GOODBYE, LEBANON

LEAVING LEBANON – THE GOOD AND THE BADGood morning.It is 6 AM in Beirut.  I am on my way to Syria today.  I have to find a hotel, settle in, check out the internet situation, exchange money, etc.  If you don’t hear from me for a couple of days, all is fine....Looking back at my two weeks, there is some good and some bad:I will miss that feeling of being familiar with my surroundings.  I had two weeks here and I am like a pro now flagging down that minibus heading to Cola, finding the right bus in the right place going in my direction.  On the way back from the mountains I dared get out the bus early when I saw a sign to the port of Beirut.  That’s where I live.  Why bother going to Cola if you can get out and just wave down the next serveece taxi. The driver did not know the famous exhibition hall “Forum de Beirut” near which I live.  I told him not to worry; I would tell him where I would get out as long as he was heading for Dowra.  Wow, I have come a long way.  When I got out I pointed out the forum to him.  Perhaps, he can take note of this cultural institution in case the next person asks for it.    Taxi drivers certainly have not been great in responding to cultural institutions for a destination, not even the National Museum…I felt so safe here.  Walking down any dark, dirty, smelly little alley way at night – no problem.  I think this will continue in Syria.  Made me wonder why we are a country with so much crime?!  There are poor people here – but no crime worth mentioning.  There is the whole spectrum of have’s and don’t have’s - but no crime.  What makes one country safe and another not?  In communism there was the iron fist that kept crime under control.  But that is not the case here either.  I am really baffled.  Any ideas out there?I despised the smoking.  Despite the high cost of living and salaries that do not match the needs, people smoke thousands of dollars away.  From the youngest boy to the oldest grandmother, and pregnant mom’s in between.  Everyone smokes in the most inconsiderate ways.  In tight elevators, in small buses, while eating – regardless of the effect this may have on others.   It made me sick!  Again – I think this will continue.The traffic… I got hit one night by a car flying around a corner in the dark.  He caught my backpack!  That’s how close he was.  One split second later on the road and he would have given me a full impact collision which at his speed I may not have survived.  He did not even slow down.  Jihad told me that the driver most likely would not have stopped even if he had knocked me to the ground.  Traffic here is barbaric.In just two weeks I saw a man limping away from an impact with a car – the driver kept going and even laughed at him.  I saw two shattered cars and heard a huge collision from my apartment.  I saw many cars with indentations, side, front and back…  I watched at one busy intersection how people coming from opposite sides of a road made left turns, U-turns, and went straight all at the same time while some people from the perpendicular directions could not wait their turn and started to move in on the mix.  Traffic here is insane.  It’s the only real danger I felt.  I am afraid, that will continue, too.The food – what little I ate that can be called Lebanese was delicious!And the people – wonderful, helpful, a bit distant.  Strangers looked at me standing at the corner with a map in my hand looking lost, but won’t initiate to talk to you.  But those who I met were warm and friendly;  and if they spoke English eager to share their views of their country with me.I am deeply impressed about how resilient Lebanese people are.  After that brutal civil war and the constant danger of armed conflict hanging over them, they cope.  They build and live and construct in the hopes that what they build will make it through the next conflict.  They seem to be on guard at all times, but they don’t give up.  There still is a daunting task ahead of them if one looks at the amount of damage still visible.  I deeply hope that lasting peace will come their way.  I am grateful that I could be here.To think that an area of 1/10 of the size of Michigan boasts five UNESCO world monuments!  That says it all.   I am grateful for all I saw.  Every day was filled with some expected and some unexpected encounters and at the end of every day I had gotten more than I had hoped for.Thanks, Lebanon!