apartment (found the key!), having shed my shoes, I note that the bottoms of my feet are black. I pass my hand over a counter top. In fact, all surfaces of the apartment are black! Soot from the diesel-run generators that fire up 2 or 3 times a day for hours, when the electric power is cut. What do our lungs look like?
Monday, July 21, 2008
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Return to America
Four sets of keys in my purse—Cousin Linda’s in Ballard, Grimstads’ in Tacoma, ours in Washington and Beirut. Um, I think this is Tuesday—where are we sleeping tonight?
It’s a dream, being in America, going from dear old friend to dear old friend, sandwiched in between various familiar, missed relatives. Seeing old haunts as strange yet comfortable. Petting the soft grass of lawns because it is, well, GREEN. Salmon and more salmon—YUM! Corn on the cob. King crab. Mt Rainier!! Soft and flushable TP. Blue eyes. Foxglove. Miracles of roads, including stop signs, crosswalks, demarcated lanes and compulsory seat belt use. (I saw more signage form airplan landing to I-5 than all year in Lebanon). Talking, talking, talking, hearing and sharing news. I hadn’t realized how many of our friends are teachers—so nice as most are off for the summer and we can visit in the day time.
On to LA—la-la land. Went chanting with friend Leslie. Spotted these assorted bits of wonderment and signage:
It’s a dream, being in America, going from dear old friend to dear old friend, sandwiched in between various familiar, missed relatives. Seeing old haunts as strange yet comfortable. Petting the soft grass of lawns because it is, well, GREEN. Salmon and more salmon—YUM! Corn on the cob. King crab. Mt Rainier!! Soft and flushable TP. Blue eyes. Foxglove. Miracles of roads, including stop signs, crosswalks, demarcated lanes and compulsory seat belt use. (I saw more signage form airplan landing to I-5 than all year in Lebanon). Talking, talking, talking, hearing and sharing news. I hadn’t realized how many of our friends are teachers—so nice as most are off for the summer and we can visit in the day time.
On to LA—la-la land. Went chanting with friend Leslie. Spotted these assorted bits of wonderment and signage:
- Bakeries for dogs
- Create a New Credit File Legally
- Free HIV testing here
- Billboard announcing McDonald’s new Angus Chipotle BBQ Bacon Burger
- Eternal Valley Memorial Park and Motorway (highway to Heaven, presumably)
- TVs in grocery stores showing commercials and quick fix meal ideas, and disembodied voices at street corners counting down second available in which to cross the street.
- Pink’s hotdogs, where last time Cam got something that was essentially four hotdogs in a tortilla
And, in the cutting right to the chase department:
- Buzz Coffee
- Fatburgers
Loved ones!
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
River Dance
Kris and I had a great experience this last week-end. Saturday, after the last day of school, we went on an excursion with fellow staff members to hike along a river and picnic. As it were, we were the on
ly non-Lebanese to go on the trip. The Lebanese love to dance and eat. On the bus ride to the river we danced and so did the others. 
The Lebanese have a way of dancing that has a lot of hand, arm and hip motion. They like to have fun with it. There are never any partners. People dance with whomever is near them. They do have a line dance that is called the dabke. It is a simple dance, but we did not do it on this trip.
When we arrived at the river we took a short hike to a beautiful spot. Even though it was a hot, humid day, the breeze coming up the river along with the cold water, made it very comfortable. Watermelon, a bag of cherries, and cantaloupe were quickly put in the cold river to cool. The water was shallow at that point and so everyone was wading.
Someone brought a boombox and played some Lebanese music. People were dancing in the river as seen in the photo and video of our friend Amira.
ly non-Lebanese to go on the trip. The Lebanese love to dance and eat. On the bus ride to the river we danced and so did the others. 
The Lebanese have a way of dancing that has a lot of hand, arm and hip motion. They like to have fun with it. There are never any partners. People dance with whomever is near them. They do have a line dance that is called the dabke. It is a simple dance, but we did not do it on this trip.
When we arrived at the river we took a short hike to a beautiful spot. Even though it was a hot, humid day, the breeze coming up the river along with the cold water, made it very comfortable. Watermelon, a bag of cherries, and cantaloupe were quickly put in the cold river to cool. The water was shallow at that point and so everyone was wading.
Someone brought a boombox and played some Lebanese music. People were dancing in the river as seen in the photo and video of our friend Amira.
What would a Lebanese outing be without nargileh? That's hookah, to you Stateside readers. Fadi and Nirmeen waded across the river and took a seat, filled the nargileh with river water and lit the coals.
