A Visit to the Sidon Soap Museum

Holy Week in Lebanon

The Door of All Saints Church in Beirut on Good Friday


One of the great things about living in Lebanon is the special feeling around religious events. It doesn't matter whether you are Christian or Muslim (I'm using these as examples as they are the main religions in Lebanon), there is a real Holy feel surrounding special times in each faith.

We recently had Holy Week, the week between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. One of the main events of the week happens on Maundy Thursday. This is the day that Christ washed his disciples feet before they sat down to eat the Last Supper. In Lebanon it is tradition to walk seven churches. Literally, that's it. You get your walking shoes on and visit seven different churches. Fortunately, there are so many churches that finding a place where there are seven reasonably close to each other is not that difficult! As you do this, you become part of a thronging crown of people all following the same pilgrimage.


One of the things I like the best is that you get to visit different denominations as you walk around. We usually end up going from the Armenian Cathedral to the Maronite Cathedral, then on to the Evangelical Cathedral and the nearby Roman Catholic church. We also go to the Greek Orthodox church down the road and a couple of others. Before you know it, seven have been visited and it's time to go home.

This is the front of the service sheet from the Good Friday Meditation Service at All Saints

Good Friday is a quiet, quiet day. It's an official Bank Holiday (one of 22 in Lebanon!) and the usually busy streets are suitably empty. Church bells can be heard pealing, especially in the Christian mountains overlooking Beirut where bells from neighbouring villages join together in their lament. It's a spiritual time. Despite the often sunny weather there is an air of sadness penetrating the atmosphere. In fact, despite this year's sunny Good Friday, it is usually punctuated with a well-timed thunder storm; as if the Bible story is being re-enacted - as if we need further addition to the sombre feeling of the day.

The mood does a 180 degree turn on Sunday. Families dress up in their new clothes and go to church to celebrate. There are egg hunts, LOTS of hugging and kissing, and big family lunches. Restaurants are packed. Typical tables comprise families from babies in high chairs to grand parents with walking sticks. It's a special family time in a country where family is very important.

Some of the crosses that were on display at All Saints on Good Friday.

Waiting for Godot (well, Charles actually… But Godot sounded more interesting!)

I was wondering the other day. Wondering is something I tend to do a lot of. Well, this time my meandering mind was winding itself around the question of how much time I spend waiting.

Lots of us spend time waiting, especially in those traditional “waiting places” like the doctor’s, dentist’s or train platform; my musings took me to quite a positive place – surprising as that may seem considering the subject.

I was waiting for Charles. That’s the kind of waiting that I participate in most frequently. Each weekday after school I try to fill my time industriously as I wait for Charles to finish work in Achrafieh and come to collect me from my work on the Cornishe near to Manara (Arabic for lighthouse).

The traffic is always bad so I try to get down to the main road in time to leap into the car as he passes. As I was saying, I managed to get to quite a positive place with these waiting thoughts. I was contemplating all the places that I could be waiting and decided that things could be a lot worse; they could also be a lot better – but in line with my positive thinking today I’m not going there! While I waited I snapped a few shots of the shoreline beside me.

It wasn’t a particularly fantastic day weather-wise, just a usual spring day. Various people walked or ran on the wide pavement. Families promenaded with children scooting about in all directions. The human traffic was about a tenth of the crowds there are later in the evening or at weekends. Seriously, the Cornishe has a whole life of its own. I need to take more pictures and write about that some time.

Back to the wondering. I decided certain things: waiting helps you become more patient, I get jobs done at school that I don’t have time for during the day, you notice things you might never usually see, the fact that I wait for Charles and we share a car is good for the environment, and we get to spend a lot of time together as we struggle through the Beirut traffic to get home. On that positive note…

Teacher's Day Still Alive and Kicking - Just

Teacher’s Day – A Lebanese Tradition

I can still remember the first year I taught in Lebanon; I can especially remember my first Teacher’s Day. I suppose it was more memorable than others due to the fact that it came as such a surprise. After all, I’d been working hard at all kinds of things up until then and never had a whole day totally dedicated to my labours! Now, here I was with not only a day off from school, but a bag of loot to take home!

