Day 3
It’s ironically a beautiful morning.
Quiet, and all. The sun is out, and I can hear the chirping birds, which I would not have heard, had it been any other saturday. The roads now would be full of activity. As it is, I sip my coffee, black, and I take another long drag from my cigarette, sitting on the balcony looking at an empty road.
Feels like the calm before the storm. Being aware of that, you know you have to restock on energy, positivity, will, stubbornness, and yes believe it or not a bit of pragmatism. And you do. You control your breathing.
It’s funny how old habits die hard.
I got home yesterday, and calmly prepared 3 bags: One has all my papers, my credit cards, my insurance, my passport, my keys, my glasses…
Another had a change of clothes, enough for three days and two small airplane blankets, deodorant, toothbrush.
The third had all my valuable gear, 2 cameras, my iPod, my video cam, and all the chargers thereof. A fourth (unpacked but neatly arranged on my bed) will contain all my diaries and pictures. This is the emergency last bag. I will go nowhere without my memories.
I was sitting with my family watching TV and hearing every now and then the Israeli planes combing the skies above us. We heard Nasrallah give an impassioned cry of war, promising total war, I don’t know how he thinks he can decide that for the country, really, but it’s been said, so we’ll see. Point being that we all looked at each other and you could see it on our faces, we were all mentally calculating the numbers of walls in each direction, figuring out which room in the house is the safest in case of an attack from the east or the west, from a plane or from a military ship…
It’s my room you’ll be happy to know.
But today, today… it’s the Shabat, and they don’t fight apparently on Shabat, they fly over Beirut, because that is restful, or something. Bah Humbug. Yesterday there were rumours of a cease-fire before i finally surrendered to sleep. I don’t know.
I am wondering how long this will last.
Maybe a week or so, maybe forever, and then the idea is to delete Lebanon as Lebanon, delete this idea of a beautiful country with excellent food and a mixed culture and 18 religions and all that jazz. Whoever the mastermind of it is, I have a few words to say to him/them.
A tender thought to all of you who have been replying, thank you very much, really, because it does mean a lot to me, your true concern, and the hope that I am able to promote another idea of the country and its citizens, other than the “terrorist” image that is the mainstream one. The victims who are terrorists.
There’s another Lebanese girl who visits the messageboard, her name is Sybille, I will contact her to see if she’s fine. I’ll connect later on today, or tomorrow to give you more news.
And Croppy adds another website you can log onto (if you can read spanish)
www.rebelion.org
And with that last website, I’ll use the Latin of refusal and say we will not surrender
and they shall not pass
NO PASARAN!
