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:)

February 9th

I hear cracking sounds outside the kitchen window. From weapons or from fireworks. I haven`t quite learned to distinguish between the sounds yet, maybe it`s from both. I`m planning to attend a Red Cross party in Beirut tonight. There`s a new Lebanese rapper performing, and I think it can be fun. To be on the safe side I`ll wait until it calms down outside. Poor Trude is in bed with fever, so I`ll have to try to find this place on my own. With my sence of directions, hehe.. Yesterday it was me who were raving around dizzy at work, and who had to stay in bed from the moment I entered the apartement. Fortunately, the trick of taking large doses of vitamin Cs and sleeping a lot seems to work down here as well, so hopefully my dear wife will be better tomorrow. Today I`ve been in an ectaticly good mood – I got confirmation that my beloved Kajsa Liisa is coming to visit in the beginning of March!! And a week later my dear Leila will come as well!! Despite bombs and warnings from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs they have chosen to come and visit me in Lebanon. Trallalalala..oow, how much I`m looking forward to having my girls visiting!! Yohoo!! Then I may have to seize the possibility to be a little bit tourist here as well, since until now I haven`t seen many other attractions than Byblos and the ancient ruins in Baalbek. And, Now I have to hurry and write a wishlist from Norway. Even though you can get hold of most of the things you need here there are still a few items that I`m starting to miss from Norway. The famous milk chocolate of course, but also small things like dark flour (!) and iron tablets that are not coloured pink..

Happy New Year!

Hey there. Sorry for neglecting my blog completely. I`m back now, I promise. A lot has happened since last time, and one of the greatest experiences was coming home for Christmas. It was just wonderful to spend almost two weeks together with my loved ones, after being in totally strange surroundings for 3 months. Christmas would of course not have been the same without my family. And my mother`s stuffed turkey and papa`s juicy lamb...Mm! And imagine, I who always was a bit extra sensitive to pollution and toxines, when I was standing there in the middle of the capital city I couldn`t help taking a deep breath and express my joy over the fresh “mountain air” in Oslo. Something which I never would have thought could happen. So it`s true then, all things can change! After racing the time in order to see and hug family and friends in two different places in the country, I went back to Lebanon again. Truly happy. I celebrated the New Year`s Eve together with good friends in a cozy hotel in the lebanese mountains. I had a really good time, far away from cheap fireworks and drunk drivers, in a place called Laqlouqe. (This is pronounced la2lou2, since most lebanese don`t pronounce the q. If you need an explanation for the 2s feel free to send me a request.). The New Year was celebrated twice in Lebanon by the way, since we entered the year 1429 on the 9th of January according to muslim tradition. This country is special in the way that several religions are presented in the calendar of holydays, something that occationally results in a sudden day of from work due to some moving holyday I didn`t know about. But that`s just a little thing that makes it all more interesting.

Unfortunately it hasn`t been all joy since I returned. My first January in Lebanon has been cold and wet, and sadly enough marked by deadly bombattacks and riots. Last Friday another carbomb took many lives, and then what was presumably going to be a peaceful demonstration against the electrisity problems in the country developed into bloody riots Sunday night. The situation is more tense than in a long time, and many are obviously afraid and worried about the further development, even though they don`t talk too much about it. The lebanese are tired and fed up with all the violence and insecurity, and they just want to live their lives in peace and quiet. This it is not hard to understand. Even though I`ve just lived here for 4 and some months I too can feel the stress, despair, fear and anger that comes from the constantly tense situation and the continual attacks. Some days it is all a bit too much to handle alone, and in these moments I`m extra thankful that I have my dear Trude here with me. 7abibti!:)