Before you get too excited, let me explain what I mean by a bag of loot. Back then, most of the presents I received, and I got quite a few that year as I taught English to 63 students, were from the local $1 shop. They were an eclectic variety of badly cast cherubs with lopsided smiles, mugs with various messages (all of which were very polite), and other such china gems. They served as faithful dust collectors in nooks and crannies around the house bringing back happy memories of smiling faces.

Robert, Sarin, and I
at the Teacher’s Day
party in Le Grey
(Left is me - right is Sarin. I'll leave you to guess where Robert is...)



Where I’m working at the moment they have decided that Teacher’s Day should not be celebrated with gifts to teachers. Boo hah I hear you cry! Well, that’s just what the majority of teachers cried, too! This year’s “celebrations” were rather muted to say the least. With no gifting frenzy featuring children struggling up to the 4th floor carrying overflowing bags, the whole day was quite an anti-climax. It appears that Teacher’s Day with no presents doesn’t only mean a lot less to the teachers, the children seem to have totally forgotten about it. Maybe the parent-bought presents were the only tangible reminder of the existence of this special day to honour their hard-working mentors.

It might be more ethical to have no Teacher’s Day gifts, but it sure has gone a long way to killing the day! Thank goodness for the party… Well, we had one this year, who knows about next!?

The Importance of Pets

Recently I’ve been contemplating the role that pets play, and have played, in my life.

I’ve always been surrounded by animals; that’s an easy thing when you grow up in England! It seems that everyone has either a dog or a cat, or both as was our case. I was also lucky enough to have three ponies that were my main focus of attention for many years and brought me so much pleasure. Toby, the naughty first pony, who had real character and was quite a “Jack the lad.” Next came Gemini, Gem to her friends. She was a real high-class lady; totally dedicated to me and an affectionate friend. Soon after Gem came to live with us she gave birth to a foal called April. We called her that because she was born on 1st April. A beautiful palomino foal born to an aristocratic chestnut mare. Those days are long gone and distant memories.

When I moved to Beirut in 1985, I was immediately struck by the lack of animal life. It was the middle of the Lebanese civil war (1975-1990) and I suppose it should have come as no surprise that there weren’t any birds flying around. The nightly shelling sessions took care of that. I think the part I wasn’t prepared for was the lack of interest that the majority of the Lebanese population have towards animals. Things have been changing slowly over the years I’ve lived here. I suppose that we could now say we are in the phase where people find animals “cute” and want to have one. Unfortunately, most of them don’t really understand the commitment ownership of an animal brings.
Thomas Having a Nap

We are lucky enough to have two beautiful cats that share our lives up in Mansourieh. You may have read my previous posts about Lady. Well, she finally lost her battle with cancer in February, 2008. It was a great loss for us as she had been part of our family for 16 years. Thomas was forlorn! We struggled with the idea of getting another cat for a while. In May, someone leaving Lebanon needed a new home for their cat. It was a female, and she was black – just like Lady. It seemed too perfect to be true, so we decided to give it a try and see if Thomas would accept a new friend. It took about a week for him to stop hissing at her! If you could just see them now, washing each other and playing hide and seek underneath the bed…

Thomas and Bella need a rest after the most recent battle in "Cat Wars!" Needless to say, neither of them ever ends up with any injuries - except, perhaps, to their pride!

So, back to my original point. Animals bring a great deal of happiness to my life. Just having Thomas and Bella (our new lady of the house) waiting at the door when we get in at night always brings a big smile to all our faces, however tiring or stressful the day has been. In fact, as I type this Thomas is snuggled up against me.

As Bella proudly models the quilt my mum made for Matthew showing different flags from around the world it makes me think - Pet lovers of the World unite! :)

Beirut to Bangkok

This rather beautiful young lady was there to greet us as we arrived tired and feeling in desperate need of a shower at Bangkok airport. We had been travelling for about 22 hours and did not have the prospect of a hotel room to stay in until the afternoon (it was now about 7am). So, adrenalin kept us going.