The great thing about the Lebanese is that they like to eat. We had a huge picnic that was topped off with the watermelon and cantaloupe.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Winding down AND Neighborhood photos
Winding down...for now
Here are some neighborhood photos. At left is a guy on Bliss St. across from the American University of Beirut (5 min. walk)making one of our favorites: a sage (pronounced "saj")--warm circle of bread filled with just about anything you want. "Cocktail" is our fav = half cheese and half thyme mixture, with added tomatoes, olives, pickles, lettuce.
Below, Tom with the man who sewed him a shirt--yes, a handmade dress shirt, for less than $40. A very sweet man. He and his wife run the shop, where we have had many things altered, just down the street from our apartment. And on the right is Tom, with odd billboard, around the corner from our apartment.
Tom's school year and my contract are drawing to a close, and our trip to the good old USA (or Babylon, as Cam would call it) is just a couple of weeks away. Speaking of Cam, he will be leaving Gabon where he has spent the last six months (and had malaria), and he and Ben will be meeting us in the US. Yes!
Tom had another trip to Baalbek last weekend, with a group of staff from his school.
It was on Sunday, and I opted to go up into the hills outside Beirut to Meeting instead (1 1/2 hours by taxi and bus; a pilgrimage).
Here are some neighborhood photos. At left is a guy on Bliss St. across from the American University of Beirut (5 min. walk)making one of our favorites: a sage (pronounced "saj")--warm circle of bread filled with just about anything you want. "Cocktail" is our fav = half cheese and half thyme mixture, with added tomatoes, olives, pickles, lettuce.Below, Tom with the man who sewed him a shirt--yes, a handmade dress shirt, for less than $40. A very sweet man. He and his wife run the shop, where we have had many things altered, just down the street from our apartment. And on the right is Tom, with odd billboard, around the corner from our apartment.
And the very dear lady, Sawsan, also known as Um Salim (mother of Salim), in her tiny coffee shop down the street. She has served Tom a thousand Turkish coffees and glasses of fresh-squeezed orange juice, knows my favorite kind of tea, has been incredibly patient with our stabs at speaking Arabic, offered endless sympathy, enouragment, caring and and who has become our friend 
.
.,
And the entrance to our apartment building (you reach inside the outer door to unlatch it), and our steadfast Turkish concierge, Mohammed, who kisses me without fail each morning and evening, three times on the cheeks, as I leave the building and return. He does usually smile!
And the entrance to our apartment building (you reach inside the outer door to unlatch it), and our steadfast Turkish concierge, Mohammed, who kisses me without fail each morning and evening, three times on the cheeks, as I leave the building and return. He does usually smile!
Finally, a neighborhood purchase: Tom needed a new pair of jeans, and here is the brand he bought:
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Sundry
- Wild hollyhocks 6 feet tall in lavender and white, all along the sea in Beirut
- Someone reading a book of poems by a Palestinian author. It was published under the name of a Lebanese, because Palestinians in Lebanon are not allowed to own poetry—even words, apparently.
- A billboard: Gold Egoiste (cologne for men), with guy in suit
- Attending an education meeting in a school Beddawi Refugee Camp. 21 people, 14 of whom women, 7 scarved. No black or white board in the classroom--what do teachers write on? Nothing at all on the walls--no pictures, posters, words. I later hear they have money--why not buy things?? Schools here still operate on double shifts, despite opening of three new prefab schools, (= metal = HOT in summer!!).
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
K's work
No “glamour” of working in a refugee camp… I’ve never even been there, and have only been near it two or three times!
A year ago last May, the small (less than 50 acres), dense camp of 33,000 people
was destroyed = levelled = reduced to a pile of rubble that will take 500 dump truck loads a day five months to remove. And only last month was access to the site finally granted by the Lebanese Army. A UN/NGO team quickly moved in to conduct a risk assessment and survey, and determined that of the five areas in the camp, 2 were considered “green,” or safe to enter, 3 were “amber,” and 1 “red,” or known to have quantities of unexploded ordnance and/or mines. De-mining and rubble removal will be conducted simultaneously, sector by sector. All that work needs to be complete before reconstruction can begin. Photo is what is left of Nahr el-Bared Camp.
Meanwhile the 5,449 displaced refugee families are living in rented accommodations (approx. 3,600) with host families (560) mostly in the other nearby refugee camp that was already way overcrowded, and in very basic temporary shelters built by UNRWA (430, including 220 in double stacked metal prefab units that are proving to be very hot and noisy).
