Lebanon Pictures Are Up

Shadows on the Past | by Samer Farha

Okay, so they were up a couple weeks ago. Go look at the set for lots of portraits of the family, as well. Frankfurt pictures are on the way.

The Ancestral Home

The Ancestral Home | by Samer Farha

I made it to Lebanon.

It has been a long time. Eleven years, to be exact. There’s a lot to say about the country where I was born, but that’s for another post.

I’ll give you some background about the Lebanese, though. The society is very much based on family, and especially on who the father is. People hold on to plots of land that they inherited in towns they’ve long since left. Most don’t sell. Many don’t even visit. And so it is with me.

Jdeidet Marjeyoun is the small town in southern Lebanon where my family is from. Until this trip, I’d never been. I asked my folks to take me there, to see the town that’s so much a part of me but which I’d never been to.

The town is small, barely 700 people during the summer months. It’s a jumble of streets and empty buildings. Among those is the house which my great grandfather built. It still stands, despite some heavy fighting and shelling, and the Israeli occupation. Parts of it had to be walled in again, as there were trees growing through the broken walls and roof. But mostly, it is still much the same as when my father grew up there, and his father before him.

The house and land are now owned by three parts of the family. There’s the children of my grandfather (my dad, his brothers’ widows, and my aunts), as well as my grandfather’s two siblings’ decedents. Many of the people involved live in far flung places and don’t ever get to Lebanon. But they’ve all finally agreed to fix the place up, and have available to whomever wants to use it.

Maybe, in a few years, I’ll be able to go back in the magical winter time.

It Needs Some Work | by Samer Farha

For more background on this small town, it’s worth reading this article on Lebanon and Marjeyoun by the Washington Post’s Anthony Shadeed.

A Hot Shower

Of all the things I miss from home, I think I miss my shower the most. It was roomy and luxurious, always afforded me hot water, and never complained a bit when I wanted to spend a longer time relaxing under it’s hot stream of water.

Alas, in China the showers were so small that I could see developing claustrophobia. And the water heater was meager, barely able to supply enough hot water for one shower. Many is the time when attempting to shave my head in the shower resulted in an icy finish.

In Dubai, the showers were nice and big. Unfortunately, if you wake up past 10a, your only option is hot water. Not, you know, mildly hot. No, no. This is scalding hot water. And there’s no way to temper it. The sun heats the “cold” water tanks on the roof and you’ve got no hope. On the plus side, you don’t have to worry about it turning cold.

Here, in Lebanon, the problem is different. It’s a power problem — as in, there ain’t any. The water heater (and the air conditioning) cannot be run off the standby generator. And since they lose power around here for at least four hours every day, you better hope those four hours aren’t the ones leading up to the time you need a shower.

On the plus side, the internet can (sort of) be run off the generator. My laptop has to be battery powered, though.