Amy’s Journal

Yesterday was another beautiful day, and Ethan and I took a long walk, part of which was spent admiring some amazing old houses, mainly Ottoman-era. Many of these are in Bab Idriss, a part of downtown which has not yet been renovated, though they are working on it.

Yesterday, Ethan came with me to my English class. It was Friday, and several students were absent, so we just did a little grammar and then played Pictionary with vocabulary words. It was fun, and I think the students really liked meeting Ethan (“Beautiful!” a few of the teenaged girls whispered to me). Because of the UN report, there was very little traffic when we took the bus out to Bourj al-Barajneh, so Ethan didn’t really get to experience my draining commute.

We had lunch downtown, which was practically empty, except for a smattering of older tourists who had almost certainly come off of the cruise ship in the harbor. It was really funny to see white haired ladies wandering around snapping photos on a day when a lot of locals were too nervous to go outside. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, sparkling and sunny, the kind of day where the sun feels wonderful and you need a jacket in the shade.

We spent some time at Torino, where people drank espresso and read copies of the report. We talked to some of the bar staff about the influx of apparently clueless reporters who were coming in asking opinions.

After dark, we stopped by a demonstration/memorial/rally in Martyrs’ Square and beside Hariri’s grave. There were fewer than 500 people there, mostly young men. A minority of them jumped about with flags, chanting for the TV cameras. There was a lot of gratuitous climbing onto the martyrs’ statue.

Political discussions were going on everywhere we went, but all in all, I didn’t learn too much about what might happen next. I guess it is safe to say that Lebanon is still waiting.

The Mehlis report was released to the public a few hours ago. I’m still reading it, but apparently it implicates high ranking Lebanese and Syrian officials, without naming all of them. (UPDATE: ..unless you fiddled with the pdf and got the earlier unedited version, where names were given) Sounds like Lahoud and Assad were in on it. It goes into a lot of detail about the cell phone aspect and the point is made that the investigation should continue. It remains to be seen what the reaction will be.

Last night there were a lot of APCs and soldiers out, especially in Achrafiyeh. Too bad I haven’t done better with my Arabic- one of the local news channels here has a camera trained on the presidential palace.

Two days until the UN report on the Hariri investigation is handed to Kofi Annan. We are hearing rumors of warnings about going out at night this week and about a possible curfew on Friday, but so far the government seems to be saying that it will be business as usual. No chance of guidance from our embassy. We are on the Warden’s list, but they don’t tend to send us anything. According to the embassy website, the last Warden’s message was sent out in February, right after Hariri was killed, but I have heard from people on the list that they never received such an email.

Anyhow, people seem to be gearing up for Friday, but it seems unlikely that we will hear any details about the report then- the UN Security Council won’t review it until next week.

UPDATE: Some news sources are now saying that Annan will get the report Thursday (now today) and that the Security Council and Lebanese government will have it Friday.

It is a steady drizzle, and I can actually hear it.

UPDATE: The drizzle turned into a downpour, and for all of my talk about how I was going to relish such a thing whenever it happened, I found it annoying and foreign as we were trudging around in it last night. We also learned that rain here is highly correlated with no electricity. The temperature has dropped and the forecast is for highs around 75F all week.

The New York Times Travel section just ran a glowing story about Belgrade called “Belgrade Rocks“. Belgrade was one of 3 other cities we considered moving besides Beirut, and I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn’t been. After you come see us in Lebanon, of course.

And in the same travel section, there is an article on vineyards in Lebanon. The wine is fantastic here- I have even started drinking white wine.

UPDATE: It was just pointed out to me that the guy who wrote the article about Lebanese wines is someone who we actually “know”, an American who is well known around town for his love of rosé.

Yesterday, Ethan, Carrie and I spent the afternoon at the beach. We decided to really go for it, since we don’t have that many real beach days left, so we went to Edde Sands, near Byblos/Jbeil. It’s basically a resort, with several restaurants, swimming pools, cabanas, etc. We had some foolish idea that since it is mid-October, there might be some sort of discount to get in, but no, we still had to pay $12, the weekend-in-summer price. The day was intermittently cloudy, but Ethan and I swam in the sea anyhow.

All in all, it was very relaxing, as there were few people there (and this place supposedly stays open 365 days a year-I have no idea who pays $12 to sit on the beach in the middle of the rainy season). We all took naps after having stayed out late at a dance club called Basement which Ethan actually likes. Yes, Ethan likes a dance club.

Then we went to a mexican food restaurant for dinner that Carrie likes called El Molino .. it turned out to be better than I had ever expected to find in Lebanon. Now all we need is Thai, Texas BBQ, and Vietnamese.

The other day, I was somewhat surprised by my students. I had asked them to write a journal entry about their favorite political leader. I was puzzled that about half of them chose Hassan Nasrallah, who is the leader of Hezbollah (an organization which generally represents Lebanese Shi’a, not Sunni Palestinians-or so I had assumed). The second choice was Yasser Arafat (which I had expected) and the remaining choices were Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, and Saad Hariri. No mention of any living Palestinian leaders, unsurprisingly.

The other night, Ethan and I watched Jenin, Jenin, a documentary film about the 2002 destruction of the West Bank camp by Israel. For me, it illustrated some differences between being occupied (Palestinians in the West Bank) and exiled (Palestinians here in Lebanon– or Jordan, Syria, and the rest of the world). This is something I also talked about with a fellow volunteer this summer, who had worked with refugees in the West Bank and also here- she claimed that in the West Bank there is much more focus on reclaiming their land- and it makes sense, because they can see what they are fighting for. When I ask my students where they would prefer to live, most of them don’t say Palestine. Most of them tell me a specific Western country (usually one where a family member of theirs has managed to move). At this point, many (most?) Palestinians don’t believe they are going “back”.

I have discovered one of the perks of having students who are taking a hairdressing course at the vocational center- free haircuts. I got a trim (from the instructor) and then the girls took turns blow-drying my hair. I am firmly resisting all attempts to put color in my hair (it would undoubtedly be bad blond highlights), though I did let 2 of them pluck my eyebrows.