UNRWA provides health and education services to the refugees in all 12 camps in Lebanon, but for the Nahr el-Bared displaced refugees it also provides emergency food and non-food items, rental assistance, water, electricity, solid waste service, and as many emergency shelters as we could find land to build on. We are also going to rebuild the old camp, assuming donor fatigue hasn't set in and donor countries will respond with the needed funds. Something like $52 million was donated last year; much more will be needed for reconstruction.
The UNRWA office compound at the camp won’t be rebuilt for many months either--it will be the first site cleared of rubble but then will be used as a rubble sorting site for the rest of the camp. Since the crisis, UNRWA offices in the north have up until now been in a tired conference room (with too few outlets) at the Quality Inn. In a couple of months we will move to Ye Olde metal prefabs to be placed on an unused fair ground behind the hotel, some 10 miles from the camp. But K actually spends most of her time at the Beirut office. Her boss is there, not by choice but trapped by meetings with the director, other staff, the government and donors, and also by the bureaucracy that threatens to strangle us all.
The Lebanon Field Office is a faded, three story structure inside a walled compound on the highway to the airport. From the third floor you can glimpse the sea. Office hours for some unknown reason are 7:15 - 2:45, though many international staff and some dedicated locals work much later, K's boss among them. Buses ferry Palestinians from most of the camps in Lebanon each day to work. The vast majority of people who work for UNRWA are Palestinian, something like 22,000 to 150 (not all in Lebanon! HQ is in Amman and Gaza, and there are also offices in the West Bank and Damascus). Working at UNRWA is the only place in Lebanon where they may take any job; Palestinians in Lebanon are forbidden from working in most professions. Only recently were they allowed to get work permits for manual and clerical jobs. They have lived here for 60 years! (While Israelis wer celebrating the 60th anniversary of the creation of Israel, eslewhere took place the commemoration of the 60th year since Nakba--the day of catastrophe).
So, while I work with refugees, I rarely visit the camps. I travel to Tripoli usually twice a week, and spend my time there in the office at the Quality Inn. We don't even take lunch breaks or come up for air. I sit in meetings and seek out the different people who lead the water and sanitation team or the education team or the health team, and put together progress reports. Occasionally I get to tag along to the adjacent area of the camp, where almost 2,000 of the displaced families have managed to return, or to Beddawi Camp, where 500 more still live. Sometimes I stay overnight at the hotel. Soon I may be staying instead at an apartment recently rented by UNRWA for a Swiss architect and a Danish Technical Advisor.
Snippets:
A year ago last May, the small (less than 50 acres), dense camp of 33,000 people
was destroyed = levelled = reduced to a pile of rubble that will take 500 dump truck loads a day five months to remove. And only last month was access to the site finally granted by the Lebanese Army. A UN/NGO team quickly moved in to conduct a risk assessment and survey, and determined that of the five areas in the camp, 2 were considered “green,” or safe to enter, 3 were “amber,” and 1 “red,” or known to have quantities of unexploded ordnance and/or mines. De-mining and rubble removal will be conducted simultaneously, sector by sector. All that work needs to be complete before reconstruction can begin. Photo is what is left of Nahr el-Bared Camp.Meanwhile the 5,449 displaced refugee families are living in rented accommodations (approx. 3,600) with host families (560) mostly in the other nearby refugee camp that was already way overcrowded, and in very basic temporary shelters built by UNRWA (430, including 220 in double stacked metal prefab units that are proving to be very hot and noisy).
UNRWA provides health and education services to the refugees in all 12 camps in Lebanon, but for the Nahr el-Bared displaced refugees it also provides emergency food and non-food items, rental assistance, water, electricity, solid waste service, and as many emergency shelters as we could find land to build on. We are also going to rebuild the old camp, assuming donor fatigue hasn't set in and donor countries will respond with the needed funds. Something like $52 million was donated last year; much more will be needed for reconstruction.
The UNRWA office compound at the camp won’t be rebuilt for many months either--it will be the first site cleared of rubble but then will be used as a rubble sorting site for the rest of the camp. Since the crisis, UNRWA offices in the north have up until now been in a tired conference room (with too few outlets) at the Quality Inn. In a couple of months we will move to Ye Olde metal prefabs to be placed on an unused fair ground behind the hotel, some 10 miles from the camp. But K actually spends most of her time at the Beirut office. Her boss is there, not by choice but trapped by meetings with the director, other staff, the government and donors, and also by the bureaucracy that threatens to strangle us all.
