Some notes from back home

I'm back home now. A little background. Oumar actually called me on the night of the 13th (night in Beirut - earlier in the U.S.) and said that my mother had died. He was with her at the time. It didn't change the travel plans. I was still leaving in the morning, but it took away the urgency. Ellen picked me up at the airport on 1/14 and I spent the night at home and then drove to NJ the next day. Everything went fine with the funeral, etc. my friends were amazing in their support. 

Right before I left, I walked to the Anglican church so that I could go there on the following Sunday. I left Beirut and never got to go there. I had put the directions in my phone so I would remember the way. I want to paste them here so I will have them when I return to Beirut one day. The font changes because I pasted from the notes in my phone. 

Follow Pasteur Street

It becomes Al Arz

Turn right and go one block to get to Charles Helou

Left on Charles Helou

Becomes Waygand

Pass Beirut Souks

Right on Chateaubriand at Vogue Etoile 

Go 1 block and left at Grand Hyatt on Rue Ahmed Chaouiqui

Go 1 block and Right at QNB right after information sign

Church is at end of street

That's it. I will end my blog until my ne trip. 

Going home early

January 13, 2016

My mom is in critical condition. Things keep going up and down, but it doesn't look good. She has an infection and her blood pressure is very low. My nephew is at the hospital. Oumar is on his way to the hospital, but won't get there for at least an hour. 

I called the travel insurance company. They put me through to their travel agent. She booked flights for me. She could have gotten me one tonight, but I would have had to stay overnight in London, so it seemed like there's no point. I will fly out at 7:30 tomorrow morning. I go through Heathrow and get to Dulles at 3:30 tomorrow afternoon. Ellen (my wonderful fellow pilgrim) has said she will pick me up at the airport. I will definitely go home, take a shower and repack. Then, I will see whether to leave right away or wait till morning. 

I don't know what exactly the insurance will reimburse. They said the policy pays for reimbursement up to 150% of the original travel cost. I paid for the new flight with my credit card. 

Saifi was very nice. Ahmed said I will lose my deposit. I paid $1085 for 35 nights. I stayed 12 nights. He gave me $535 cash back. He didn't have enough cash there, so he needed to go get some. As he left, he asked if I was a student, too. I said yes. When he came back with the money, he also brought someone from the school. She said I can come back another time to take my class - up to 2 semesters from now. 

I emailed Albin and Patricia that I won't be coming to class tonight and that I am going home. They came over to say goodbye. It's nice that I made some good friends on this trip. 

Not much new

January 12, 2016

I'm reaching the point where there may not be enough to write each day. 

My mom had her surgery last night and is back in her room and recovering just fine. I've tried twice to call, but got no answer. She must be sleeping. I am feeling a lot less anxiety about it today. Several friends wrote and were very supportive and last night I had a text chat with Maryann. She reminded me how healthy and strong my mother actually is - much healthier than most people her age so I shouldn't compare her with others her age. I also looked up some relaxation techniques this morning. 

I don't have class on Tuesdays, so I walked to the marina. I wanted to find where the Anglican Church is. Albin had told me where to find it and I had also seen it on Google maps, but I needed to actually walk it. It took a little exploring and at first I thought I wouldn't find it. It's next to the Four Seasons Hotel. I found the hotel, but not the church.  Then, as I was giving up, I saw a sign for it. It's more like behind the hotel.  It's a small, traditional building in the middle of lots of very tall, modern hotels. It has a fence around it and the gate was locked (What's not, in Lebanon?), so I couldn't get too close. 

 

How do you classify Lebanon?

January 11, 2016

I wrote most of this post earlier today, but I will give an update on my mom first. First they said that her platelet count was too low and that they would try to raise it and then do surgery tomorrow. Now, that is changed and they are doing the surgery today. She says the hematologist was there and others and they decided to go ahead with it today. She kept saying "It's just as well". Hopefully all will go well.  She will then go to Seabrook Garden (semi-acute care at her retirement community) for 20 days or more of therapy depending on her progress. 

