Hello everyone!
It's been a very eventful time since we've arrived in Lebanon with a few strange, wonderful, and scary experiences.
After arriving here in Lebanon, we spent three fairly ordinary days in Tripoli exploring northern Lebanon. There's a great souk (market) there where we saw how soap has been made for hundreds of years and they gave us free samples: "just try the jasmine! you'll love it...better than Body Shop"...which the soap might be if it didn't make me itch for two days afterwards. We also made a day-trip to the famed Cedars of Lebanon which were very nice and in an extremely scenic location but I'm not sure if I would want to relive the climbing 4km in flip-flops again.
The real excitement of Lebanon happens in Beirut of course. It's such a metropolitan, fun city where you can walk down the most modern street with glass and polished steel cafes and shops, turn a corner and see a building completely gutted with bullet holes and mortar attacks from the country's fifteen year civil war and problems with Israel. There's an uneasy peace here between the Christians and Muslims after having just forced out the Syrian army (that was "protecting Lebanon" a few months ago.
Our first morning in Beirut, we had planned to take a day-trip to Baalbek and then come back, get changed, and head out to experience Beirut's famed nightlife - centered around Rue Monot - an area with tons of bars, nightclubs, and restaurants. Baalbek is about two hours outside of Beirut and definitely one of the finest Roman ruins...a temple that's absolutely giant - definitely awe-inspiring and well worth the visit. While wandering the ruins, we also heard quite a bit of celebratory fireworks and what sounded to us like automatic gunfire in the distance. Baalbek is ALSO famous because it's the stronghold of the Hezbollah - a militant group dedicated to defending the country from Israel and other zionist supporting countries (like the US) - and classified by our government as a terrorist organization. Locally, it's a political organization that has a lot of support in the area...as we saw in the Hezbollah Museum in Baalbek - displaying their mission as well as the belongings, badges, and guns of about twenty of their "martyrs" that died for the cause. For me it was a little scary and Deanna and I decided to be Canadian again for the time being.
As we waited for the bus back, we met a Muslim family that split time between a village near Baalbek and Beirut. Our main translator was a very smart girl of 17 named Taagreed. They were SO nice to us and asked if we'd like to come to a party that evening in Beirut. Thinking that it would be a great way to experience something new, we readily agreed. It turns out that the party was the pre-event for a wedding the next day and was for women only. So instead of the party, I stayed with the uncle and brother-in-law...neither of whom spoke any English...and sat smoking the water-pipe with the neighbors...who also did not speak English. It was a long night, but the family was friendly and I took my part as the favorite visiting deaf-mute. What I did manage to figure out was that it was a very Hezbollah friendly part of Beirut and the Hezbollah does not encourage grown men wearing shorts...which of course I was wearing.
After the party (read Deanna's VERY interesting account of everything at www.offandaway.blogspot.com), we found out that Rue Monot (where we were supposed to have gone out that night) had suffered a car bomb explosion - theoretically timed to the day Condoleeza Rice was visiting Beirut. No one was killed, but when we went the next day we saw that all of the buildings on one intersection had been damaged with virtually every pane of glass on one-side of the street destroyed, I realized how lucky we were to not have been in the area. It's a bit ironic that while I was worried about hanging out in a Hezbollah friendly area of the city, that's what ultimately kept us safe.
SO...we went back the following night (because they liked us and also wanted to have an outing where we all (re: me) could participate). We rounded up the family and headed out to Fantasy World themepark...basically where all the traveling carnival equipment that's deemed unsafe goes to die. The family is SO hospitable that we just didn't want to disappoint them in any way...and therefore I found myself riding the tilt-o-whirl, swinging in a pirate ship, crashing bumper cars with a head-scarved 16-year old passenger, getting on and falling off the mechanical bull in quick succession, buying a balloon from an Arabic tele-tubbie for a tempermental but very cute three year old, and generally having a much better time than I'm willing to admit.
And...because the Lebanese are such incredible hosts (and very, very insistent), we found ourselves invited to spend a few nights at their family home in Nahle...near Baalbek where we had met Taagreed originally. Coming from a small family spread out over two countries, it was quite a different experience for me...I think we met no less than 50 people over the course of two days. We were paraded around the town, shown off to family members and strangers alike, fed 8 times aday, and taken to every local sight one might imagine. They were just so insistently nice that at times it got to be too much and I wanted to kill myself. I did rediscover the art of pretending to eat and then finding potted plants or windows to dispose of certain yogurt based foods I just could NOT stomach. I also had to put aside my cultural upbringing and learn to kiss men on the cheek multiple times in succession...and not to touch the women at all...not even shaking hands.
It was fascinating to get into the world of a small-town Muslim family...to see how important family is in all aspects of life, to see that each individual (or family) really decides his or herself upon how "religious" they will be - whether or not they prey, whether the girls cover their hair or not, whether to go to the mosque, etc... The other area where Deanna and I both got a little bit of insight was how the separation of marriageable boys and girls can lead to some rash decision-making.
One of the girls we spent a lot of time with was a 16-year old named Mouna. She didn't speak English very well, so I had fairly limited conversation with her but had spent a fair bit of time in her presence with Taagreed and Deanna. The day before we were leaving, I got a lot of questions from other women in the family whether I had a girlfriend, whether I had thought about staying in Lebanon, etc... That night Mouna gave me a flower, her picture, and a note written inside a Valentine's card. Basically she said many nice things and that she had a "big love" for me, that she had known as soon as we met, and not to ever forget her because she would never forget me. Honestly, I didn't know how to react. The things running through my head were:
1. She's 16.
2. I've never seen her without a headscarf.
3. She doesn't speak English. I don't speak Arabic.
4. She thinks I'm Canadien.
5. She's a devout Muslim. I don't believe in God.
6. She's 16.
Mouna is certainly a great girl (and I think "girl" is the right term here) and I do not wish to demean her with this account of events, but it was just so surreal. I think there's a real tendency to "jump" into things here because the sexes don't get to interact that much, rarely get to choose a partner...or get a very limited pool of candidates. From a family perspective, it may also have a little bit to do with getting a Greencard - we had some discussions earlier in the visit about what it takes to get visas to Canada (like I know?) starting with "say for example you married Mouna or Taagreed...".
I took Mouna aside later and explained to her while I was very flattered, there were just too many differences and issues, but any guy would be lucky to marry her. The next morning, I had to say all the same things to her sister since Mouna had understood perhaps 15% of what I said. Needless to say, I was pretty relieved when we got on the bus to Beirut. NOTE: Deanna has a great story that makes this one look completely trivial...read her blog...seriously.
So...back in Beirut and enjoying the nightlife that's a lot like LA in spots. We met a great bartender/future bar owner/potential partner who's showed us around the scene. I'm thinking about investing in a bar here...seems like a lot of potential for a place that's awakening from 30 years of civil war and Syria 'occupation'.
Hope everyone is well!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment