General strike and violent demonstrations in Beirut

- After two months of relatively calm the situation in Lebanon has seriously worsened during the last two days, and the whole thing is now very scary. Yesterday there was a general strike, and most public as well as private institutions have since kept their doors closed. The civilian part of the population is staying indoors. Demonstrations against the increasingly critical economy in the country have been followed by several violent actions, burning tires, blocked roads, shooting and bomb attacks, and all airtravel has been stopped. Different political fractions have again grabbed their arms, and the population is clearly affected by fear of what is waiting ahead. The food shop on the corner was this afternoon overfilled by people who like myself wanted to secure their private food and water storages at least for a few days. I have never before seen the shelves of elementary products like water, meat and bread this empty. Since February my colleague and I have had a relatively high level of freedom of movement, but now we are again under strict curfew, and again I can feel how the tense situation is affecting both body and soul. Now I know a little better what real stress is. It is not myself I worry the most about; I am being taken good care of by the Red Cross, and if the situation demands it I will be evacuated from the country. My whole family is also safely home in Norway. (Fortunately, because a few days ago they were here on a visit.) I’m more worried about my Lebanese friends that have no other possibility than hiding up in the mountains or gathering their loved ones in the basements of their homes in case the worst possible scenario would become a reality. I do however truly hope that we very soon can meet on the streets again, with our shoulders down and carrying only good news, and that the worst thinkable just remains in my imagination. Inch allah.

Kajsanmin on visit!

Ah, where to begin? Such wonderful and exciting weeks!! Three saturday nights ago my beloved Kajsa Liisa arrived at Hariri International Airport, and after two hours of waiting we had a tearbursting and joyful reunion in the middle of tired and happy Lebanese faces, familygatherings, and several meters of suitcases and stillettoes. It was easy to separate her from the crowd when she came walking in a hood sweather, good shoes and with a practical small suitcase and backpack. It felt increadibly good to hug my superduperfriend again!! Imagine that she came all the way to visit me, despite warnings from the Ministry of Foregn Affairs and everything. It amazing that we`re now sharing both Cuban and Lebanese memories.. Safe at home a satisfied Kajsa (and even more so Camilla) could pull out nothing less than 8 kilos (!) of Nidar and Freia chocolate and 2 kilos of books from that small suitcase of hers. And all these kilos only for me. Talking about packing with style, haha! The next morning we drove up north and straight to the sea with my friends Joe and Paul, and Kajsa could take this year`s first swim in the Mediterranian Sea. It would be a serious exaggeration to claim that the water was warm, but for two Norwegian women 17-18 degrees is both an acceptable and even a quite delightful bathing temperature. After the swim we prepared the grill and made spears of meat, chicken and vegetables in the real Lebanese manner, and the sun decided to show her face to honour the visit from the north. Excellent! A soft and pleasant beginning of Kajsas Lebanese experience. Except from a guy in a Speedo who lay down right next to us, and then did a show of some strange acrobatic yogapositions, and a family having a picnic a few hundred meters away, we had the place for ourselves. Fortunately, Speedo left quickly when he realized that we were not at all impressed by his performance, but at least we had a good laugh. Blissful from the sun and the sea we spent the night in a rented beach house, and then had to get up at the crack of dawn to avoid the crowded and increadibly slow “rush traffic” back to Beirut. A journey thay normally takes half an hour will take two hours if you make wrong calculations of when to departure, so why it`s called rush traffic is a bit ungraspable.. Well, we made it in 1 hour this day. I spent monday, tuesday and wednesday at the office, and poor Kajsa then got to know how it is to spend some time at home in the appartment i Hamra. It has been an important part of my Lebanese experience, espescially when the political situation has been more unstable than usual. Boring, but this is how it is to be a youth delegate sometimes. My workingdays are quite short however, since I`m also working Saturdays, so she wasn`t completely left to herself all day. By wednesday we had met some of my friends, studied the Lebanese traffic, walked around in the neighbourhood, visited the Blue Note Café (the oldest and coolest jazz place in town), Barometre (a cozy and leftoriented place with oriental music, nice staff, outdoor service and a simple Lebanese menu), and Casa de Pasta, a tiny italan restaurant with Bob Marley on the speakers and fine, silkysoft ravioli. We had also walked at the nice promenade, giggling at all the couples flirting in the cars, and posed in front of the drive by café Uncle Deek.

..to be continued..

Eye drama

Ayayay, today I woke up with a feeling that something was not the way it should be. I couldn`t open my eye properly, and 1 minute later I could ratify that something ws wrong. My eyelid was huge and swollen, and I almost looked as if someone had given me a knockout. It was not a pretty sight. Help, what had happened?? Well, I don`t know. I just hoped that this would pass fast, and not develop further. Imagine if this was only the beginning? I called and told the office I wouldn`t be there until I had figured this out, and then I surfed the net trying to give myself a medical consultaton. Hm..just an ellergic reaction? **Hoping, hoping** A few hours later I could relax my breath. The swelling was fortunately on its way down, without any action from my side. My head wouldn`t be transformed into a balloon after all!! Hurray! Just in case, Trude and I went to the hospital to see if I could talk to a doctor. I forgot my insurance proof in the apartement, and when they told me that they wanted a hundred dollars for a consultation I instantly felt the swelling dissapear. Healty as a tiger, let`s go home! Our good friend (and previous Youth Delegate) Marya, could later inform me that there is this eye virus going around now, and a friend of her resently had a similar condition. A quickly passing one, thank God! It is unpleasant and a bit scary to experience the face suddenly changing like this over night. I can`t help but wonder how the ones who decide to go through with “cosmetical” surgery feel when they see their new face in the mirror for the first time. Maybe distant to most Norwegians, but with more than a million such operations done in Lebanon last year, this is actually a quite topical problem for discussion in this country. It must be a somehow dramatic experience? Hm.. Anyways, I`m happy that my eye is now almost completely back to normal..

Outdoor activities!

Friday we went out to celebrate a friend`s birthday. At a karaokebar. Of course, Trude and I sang a duet, and we made a less than beautiful performance of The Doors` Light My Fire. We couldn`t decide if we wanted to sing with a high or low tone, so you can imagine for yourself how it must have sounded. In addition half the song was instrumental.. But it was fun! In the common Lebanese manner the last part of the evening was dedicated to Arabic music, and chaires and pouffes were put aside to make room for vivid oriental dance between the tables. I didn`t sing more songs this evening, since in no way I`m that advanced that I can read and sing karaoke in Arabic.. The pub was hot and smoky, and once again I caught myself in praising the Norwegian smoking legislation. After work Saturday I hurried home to pack good shoes and warm clothes, and then I went up into the mountains with friends. It was a great experience, and I really appreaciate the snow-covered scenery and the fresh air up in the heights. It was of course freezing cold in the evening, and the old fashioned oil camin was working hard throughout the whole night. On Sunday however, the sun appeared, and that wellknown and wonderful feeling of spring came flushing over me. It is just wonderful to feel the melting snow under the feet and how the sun forces out pearls of sweat because you have put on too many layers of wollen underwear:) The next day it was again set for another birthdayparty. I have actually lost count on how many birthdays we have celebrated down here until now. This time it was Yehya, our dear and a little bit crazy neighbour, who turned 19, and we went out a small group, first to the movies then to Club Social (one of my favourite places) to play pool. Also this was a nice evening in good company, and I have to say that I`m grateful to have had the opportunity to fill the last days with other activities than sitting at home! Yessss!