Since I had to make a lot of calls yesterday, I have started thinking about prices and technology in Lebanon. Telephone calls cost me $3 per minute on my Verizon Wireless plan here.  In Turkey, they were $1.79. Also, when I arrived in Turkey, I got a text from Verizon asking if I wanted to activate my international plan. If I text back yes, they would charge me a flat $10 for all talk/ text/data only on days I used it. I didn't take it because I didn't expect to need it. I have wifi and rarely make phone calls here. But now that the issue of my mother being in the hospital came up, I thought I might want to use it. Well, it's not available in Lebanon. Also, I learned from Albin that the government does not provide electricity for a whole 24 hours. I had read in the hotel instructions on my door that there is no power in Beirut for 3 hours per day and that my AC will not work during that time. Since its cold, and no one would be using AC now, this hasn't affected me. But I had noticed that the lights often go out for a few seconds, but come right back in on and no one seems to pay any attention. Now, I realize that it happens when the power cuts out and then the generator takes over. Albin and Patricia said that all apartment buildings need a generator. One of the things that they like about their apartment is that their generator provides more power than most others. This is not something that happened in Morocco. The power worked 24 hours a day there. It went out one night during a thunderstorm, but came back in less than half an hour. On the other hand, I have a heater in my room here. I turn it off when I go out, but I don't freeze in my room like I did in Morocco. This is my heater. It's above the beds. I have a remote to turn it on. It also has AC mode. 

In class, there is also heat. I wouldn't say it's toasty. We are dressed warmly, but we don't need gloves, which I often wore in class in Morocco. 

When you pay for things, they use computers and scanners. The guy in the cafe puts your order in on a computer. He never uses a pen, except to mark off breakfast on my card. In the grocery store, there are scanners. All receipts give the total in LBP and also in dollars. In Fez, we mostly shopped in the outdoor market (souq) or little corner store (hanoot). There were no receipts and definitely no paying in alternate currencies. There was a big store similar to Costco in Fez, but it was very far and difficult to get a taxi to go there. Many things in Morocco were transported by donkey. It was common to see donkeys parked waiting to go somewhere. I haven't seen any donkeys here. A few months ago, the garbage strike in Lebanon was prominent in the news. I see lots of garbage receptacles, but they definitely pick up the garbage here. Yesterday, I saw several guys picking up random garbage on the street. They used those grabber things that Americans who can't bend over use. They were definitely workers. They had uniforms. And they were working on Sunday. 

So, in almost all ways, Lebanon is more developed than Morocco. But the cut off of electricity is a big issue. Also, Saturday we went to the phone store. Albin and Patricia needed to buy minutes for their phones. Patricia's phone wouldn't take the minutes because she had let it go more than two weeks before adding them. The man in the store explained that the company had locked the phone because of that and he could not unlock it. He is just an authorized dealer, not the phone company. (I should say the store looked very modern and sold all kinds of cell phone paraphernalia). To unlock the number, she would need to go to the phone company - on the other side of town - and show ID. He was able to give her another number for her phone. (She had bought the phone itself in Mexico). She still needed to show a passport I order to get a new number. This is something you had to do in Morocco when you bought a new phone, too. I was saying to her that it prevents the person from using the phone for criminal purposes. The man said, "Yes. Lebanon is an unstable country, so we need this". I was struck by the way he called his country "unstable" so matter of factly. 

And here's an interesting sign in the common area outside my room. 

Do you call the Red Cross when you need an ambulance?  I think you might. I have seen many Red Cross vans. (And I've learned the word for cross now, because of that. صليب. ). And what would be the emergency where I call the Lebanese army?  Are the Israelis getting ready to bomb Lebanon again?

Then there's the work week here. I don't understand it at all. The reception closes early - 4PM  - on Saturday and Sunday. The school has no classes on Friday evenings or weekends. But people seem to work every day. I've been here 9 days and the guy in the cafe hasn't had a day off. I asked him about it. He said he gets a day off, but not next week. Mohamed, in the reception wasn't here yesterday (Sunday) but he's been here every other day. 

Water: I've been drinking bottled water. It's sold everywhere, but I just refill my bottle from the water cooler in the reception or at the school. I brush my teeth with tap water. This morning I noticed that they make the coffee in the cafe with bottled water. I would think that wouldn't be necessary. (He also grinds the coffee beans immediately before making the coffee. Maybe that's why it's so good). 

More getting to know the neighborhood and a problem at home

It's Sunday. You can do laundry on Wednesdays or Sundays. So, I was planning to do it this morning. But I didn't read the directions and it's Wednesday mornings and Sunday afternoons. I have been signed up to use the washer at 2:00 and it's been being used all day. This is very frustrating. I will need to find the solution to this. 

For breakfast, I decided I should eat something different since I've been having the same thing every morning. I ordered fatteh. It's yogurt with tahini, chick peas and cumin. Then they put pita chips in it. I liked it. It reminded me a little of corn flakes - the texture. The taste is totally different t. You mostly notice the cumin. 

