daily life

Dear all,

It has been a while, I’m sorry. How are you? Time is passing by to quickly lately! It is already the end of June! I am still enjoying my time in Beirut very much! The work is getting more and more interesting due to the situation in Syria and the other surrounding states, but also the events in Lebanon! We have a new government which means changes can be implemented! However, we have to wait and see how things evolve. Sounds very vague, I know, but I just cannot give any prediction as to how things will play out for refugees in Lebanon in the nearby future under the new administration, and, strangely enough, neither can my Lebanese colleagues. The unpredictability of this country makes it fragile and even somewhat unstable but at the same time things never gets into a rut, which I think is a good thing.
The last few weeks have been very nice. The weather is getting better and better and I have enjoyed being outside. Three weeks ago my parents visited me for my birthday and we had a wonderful weekend together. We traveled to the east of Lebanon to go to a winery and see Baalbek. At Baalbek there are many wonderful old ruins from the Roman period that would give Rome an inferiority complex! A friendly guide walked us through everything; told the impressive stories and showed all the little amazing and beautiful details of the three temples. I was really very impressed and I liked being able to walk through everything. There was a lot of activity since in a few weeks there will be the yearly music festival between the ruins. Wonderful how the site is preserved yet used for everyone to enjoy it as well! We also went to Saida and Tyre, cities in the south of Lebanon, and I liked to see the difference in landscape and vegetation compared to the north, where I was a few weeks before. Again I was surprised by the versatility of this country.
Two weeks a go I accompanied my flat mate when she visited her grandmother in her village in the mountains. Her kind family prepared a wonderful Lebanese lunch and after the meal we went in to the garden to pick cherries. The branches were resting on the ground under the weight of the cherries but half an hour and about five kilos of picked cherries later, the tree did not seem any lighter. But we had a good time and the cherries were (are!) delicious!
Last Friday our office representative organized a lunch at her home and all the UNHCR Beirut staff was invited. I realized she lives quiet close to me, as I saw my own building when I was standing at her terrace at the fourteenth floor and looking all over Beirut and the sea. What an amazing view! It was a gathering in celebration of World Refugee Day which we celebrated last weekend with a flea market and a talent show! Great fun! The whole Iraqi community of Beirut seemed to want to enter the theatre for the show and me and my fellow interns acting as ushers had the difficult job of finding everybody seats. It was wonderful to see how everyone got involved, enthusiastic and moved by the Iraqi songs and poems about freedom and love for their country (or so I was told the performances were about ;) ) A group of middle-ages Iraqi women got everyone on their feet and swinging in front of their seats with a traditional dance, but the show was stolen by a six-year old girl singing an English song and giving everybody goose bumps while she stood on a stool to reach the microphone! She was the winner of the competition even though everybody received a price. Afterwards a few colleagues and I went for food and drinks and I ended up learning a traditional Lebanese dance.

While I feel very much at home here I must also think about the future and what to do after September… Sometimes I worry a little when I realize that already in two and a half months I must start doing something else and I have no idea what. Of course I am searching and applying but so far there is no definite plan. So if you have any tips or ideas, please let me know ;)

I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the (European) summer!

Lots of love,
Marlies