Saturday at the office

Well, here I am sitting in the office this Saturday morning, and I`m realizing that the internet connection is inactive. Today as well. My plan about reading mails and do some more research on clusterbombs is then spoiled, and instead I`ll try to dig down into some thick documents about organizational development. From the radio in the corner comes a fine mix of oriental tones, old hits and the hottest new rhythms from Beirut`s dancefloor. People are coming and going, and soon I`m expecting that some of the volunteers from the Red Cross Youth will drop by the office. The airconditioner is sending a stream of warm air right into my face, and from the hallway there`s a constant drone from construction work and from people talking. By now I`ve become used to this working environment, and I`m wondering how it will be to come back and work in Norway this summer. Maybe then I`ll have to bring my colleagues some Lebanese elements in order to make myself comfortable the first days or weeks. Hehe. I can feel that I`m a bit sleepy as well. The last week I`ve slept little and uneasy, and I suspect this is connected to all the recent movements in the ground plates. Monday night I woke up to find my whole bed shaking, and it took a little while before I understood that it was an earthquake and not some serious desorder on my balance nerve. It was a somehow strange experience. The quake measured around 4 on the r-scale, and struck the south and the nearby areas first and foremost. People I spoke to in the southern part of Lebanon told me that they hadn`t known any comparable quake for 40 years. Yesterday again the office furnitures started to shake, and this one was a bit more powerful that the other one. Our secretary colleague Milia can tell about several quakes the last two weeks, and with this I feel more convinced that my problems with sleeping lately has less to do with the increased level of shootings and political tension, and that they are more likely caused by seismological factors. Two volunteers from the Aaley center just entered the office, and they have brought pictures from our visit there. I think I`m gonna postpone the reading for a while, and instead pour myself a cup of tea:)

Muffins on Valentine`s Day

Tonight my dear Trude made supertasty chocolate muffins to her ”husband” (that would be me) :) I am really happy for this clear token of her love! Hehe, a little extra fun is needed when you`re sitting indoors all day. You see, today we were strictly told to stay home due to what now just goes under the term “the situation”, and this can easily become a bit boring after a while. This whole week we`ve had instructions not to leave the neighbourhood from the afternoon and out, but today we have been extra careful. It`s been three years since PM Rafik Hariri was slayed, and hundreds of thousands of Lebanese took part in a protest rally in Beirut today. In fear of riots the government had decided that today was a public holyday, and all schools and public offices were closed, as well as many private shops. We were not the only ones who stayed at home, even though many went to the streets to participate in the rally. I woke up this morning to hear shooting outside, but hopefully this was nothing more than one of the Lebanese ways of celebrating a successful speech etc. Inch Allah.. Anyways, I want to wish all my friends and everybody else a cozy night filled with LOVE! Big hug from Beirut!

Trip to the south and Olio on visit

Tuesday I finally got down to the southern part of Lebanon, for the very first time. Early in the morning we got into the 4WD of Anne-Kathrine, who`s the head of the IFRC Delegation in the country. (The IFRC is the umbrella organization of all Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies.) It was a good thing that we had a solid car, since parts of the road felt a lot like bad Norwegian countryside roads with their large holes and sudden “floods.” We drove the beautiful route by the coast down to Tyre, with the sea and the shoreline on the right hand side, and the green hillsides with the typical arabic brickhouses on the left. In Tyre we just had the time to stop for a glass of juice and fresh bakery products. The Lebanese hospitality also granted me some extra sweets in my hand as I left, as a greeting for the visit. We continued our journey through the Lebanese landskape, and then stopped by a school, where we attended a theatreplay about taking care of the nature and the environment, performed by the Red Cross Youth. We also visited a Red Cross clinic that provides medical and social services. Both the school and the clinic were partly rebuilt after the bombs that fell over Southern Lebanon in 2006. We found the time to stop for a short, but sweet private visit as well, and here we were treated with fresh almonds from the garden trees and tea in tiny glasses. On our way back we were surprised by a rain- and hailstorm that dewed the windows and filled the road with water. Again I was happy about the choice of car made earlier in the day. Back in Beirut I could feel that it had been a long day, and by then we had also been out on mission for more that 10 hours. However, I still had enough energy to talk Anne-Kathrine into letting us babysit her little Jack Russel puppy the same evening, and just like that we suddenly had a wonderful and very energetic little Olio snooking around in the apartment. It was a new experience to walk a dog in the middle of a city like Beirut, and neither is it a common view in these streets. But, we did good, all three of us, and back in the apartment little Olio fell happily asleep on his blanket, after several rounds of jumping up on the couch and lifting down again. No matter what, there`s a lot of joy in a puppy, and I hope Olio will visit us again:)