A lovely day

Ah, after rain comes fresher air and a brighter sky. Lovely! Today I got up eeearly to take my dear “wife” (Trude) to the airport. The clock rang at 05:30. A bit early maybe, but what won`t you do for your loved ones? :) After spending every day together for three months it will be strange not to have Trude around for three weeks. But probably it`s healthy for our relationship to have the time to miss eath other a bit. Now I have four days “alone” in Beirut, and then I`ll be home in Norway together with my family. How I`m looking forward to it! Saturday is by the way a working day here in Lebanon, so after the airport mission this early morning I went to the office to execute the tasks of the day. Since I`m traveling on monday I thought it would be nice to spread some Christmas joy to the employees and the volunteers, so I brought some candle lights, some norwegian crackers and our traditional brown cheese. A culinary (?) experience that was well appreaciated. On my way home from work I dropped by a second hand store which is run by this increadibly nice elderly gentleman. We talked about this and that, and nice to see you again, and acctually I dropped by to ask if he had an old guitar to sell. He didn`t, but as it was he gave me his own guitar to borrow with me home. He thought it would be appropriate since I was alone in the appartment now and then had the time to play. He showed me an old and yellowish program for a guitar consert he had done at the American University in the city in 1957, and he told me about how he started playing the guitar in his younger days. What an increadibly nice man! Almost confused from happiness and gratitude I continued my walk home with a well played guitar in one hand, and a beautiful red flower for 3 norwegian kr from the shop at the corner in the other. Tonight I`ll visit some friends, and we`ll eat chicken and enjoy ourselves even more. What a lovely day!

Stormy weather ahead

Help! Tonight it was again so much lightning and thunder that I thought the whole building would collapse. The rumours say that we should prepare for three days of storm. This I can believe. Yesterday one of the windowglasses in the kitchen blew off it`s track and was left on the floor in a thousand pieces. Something which was possible because these windows are not normal closeable windows, but rather some sort of Venetian blind in glass. Quite charming actually, but I admit that I am a bit sceptical regarding how this is going to keep out the cold this winter. I guess I`ll bring another wollen sweather back from Norway after x-mas, and then it will be just fine. Three days with storm is likely to mean three days without internett (which we`ve finally gotten installed at home – hurray!), and possibly also without electrisity, but I`m not too concerned about this since I`m spending all Saturday and Sunday in a workshop a thousand and something meters above sealevel. (And here it will probably snow!! :)) The Humanitarian Law program of the Lebanese Red Cross Youth is going to test out some new activities for their internal trainings this weekend, and I`m going to facilitate the semi roleplaying game Raw War. The volunteers will do the “combating” part of the game outdoors, wearing costumes and armypaint. And I`ll make angels in the snow:) Weehee! For sure this is going to be a whole lot of fun!!

December

It`s starting to get colder now, and the winter is obviously around the corner. On a mission a few hours drive from Beirut I recently discovered one of the most typical signs of spring in Norway. A Tussilago farfara! It is in other words not a typical norwegian winter that`s waiting for me, but rather a combination of spring and autumn, I guess. At least in the capital city, where snowfall is not common. However, the houses here are not very well isolated, and when the temperature goes down to 12-13 degrees celcius and the rain is pouring down, I feel increadibly thankful that I decided to let the wollen underwear and grandma`s wollen rugs take up some space in my suitcase when leaving Norway. Up in the mountains the first snow has already paid a visit, and there the cold is being kept out of the homes with paraffin stoves and fireplaces in the rooms.

A few days ago Beirut started decorating the streets for Christmas. The arrangements of lights are modestly placed in shrubs, windows and across the streets, and in the shelfes in the shops a number of red and golden Santa Clauses, stars and other typical X-mas stuff have appeared. Suddently it hits me that December is here! As opposed to the norwegian context you don`t find Christmas marzipan on display in October i Beirut, and this might be part of the reason why this obvious fact has missed my attention completely. It`s almost X-mas! I have decided to spend the holydays in Norway, which I`m looking very much forward to. Without doubt it would have been special to experience the lebanese celebration, but so be it. Holydays are best spent together with those you love the most, and this is what I intend to do. I really miss my familiy.