au revoir Lebanon!

My last day in Lebanon. To summarize my experience of one week: it was surprising and intriguing.

Surprising: it is a small country but with so much history and so many sites to visit. I was impressed by Baalbek. It is the largest Roman temple in the world and it is listed as a UNESCO world heritage (for more info - click here). One can easily spend hours between the buildings and the stones. Several Embassies discourage visiting Baalbek at the moment because of its close proximity to the Syrian border. This is very sad, because there is no reason not to go - at least for the moment. But going to Lebanon without visiting Baalbek is going to Paris without paying a visit to the Eiffel Tower.
I was surprised by the beauty of the  Baalbek valley which spans between the two mountain ranges on the east and west of Lebanon. Seeing the snow on the top of the mountains while enjoying pleasant temperatures of 25 degrees celsius. The agriculture that is practiced in the green valley. There are a lot of wineries and the Lebanese wine is surprisingly good! The landscape dotted with the tents of the Bedouins who live without a nationality and are roaming from country to country in the region although the political and security problems in neighboring Syria must make them more stationary for the moment.
And there are many more surprisingly beautiful sites like the largest Roman hippodrome in Tyre; the grottes in Jeita and the beaches along the coast.
And last but not least, I am surprised that Pepsi is more widely available than Coca Cola..

Intriguing: almost everything.. I am intrigued by the glue that keeps this country together and by the plethora of religions and confessions. I was told there are a lot of Muslims and Christians but not many believers. However religion is at the heart of the identity of people and it is the linchpin of the society. Before falling in love with someone, one needs to be certain about the roots and origins of the other. There hasn't been a census in Lebanon for decades just to avoid that the results may cause a rupture in the accepted rules of the game to govern and organize this country.
I m intrigued by the proximity of Syria. When I switch on the TV it is impossible to miss out on the horrible images that are shown on the screen about what is happening in a country just a few hours from here. But when you switch off the TV and you wonder through the streets of Beirut one can only feel the happiness of spring and the start of a new season. However, apparently the number of tourists have fallen with about 75% compared to previous years. Knowing that tourism counts for about 60% of the national economy, it can't be a surprise that sooner or later the effect of what is happening in Syria will be serious here as well..
I m very intrigued by Hezbollah. They have opened an open-air museum from where they fought the resistance against Israel in 2006. They have a clear presence in several parts of the country which is marked by yellow flags and large billboards. In areas where their presence is limited, it is often more touristic with bars and pubs and lots of memorabilia for sale. I m just wondering what will happen 'if' the regime in Syria will go down..

My one-week stay was more than worth it. I recommend anyone who has the intention to go to Lebanon to visit this country. I have to engage in some serious mental gymnastics to realize that in three days I will be back in Haiti.. To sustain the memory and before I say'au revoir', I will eat another mezza while drinking a tasty Lebanese beer!

Lebanon in spring

Twitter and email messages coming from Haiti are somewhat worrying. Extremely bad weather and violent robberies of people I know. It always gives a strange feeling when those things happen while you are far away enjoying a holiday. Especially this time, because many people in Haiti thought it was me who would be in danger by going to Lebanon for a vacation. Because I must confess that I didn't expect Lebanon to be this calm and relaxed. Since I am not an expert of the Middle East, let alone Lebanon, I can't say whether this atmosphere is 'normal' or whether this is part of the spring time where people are normally better humoured with the rising temperatures and flowers opening up. All I can say is that I, as a solo female traveller, feel extremely comfortable. There hasn't been a single whistle or sound made by a man or any other in appropriate gesture to get my attention to buy something or enter into a conversation.

Today I didn't do much. Or better - today I was a lazy tourist. I have been walking around, sitting, reading, eating, drinking.. At a certain point I ended up at the 'Beirut Souk', which is the opposite of what you expect when you think about the Arab world and a souk. It is a ultra modern shopping mall with exclusively high brand labels. You can find all the shops from Dior, Chanel, to Louis Vuitton and expensive jewelry stores. It is quite massive. On a random Thursday morning like today there are hardly any visitors and I wonder when there will be sufficient visitors to sustain those shops, especially in the light of the global economic and financial crisis and the dwindling tourists to the region. They are about to finish the construction of the last shops but I would be very surprised if all of them keep their doors open in the next 1-3 years. It is clear that this huge 'souk' is based on the hypothesis that there is money to be spent, because this high concentration of stores is quite something.

Yesterday I had a fantastic day. I went with a friend of a friend to the South. Via Sidon, where we visited the Soap Factory, we went to Tyre, which is in the Southern part of Lebanon where the UN troops are located. Listening to the various stories I wonder whether this UN mission will ever come to an end. Being in this part of the country, I realize how complex the situation here is. It feels fragile, while at the same time on a day like yesterday it is 'just another day' where people live their lives and enjoy the start of the spring. We drove through many villages in the South where the Hezbollah is strongly rooted. And again I had to remind mysef where I am, because without someone in the car telling me the history and the presence of Lebanon you have just no idea about the complexities. The scenery is passing from beaches to forsests, from mountains to plains. Beautiful landscapes. At the same time it is puzzling and just impossible for someone like me to understand anything of the life here. Therefore I absorb, I observe, I sense, but dont even try to connect the dots.

