Amy’s Journal

So now the former head of security in Syria has killed himself after all. It is assumed this is because he knew that he would be implicated in the UN report on Hariri’s assasination, which should be released next week.

A lot hinges on this report. Certainly, it will place blame on the Lebanese security officers who were arrested in August. Definitely, it will “reveal” that Syria was somehow involved. It is only a question of how high the accusations will go. There is speculation that President Assad will not be accused, whether Mehlis and his team think he is guilty or not. Some think that a deal will be cut with the US– Assad’s regime will cooperate with the US on Iraq, in exchange for looking the other way regarding Syria’s probable guilt in the murder of Rafiq Hariri. It is unclear how much Assad can get away with regarding consorting with the US, though, if he decides to do so. There are some who say that both Assad (President of Syria) and Lahoud (President of Lebanon) are on their way out.

Suffice it to say, this city should be crawling with foreign journalists this time next week.

This is the actual police sketch of a suspect wanted for questioning in connection with the attempt on May Chidiac’s life. I’m pretty sure that scores of people will come forward with information upon seeing this very distinct image.

Before English class today, I went into the room where many of my students take a hairdressing class. It was interesting, because about half of these girls/women (they range from 16-34 years old) are usually covered when in the presence of men, but in this room, they had shed outer shirts and were waltzing around the room in tank tops and tight jeans with their long hair flowing. Most of them had blond streaks in their hair, too. It was fun and they were all pretty excited to show me their hair, in part because they had just had it styled in the class.

Later, Ethan and I went to some jewelry stores in our neighborhood to look for wedding bands. It was really wild, because in every store, when asked the price of the ring, the guy would shrug and drop it on a scale. You pay based on weight. As most people know, the price of gold is international, you just pay extra for workmanship. All I know is that in the States, those jewelers are paid an awful lot for their craft, because rings here are so much cheaper than I ever would have imagined.

Tomorrow morning we are off to Damascus to spend about 24 hours with Ethan’s parents.

It’s beginning to feel like Fall, a little. It’s been about 80F and slightly less humid. You can walk down the street without sweating. We sleep with a light blanket at night. The AUB students are back and noisy. Bananas and grapes have replaced plums and pistachioes in the markets.

Also, Ramadan started yesterday. Observant Muslims are fasting during daylight hours and celebrating with feasts in the evening. Last night, our landlord’s daughter brought us a plate of one of the many Ramadan sweets, cream-filled and flavored with pistachio. In the more traditional areas, near Bourj al-Barajneh, there are colorful streamers and moon shapes stretched high above the streets. Last night, as I sat on the terrace just past sunset, I could hear families in the apartments around, who had gathered to break the fast (iftar).

We had a fun 3 days in Cyprus with Ethan’s parents. Cyprus itself (we spent the whole time in the South/Greek part) was a lot more touristy than I had anticipated, or maybe I have grown used to living in a place with a virtual lack of tourists. I am not sure how many British ex-pats are in Cyprus, but they and their visiting countrymen seemed to outnumber Cypriots in some towns. Driving is on the left, and poor Ethan had to do all of the driving (standard shift, too). It was disorienting enough to just be in the passenger seat.

We quickly realized that we are spoiled when it comes to ancient ruins living in Lebanon. However, we did see a lot of amazing mosaics in Pafos, as well as some very interesting old tombs. We had a nice swim (the beaches seem cleaner, and all of the nice spots haven’t been turned into private beaches, as is nearly the case in Lebanon), though the water is much colder. We stayed in Pafos, which consists entirely of archaeological sites and tourist hotels/pubs/restaurants. There were so many pubs that there were staff out in the streets offering free drinks to come inside.

We drove through the Troodos mountains, which was lovely, and looked inside one of many painted churches. We tried to go to one mountain village that we thought might be nice, but it was overrun with tourists, amusement parks, and restaurants. It reminded me a little bit of Gatlinburg in Tennessee, though much smaller.

The most intriguing town by far is Lefkosia. The old town is interesting, and is surrounded by Venetian walls from the 16th century. It is a divided city (since 1974), the northern part controlled by Turkey, the southern part by Greek Cyprus. There are soldiers standing guard, but there are some places where they let you walk up to the wall and peer through, into the no man’ s land between either side. The UN polices the situation. If Ethan and I go back, we will cross over to see how it is on the other side.

So it kind of rained yesterday morning. Sort of a patchy, barely perceptible drizzle for a brief time. This is very exciting. I have not felt real rain since leaving NYC over 4 months ago. Whenever the first downpour comes, I will be standing in it.

Tomorrow we are going to Cyprus for a poorly planned trip. I think we are just going to drive around in a rental car and stop when we see something interesting, which will hopefully be often.

I have a new English class in Bourj al-Barajneh camp. This camp is a little further out than Chatila, and is much larger (over 20,000 people). The students are mostly in their early 20s- a few are older and a few are younger. It has been pretty challenging so far, mainly because there is such a wide range of English knowledge. Some of the students don’t know much at all, and others can easily carry on conversations. It is actually fortunate that some of them are pretty advanced, or I would have little hope of communicating with the beginners. I just have to find a way to neither bore the advanced ones nor go too far over the beginners’ heads.

Anyhow, it has been really interesting to get to know them all. Some have children, some are going to university, some are rather serious and political, others carefree.

In other news, Ethan’s parents will be here in mere hours. I’d like to write more, but I have really got to mop the floors.

A little while ago, there was an attempted assasination of another journalist, May Chidiac. It was a car bomb, in Jounieh. She is apparently very seriously injured, having had at least 2 limbs amputated.

I think that more frustrating than all of the bombs (12 since the one which killed Hariri in February) is the fact that they still have not caught anyone involved. This poor country.

We had a great time with Dan and Addie, who are now tooling around Istanbul and beyond. I wish that they could have stayed longer, but we had some nice adventures in the week that they were here… from the helium balloon ride to the ruins at Baalbek to hiking between monasteries in the Qadisha Valley.