The Lebanon Field Office is a faded, three story structure inside a walled compound on the highway to the airport. From the third floor you can glimpse the sea. Office hours for some unknown reason are 7:15 - 2:45, though many international staff and some dedicated locals work much later, K's boss among them. Buses ferry Palestinians from most of the camps in Lebanon each day to work. The vast majority of people who work for UNRWA are Palestinian, something like 22,000 to 150 (not all in Lebanon! HQ is in Amman and Gaza, and there are also offices in the West Bank and Damascus). Working at UNRWA is the only place in Lebanon where they may take any job; Palestinians in Lebanon are forbidden from working in most professions. Only recently were they allowed to get work permits for manual and clerical jobs. They have lived here for 60 years! (While Israelis wer celebrating the 60th anniversary of the creation of Israel, eslewhere took place the commemoration of the 60th year since Nakba--the day of catastrophe).
So, while I work with refugees, I rarely visit the camps. I travel to Tripoli usually twice a week, and spend my time there in the office at the Quality Inn. We don't even take lunch breaks or come up for air. I sit in meetings and seek out the different people who lead the water and sanitation team or the education team or the health team, and put together progress reports. Occasionally I get to tag along to the adjacent area of the camp, where almost 2,000 of the displaced families have managed to return, or to Beddawi Camp, where 500 more still live. Sometimes I stay overnight at the hotel. Soon I may be staying instead at an apartment recently rented by UNRWA for a Swiss architect and a Danish Technical Advisor.
Snippets:
- Last night, in the hotel, I heard a number of explosions and feared the worst. I peaked out the hotel curtains and coould only catch the occasional flash of light. The barrage continued. I dressed and went across the hall to look out the window on the other side. Fireworks. Red, green, white fireworks. Later I learned it had nothing to do with the new president or the country, but the success of a local basketball team.
- Today I rode back from Tripoli in an armored vehicle. It was a Toyota armored in the Czech Republic--apparently a big business there. You don't roll down the windows because they are too heavy to roll up.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Election ! and beach cleanup
It actually happened, on the 19th try. Lebanon has a new president: someone all the parties and factions could agree on--Michel Sulieman, until yesterday the head of the Lebanese Army. We heard he went out and bought 6 suits. It is odd to see him in civilian dress. His photo has been displayed all over the country for months; but now we see him minus the uniform, in a tie. There is a wonderful, festive air in town. And Lebanese really know how to party... The outgoing Prime Minister invited all the MPs including the opposition which had closed down parliament for the last 18 months, to dinner. And a popstar s hosting a party tomorrow and has invited all of Beirut.
*****
We did our fist volunteering today--picking up trash from a beautfiul beach in Byblos for a Mediterranean clean-up day involving 21 countries! There was to be a contingent on the Beirut beach front as well, but the election festivities meant no groups could gather, so that part had to be cancelled. But two beaches outside Beirut were cleaned. There were 80 people at one beach near Beirut, mostly high school students. At Byblos we were a group of just 6 people--from the NGO we hike with. We chose a small beach only about 60 yards long. I thought we would be done in 15 minutes, and wondered why the leader had chosen such a small place. Three hours later we had filled between 40 and 50 large trash bags full. Worse, we could see more stuff coming in on the tide. It's terrible--trash heaps along the shore slide into the sea, and poeple just toss things--most people have no consciousness about litter. Maybe now that there is a functioning government some things will change. Another beach feature are globs of sticky black oil, left over from the Israeli boming of Lebanon's power plants in 2006. It sticks to the pebbles and is impossible to get off your hands or clothes. It will never wash away.
*****
We did our fist volunteering today--picking up trash from a beautfiul beach in Byblos for a Mediterranean clean-up day involving 21 countries! There was to be a contingent on the Beirut beach front as well, but the election festivities meant no groups could gather, so that part had to be cancelled. But two beaches outside Beirut were cleaned. There were 80 people at one beach near Beirut, mostly high school students. At Byblos we were a group of just 6 people--from the NGO we hike with. We chose a small beach only about 60 yards long. I thought we would be done in 15 minutes, and wondered why the leader had chosen such a small place. Three hours later we had filled between 40 and 50 large trash bags full. Worse, we could see more stuff coming in on the tide. It's terrible--trash heaps along the shore slide into the sea, and poeple just toss things--most people have no consciousness about litter. Maybe now that there is a functioning government some things will change. Another beach feature are globs of sticky black oil, left over from the Israeli boming of Lebanon's power plants in 2006. It sticks to the pebbles and is impossible to get off your hands or clothes. It will never wash away.
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