Monthly Archive

During this Holy month of Ramadan a benefactor offers an Iftar to 70 people at Ayadina premises. We call it “Mowa’id Al Rahman”. (An Iftar is the first meal Moslim believers take when they are fasting, when the suns sets: when you can not distinguish a white thread from a black one, around 6 30 PM) . As we are preparing the whole meal by ourselves this requires lots of preparations, but it is a pleasure to do it since the beneficiaries are people from the Nabaa’ area. Many of them hosted displaced families during the war and are now penniless. The Mowa’id Al Rahman are very well known in Egypt and perhaps in many other Arab countries. They consist of tables set ready for people to walk in an eat at the Iftar moment and then go, most of the people who assist are destitute.

When I born, I Black,
When I grow up, I Black,
When I go in Sun, I Black,
When I scared, I Black,
When I sick, I Black,
And when I die, I still black…

“This poem was voted the best children’s poem of 2005. It was written by an African kid.

I spent the weekend in Tanail at the Farm and Retreat house of the Jesuit Fathers, together with my friend Amal. We walked for hours and admired the beautiful lake with its fish and water snakes. A time of prayer and exchange.

When driving back I took 2 pictures of the destroyed Medeirej Bridge. It will take a lot of time to repair the bridge.

So when heading back to Beirut there was a huge traffic jam caused by an accident with a UN truck as you can see on the photo. It seems a French soldier was killed in this accident. This Daher El Baydar road is the highway connecting Lebanon and Syria and a very dangerous road. Foreigners, myself included, are not used to this very special way of Lebanese driving style!

Une saison libanaise
(L.B.)

Mis en ligne le 19/09/2006
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La folie des hommes ne s’inscrit malheureusement pas seulement à la scène. A deux jours de l’ouverture du festival, on était toujours sans nouvelles du Théâtre libanais de Marionnettes qui devait venir présenter aux petits les «Mille et une Rose», sur fond de quatre saisons. Karim Dakroub est finalement arrivé.

A l’issue de la représentation, il nous raconte un été en enfer. «J’étais à Beyrouth, en train de développer des projets pour notre espace culturel. En un jour, tout a changé. On vivait normalement, on ne connaissait plus la guerre depuis quinze ans et soudain, on se souvient. Lors de la guerre précédente, j’étais plus jeune, je n’avais pas d’enfants. Ici, c’était différent. Tu te retrouves dans une situation où tu dois sauver ta vie et celle de tes enfants. J’ai quitté ma maison qui se trouvait à un carrefour dangereux et je les ai emmenés dans la montagne. Pendant la guerre, notre espace culturel s’est transformé en accueil pour ONG. Nous sommes laïcs, nous essayons d’ouvrir le dialogue mais aujourd’hui, le mot «paix» est devenu tabou et chacun se replie dans son camp.»

Les cinq derniers jours de la guerre, Karim Dakroub est parti jouer au Danemark. Il a traversé la Syrie en voiture au péril de sa vie, après être allé récupérer son matériel, heureusement sain et sauf, au sud Liban. Lorsqu’il a su qu’il pouvait venir en avion à Charleville, il a pris sa décision. «Dès que je rentre, je dois poursuivre mon travail, surtout auprès des enfants qui sont traumatisés et qui sont en danger à cause des bombes à fragmentation. Ils les ramassent, les confondent avec des objets de la vie quotidienne… Nous montons un projet de sensibilisation afin de les aider à reconnaître le danger à travers le théâtre. Et nous mettons des ateliers en place pour leur permettre de s’exprimer car ils sont tous traumatisés», nous explique encore un Karim transformé. «Je suis moi aussi traumatisé. J’ai peur du bruit des avions. Quelque chose de profond a changé en moi. Et je crois que la paix sera difficile car une nouvelle génération d’enfants, qui vient de connaître la guerre, n’accepte pas cette idée. Il y a deux mois à peine, j’aurais parlé autrement.»

© La Libre Belgique 2006

So there we were going to Sour (Tyr). For me this was the first time I went to the South after the July war. The 2 new (steel) bridges at Naeme and Damour are great. The only problem is that the residents of those villages are incapable of sleeping due to the terrible sound it makes when the cars and trucks pass these bridges at night.

The roads are safe and are being cleaned up from all the debris and war damage.

When arriving in Saida (Sidon) the view of the damaged bridge is terrible, but also there they will only need about 6 months to rebuild it.

Before arriving in Sour we start seeing the UNIFIL troops, neatly stationed at the highway side or patrolling in the city.