I went for another walk around the neighborhood. I'm just trying to get really familiar with my neighborhood. It's usually difficult to walk because sidewalks tend to be blocked by parked cars, trash cans or security guards who don't let you pass in front of a building. You go a little ways on the sidewalk, then you have to go in the street and the traffic is awful. However, there seems to be a lot less traffic on Sundays. 

There are many stairways that link streets - as if the steps are a street or an alley. They even give the steps names. 

I walked up a really long stairway. I took a photo on the way down, but didn't think to take it till I had already descended 3 flights. 

I called my mother today as I usually do on Sunday. She didn't answer her home phone, so I called her cell. It turned out she is in the hospital. She fell in the bathroom and hit her head and her hip. The hip is fractured and mildly displaced. She has to see the orthopedist to find out what they will do. I think they will be hesitant to do surgery on a 95 year old. It happened at a very bad time because I am in Lebanon and my brother is in Florida. My nephew has a car in NY. Maybe he will drive down and Oumar could go with him. We also need to find out what to do about feeding her cat. More on all that tomorrow. 

A day out at the mall

Today I went to Albin and Patricia's place. It's in another part of Beirut. There's a taxi driver that they know who knows the way to their place. Yesterday, I asked Mohamed in the Saifi reception to call that driver and reserve the ride for me this morning. Mohamed knows Albin and Patricia because they stayed at Saifi in September and he knows who the driver is who knows the way. The driver actually arrived a little early. Albin and Patricia have a beautiful apartment on the 9th floor of a very modern building.  From their balcony, you have a view of the ocean and the mountains.  Albin made hojaldras (a Panamanian fried dough meal), fresh lemonade and coffee for us. 

Then we walked to the City Mall. It's a very nice mall - just like one in the states. We walked around the stores and had lunch in the food court. Most of the food places are the same as in the U.S.: MacDonalds, KFC, etc , but there was a place that made Lebanese sandwiches. We chose that one. There was also a supermarket in there. We went there because they needed some things for their home. 

Then, they were going to take a taxi home because they had bags to carry. I said I would just take a separate taxi back to Saifi since it was already 3:30. We told the driver the neighborhood (Gemmayze) and he got me to the neighborhood, but didn't know where the school was. I told him Pasteur Street, but that didn't seem to help. After a while, as he drove, I recognized where I was. It was on the street I walked on last night. I'm so glad I walked last night and learned that other street. I got out there and walked the rest of the way. There are a lot of one way streets, including mine, and I was afraid if I tried to have him drive the next couple blocks to where the school was, we'd get lost again. Then after going to my room, I went for another exploratory walk. Here are a few photos from the walk. 

This is written on the side of the colorful steps. 

I know these trees have lights for Christmastime, but I love them because they show me the way home. 

My other class

Today I had my other class. This class is only on Friday afternoons at 12:30 to 3:30. There are four Americans in this class. They are all students at American University in Beirut. They're very friendly. There are two others in the class - a Dutch guy and a Russian woman from Paris. This class is Beginner Conversation. They have been studying Arabic for a lot less time than I have, but the class isn't  too easy because there are many terms that I don't know in Levantine. I have the same teacher as my other class. I like her a lot. It's kind of funny because often she reminds me of me teaching ESL to adults. She uses the same techniques. She's also very funny. After class, the AUB students seemed to need to get going because they were working on moving in. (No one in the class lives in Saifi). I asked the Russian woman if she had had lunch. She said she hadn't, but she needed to get to a meeting. So, I went to the cafe and had lunch on my own. They have a different "plat du jour" each day. I've never ordered it before because I like to look at the menu at home and be prepared to order when I get there, but I'm feeling more confident now and also getting to know the guy you order the food from. I asked him what the plat du jour was. He said it was mulukhiya. He described it as chicken with greens and asked if I wanted to taste it. It was okay - not my favorite, but I ordered it because I thought it would be a healthy meal. 

I went for a walk after lunch because I feel like I just sit and study all day. It really is difficult to walk here, because sidewalks tend to be blocked and then you have to walk in the street where there is always traffic. 

A couple photos from my street. Motorcycles tend to have these plastic roof/ windshields. Maybe because it rains so much here. Sara (my teacher) didn't seem sympathetic when I complained that it rains so much. She basically said that's winter in Beirut. It's kind of like when we complain about the cold in January and February at home. 

Also, this motorcycle is parked on the sidewalk. Notice that sidewalks here, as in Fez and Istanbul, are not concrete. They are made of tile. 

No matter where you go, they have those awful pay parking machines

Some colorful steps

And happy hour