Tonight I enjoyed the pleasant temperature at El Hamra, the burstling street of Beirut. Eating a wonderful red lentil soup with tasty bread. Families enjoying their evening out. Young men showing off their cars and old men sitting and talking with each other.

Tomorrow is another day again in this place that is mysterious to me. While I start my night, I hope that things in Haiti stay under control for the rest of the day..

My first impressions of Beirut

Three weeks ago I bought quite impulsively a ticket to Beirut. The feeling of doing something totally different than the usual was overwhelmingly strong. In my dreams I travelled already five times across the globe to find the right place for this particular trip: unknown to me, not too far from Amsterdam airport, pleasant climate, and things to discover. After conversations with a colleague, who is Lebanese, I decided to book a ticket to Beirut. The reactions have been mixed. From: ‘what? You are going to a war-zone?’ To: ‘this will be the best holiday destination ever!’ Some people declared me crazy going by myself to Beirut while others thought it was the best thing to do.

And here I am: sitting in a coffee place/bar in the center of Beirut. And all I can say is that I really like it. So far, no moment of regret. Seeing my name written on a large piece of white paper being held by an old man with an even bigger smile gave me right away a good feeling. At the hotel the welcome was very warm as well and I booked right away a city tour for today to explore down-town Beirut by foot and to go to Beiteddin and Deir El Kamar.

In short:
- weather is fantastic – blue sky and sunny with a slight crispy breeze;
- people are easy-going;
- the food is too good;
- the overall atmosphere is relaxed. People are worried though what will happen in the event that the regime in Syria may collapse;
- I expected French to be the dominant second language after Arabic, but after all it seems more people speak English so I stopped trying to show off with my French.
- It is weird that people smoke inside bars and restaurants. I m no longer used to that and it feels simply dirty.
- Much less women wear a head scarf than I expected. Perhaps I haven’t been to the neighborhoods where they do, but even on the side of the roads I see very few women covering themselves.
- I hear people here complain about the traffic but having grown accustomed to the truly crazy traffic in Port-au-Prince, I realize all is relative. There are about 1,5 million people living in Beirut with approx 2 million cars, while the city was built for much less. But to say that traffic is horrible.. noo..
- It is mindboggling how many different religions are practiced in Lebanon of so many different denominations. Churches I have never heard of.
- Inspiring to see that the authorities in Lebanon have used the rubble that was generated after the war for land reclamation. This new land has been used for impressive infrastructure projects in down town Beirut. Perhaps an idea to facilitate an exchange of the Haitian Ministry of Public Works to see what are the various opportunities to re-use rubble in a strategic way.
- Deeply impressed by the mosaics. Just lovely and beautiful art.
- The word ‘camp’ is equally controversial and sensitive as in Haiti. In Beirut a ‘camp’ with Palestinian refugees, refers to a neighborhood with houses where Palestinian people live. Temporary settlements have turned in permanent housing. 

There have been several moments today that I had to remind myself that I m in ‘Lebanon’ – that small country next to Syria where there are so many problems. There were more moments that I felt so privileged having this opportunity to ‘step out’ of my ‘normal’ day-to-day life. I m curious to see what is still ahead of me for the next days to come.

And then when I wanted to publish this post yesterday, my computer cable exploded… J so one day late! In the meantime I had an amazing day about which I will write tomorrow.

pictures of kite flying in Haiti with Easter

Kite flying is a tradition around Easter to be found around the Caribbean. It is also a popular activity by children in Haiti who are painting the sky with kites in all forms and colours the past few days. In Haiti flying kites is called 'monte kap' 

(NYT 06.03.2010): The Haitian boy’s kite starts with thin sticks — woody reeds or straight twigs scraped smooth with a razor blade and cut to equal length, about eight inches. These are lashed in the middle to make stars of six or eight points, sometimes more. Thin plastic, ideally the wispy kind from dry-cleaning bags, is stretched over the frame and secured with thread. Rag strips are knotted for the tail, then tied with thread to two of the star’s lower points: a Y with a long, long stem. More thread is tied to the kite’s taut chest, the rest spooled on a can or bottle. The kites are beautiful: some have layers of black and clear plastic forming diamonds and stars. Some have decorative edges, the plastic razor-sliced into piñata fringe. But they work, catching the breeze and jack-rabbiting into the smoky air. Small kites are notoriously hard to fly, but these are perfectly engineered.



Boys are flying their kites on top of a large pile of debris in Fort National - a neighborhood that is among the most violent and depressed in Port-au-Prince. Happy and excited faces.





At the steep slopes of Carrefour Feuilles many boys flying their kites. There is hardly any space in this neighborhood. The only space to fly a kite is to stand on the roof of a house. I must say that I haven't seen a single girl flying a kite over the past week.



Kites for sale in a badly damaged house by the earthquake in Fort National.





A kites seller packing up its kites at the end of the day at Route de Canape Vert.



More kites for sale in Port-au-Prince



A little boy in Chaloska, Petionville, walking around with its kite.



Two kites in the air in down-town Port-au-Prince at Avenue Truman/Gare du Sud.