Sour shows much more activity than it usually does, the market is crowded, foreigners sit on terraces, UNIFIL soldiers buy falafel sandwiches, and we finally arrive at our hotel Al Fanar. The hotel is located at the seaside and next to the Greek Melkite Bishopric. It has 12 rooms and where the owner Mr. Raymond was rather pessimistic during the war he now smiles broadly. UNHCR rented a floor for its operational office. NRC (Norwegian Refugee Council) also goes to this hotel so Mr Raymond has nothing to complain about, because he is well paid. In fact nobody complains, from the groceries over Abu Deeb’s falafel place to the pharmacist…their clients are mostly UN soldiers or other foreigners who make up for this bad season.

Of course I hadn’t come to Sour to admire the mercantile activity or to do nothing, so we started the meetings with the municipality and some NGO’s. We were stunned when we found out that the workshop had to be postponed for many reasons…certain NGO’s are pulling out at the end of the month, others had too short notice in order to provide participants…As Ramadan is starting on Sunday Sept 24, we decided to wait until the end of October and then try again. It is so important that (I)NGOs and Governmental Organizations learn to coordinate and work together…in order to reach out to the most needy and work as efficient as they can. All by all it was a shocking but very rich experience. It so much reflects what is going on below the surface.

For those who do not remember Zaynab: She is a mother of 3 disabled young boys. She fled to Nabaa during the July war and returned immediately after. She used to come and as she has children with special needs, we tried to intervene and help her out. Well, we became friends and especially with Mhamad. Since she went back she calls now and then just to check on me, to ask if I’m doing ok. Yesterday she called and said she wants to bring me some sage (Salvia officinalis = za3tar in Arabic) she prepares herself. This friendship touches me; it’s free, a gift from God who puts certain people together in certain circumstances…she being a Muslim, me a Christian…I look at this as a start for التعايش    or “living together, co-habitation”. I don’t really know the word in English. My point is: sometimes we only need goodwill and friendly relations in order to make a better world.

A friend of mine mailed me this text and I want to share it with you all:

Last weekend I was contacted from the Norwegian Refugee council, they asked me to join them in Sour where we will be giving a training and having a needs assessment for the relief workers and responsibles of municipality and NGO’s. I really look forward to going there and hope that we will be of help (inshallah)… We will leave early Wednesday morning and come back Friday night.

Today is the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. A very nice feast given the circumstances we live in. Yesterday night we celebrated Mass together, shared about the Gospel and had adoration…in this chaotic political after-war (hopefully it lies behind us!) it is relaxing to meditate (whatever your religion might be…) and see:

What happened? Where is all this bringing me? Am I caught up in hatred or resentment or am I eager to forget and want to move on? When reflecting the priest commented on some of the issues we might think of when looking at the Cross:

• Love
• Sacrifice
• Forgiveness
• Humility
• Transparency
• Reaching out to “all”

In fact this is what society and co-habitation of different cultures is all about. No matter what religion you are or try to practice.

Lebanon is always in our heart (literally = Lebanon in our hearts) is only one of the many Lebanese ads we nowadays find all over the country. Beautiful ads expressing the desire to keep the country alive, in order to keep its people IN the country.

Monday monday…Just reminds me of the Beatles’ song…
Beirut’s downtown certainly blooms again! Saturday night downtown was so crowded that even the closest parking lot was full and in front of another cars were forming waiting lines.
Yesterday I went to the beach, that is to a swimming pool near the beach but with no sea water. It is a very small but cosy pool and as we arrived with 9, we almost had the place to ourselves. The 2 damaged bridges we had to cross were taken care of, a parallel road had been erected to facilitate the traffic and policemen were coordinating with one another; all went very smoothly.
Today as I told you, we started the Training of Trainers (ToT). We are 12 participants from different backgrounds and experiences. Victoria is our trainer and she was joined by another Norwegian man: Tord. he has IDP experiences in Africa. The training is given in English and very intensive, a real crash course but we do have a lot of fun.

Read what the French Cultural agenda writes on Sept 7:

A l’heure où le Liban se prépare à entreprendre la reconstruction, parce que dit-on la guerre est terminée, la vie tente de reprendre son souffle.
Maintenant que le blocus est levé, une petite brise souffle du côté des entrepreneurs et acteurs culturels, ainsi que de certains centres de loisirs et de détente qui tentent d’agrémenter un quotidien difficile. En effet, la majorité des salles de cinéma, de restaurants, de pubs et certains centres balnéaires pourvus de piscines ont rouvert leurs portes. Les centres culturels reprennent en douceur en ouvrant leurs médiathèques et en lançant leurs cours de langue.

The blockade has been lifted. Great because we start lacking supplies: most super markets have half-filled stores and look rather empty. As for me: no Diet Coke!

We prepare ourselves for a Training of Trainers with the Ministry of Social Affairs next Monday and Tuesday. Ayadina has been selected to participate in this training. I will brief you next week. Yesterday we gathered for an afternoon tea at Maya Najjar’s residence and talked about the current situation. It struck me that there is such a contradiction: Some are so optimistic and others don’t see the sun yet.. it certainly will take years to rebuild, but what about the 40-50 iers who already lived a war and saw all they worked for destroyed.

Yes I think this is something you can only see in Lebanon, it shows the survival spirit!

This morning I was sitting with a Lebanese army soldier. He is on a 48-hour leave. He talks about the hardships he and his colleagues endured. For 11 days his family did not know whether he was alive or dead. His family is totally excited…The first leave he got was a 24-hour leave. The roads to and from the South take about 7 hours.

Yesterday in the small village of Rmeile there was an attack and explosion of cars. People died but the man they were aiming at did not die. Samir Shehade is a high ranked general security officer, also investigating in the death of Rafiq Hariri. We just “kind of” finished this dirty war, and without giving us rest “people” restart the attacks on prominent persons. A whole series of people were already killed. It is as if we have to be kept in fear. A friend of mine went to downtown yesterday. She said that it is slowly reviving: there were some guests at the usually crowded restaurant tables.

I watched a program on LBC talking about hostages and prisoners…It will be continued today after the News. It talked about different ways of torturing. This is 2006 and torture goes on in so many countries. We voted the “Human Rights”, but who does apply them? I was struck by the idea of evil, hatred and so many losses, so much pain and sadness…I felt unwell. Look now what is going on in Sri Lanka and in so many other parts of the world.

But this morning I received the 1st newsletter from Tommy’s window: This is hope giving. Martha and Brian, two (extra)ordinary people passing on what they themselves received for free, a life giving message. Yes, there are some people out there not giving up.

Since yesterday we started our usual program at Ayadina. Our senior citizens are eager to come back and to gather. It is not easy though to make the transition possible. The elderly live in the area Naba, Borj Hammoud, Sin El Fil and are mostly destitute. Sometimes their children assist them but with the war going on, most of them were not paid or if they were only half of the salary. This is now the main problem: the financial situation of the actual inhabitants became worse. Not just the senior citizens complain but all households suffer from a lack of income. Those who hosted displaced relatives, those not receiving salary, those who were fired…How can we do something for them? Income generating projects? …I’m open to appropriate ideas

Foi et Lumière (Faith and Light) is a group of christian inspiration. There are about 64 branches in Lebanon. They organize all kind of activities for their “brothers”; this is how they call the disabled they work with.

Yesterday night we were invited to the last night (feu de camp) of the yearly camp of one group. In fact we got lost, but finally after 1 hour we reached the small village somewhere in the mountains.

Theme: The Peace of Christ. It was just amazing to watch the different sketches, evocations and folkloric dances they were performing: Scenes from the daily camp life, a parable from the Gospel and of course some food to share. 35 highly motivated people, a mixture of enthusiastic youth and well taken care of “brothers”. Pascal, The boy with Down syndrome I mentioned in a previous post, also attended this camp. Though this was his first time, he enjoyed it so much; he was beaming while showing me around and presenting me to his new friends, Rosy, Khalil, Kathryne…and of course Roni who brought him there.

This picture shows a bit the general atmosphere, while evocating the hymn: “My peace I give to you” (Click on the image to view full size).

Internally displaced persons…Sometimes I reflect and say: we always know how to “name” a certain “kind” of people and we are very quick in “classifying” people. Very often I hear people calling me: “the foreigner” or “the Belgian” and even if I’ve been here for more than 20 years, I will remain “foreigner”. I do not mind, it is merely a statement I make. But what if behind this classification lies a certain degree of appreciation, or the contrary?

My point is: when I say “refugees” or “IDP” do I only “name” them or really classify them?

I surely hope the answer will never be “yes I classify them”. Yesterday night I went up to bikfaya, in the mountains where there is still a school full of IDP’s. They are unable to return to their villages. I talked with several of them and heard heartbreaking stories. Not about houses being destroyed, I mean, of course I hear about this too, but about marital problems getting worse in this chaotic period, about the difficulties couples have to be intimate with one another in public places such as schools, where they live with entire families together in one classroom. Yes they do have shelter, thank God. But for how long will they lead this life? Without a job, without the certainty to be able to go back, without knowing whether they will have to register their kids in Beirut or in the South as schools will be starting on October 9…

I really liked the title of this conference: its purpose is for EARLY recovery. So apparently those 60 countries assume there will be an early stage and a later stage of recovery. But we do have great hope. Nevertheless, if there is no guarantee that the funds will be used properly and in total transparency then those countries should not donate. So let us hope that the Lebanese organizations will use them as they should.