What were we doing in Bangkok, you might ask. Also, who are "we?" "We" are a group of administrators and teachers from ACS. "What" is the NESA Conference. I was there as a presenter together with Salwa. It seems like a long time ago that we won the trip after the Mini NESA that took place at school in early November.





When we arrived at the hotel, the Shangri La, this handsome elephant was there guarding the doors. His twin brother was on the other side.

So, no room for a few hours, what's a girl to do. Go for a whirlwind sightseeing tour of Bangkok, of course. The fact that it was about 38 degrees and 90% humidity didn't matter. Well, it didn't matter at the time but by the end of the touring most of us felt like we were going to faint...

The picture above shows the Golden Buddha. It was an amazing sight, made from pure gold and weighing in at some ridiculous tonnage. We heard the story of how he was made from donations by the peasants many moons ago, and how he was covered in a cement casing when their original homeland was occupied. The occupiers never realised what was under all that cement and when the Thai people asked to take their dear Buddha with them to their new capital, the occupiers didn't object at all. As soon as he arrived he was "disrobed" and has since sat in all his finery.

This has to be one of the biggest Buddhas in existence. To get some perspective, look at the door at the top end of the picture. People come about one third of the way up that door - you can just about make out the shape of a person standing there. Look how high above the door the Reclining Buddha's head is!

One of our favourite pastimes in the evening was strolling around the Night Bazaar. We had such fun there. The people were very friendly, even if they were trying to rip you off. But, bartering was all part of the game. You could be sure that any starting price would at least halve and, in some cases, end up one third of the original number given. I'd never bartered before and had such a good time. We went back about 3 times; that's not bad for a 6 day stay!

We mostly travelled around in taxis. Hint: whenever you take a taxi in Bangkok make sure it's with the meter or you can end up paying triple for the fare. One daring night, on the way back from the Bazaar, we decided to take a "tock tock." We had a young driver and we were four sitting in the back; how we managed to all squeeze in don't ask me - suffice to say that I was sitting on the floor! Well, he was driving pretty erratically so a couple of the girls started screaming. He thought they were having a good time so decided to play to the audience and began driving like a maniac! I mean, we're all from Lebanon and are, therefore, used to crazy driving. Boy oh boy, this guy was more than crazy. By the time we got back to the hotel we were hoarse with screaming and laughing, in equal measures.

One of my most pleasant memories of Bangkok will be the fruit. There was so much of it and it was delicious; especially the fresh pineapple. We had fruit for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Sometimes fruit being the only component of that particular meal.

So, all in all I had a good experience in Bangkok. It was interesting to see the Far East. It's so different from either Europe, North America, or the Middle East. I found the heat oppressive and the smells in the streets overpowering. I loved the people and the general "busy ness" of the place. It was a wonderful opportunity to see another culture and country - I'm glad I went.

Tastes of Life

Welcome Easter egg couriers!

Like mother like daughter. Sacha is off experiencing life on another continent; getting in touch with her British roots. However, she was the express courier for the Easter eggs from England. She had to bring Elie along with her to help carry them all... It's been interesting to hear life from her point of view. So many things she talks about missing revolve around food. And that got me thinking about the things I have missed from the three capital cities I've lived in...

I think that all those people out in "Blogland" who have lived for some time in more than one country will be able to relate to this. I have had the, sometime, pleasure of living in 3 capital cities during my lifetime. I was born and grew up in and around London, lived for 5 years in Paris, then moved to Beirut in the mid 80s. So, three quite different capital cities with their very own customs and cultures.

Never did I imagine the internal confusion these unique living experiences would cause in my life! When I went to live in Paris I missed speaking English, eating good bacon, and drinking a decent cup of tea (the milk was terrible and made the tea taste really bad). Once in Beirut, I still missed all those things, but could add to the list pain au chocolat, cafe creme, walking along the Seine and visiting the pet shops, and drinking good champagne for a very reasonable price! Having been a resident of Beirut for over 20 years there are many things I miss when I travel for any period of time. It seems that wherever I am, I will be blighted with longing for many things from those places I no longer frequent...

When East meets West at Easter

What has this got to do with Easter eggs, I hear you cry? Well, the picture above is a great visual representation of what I mean. How different could you get than the two types of treat pictured? One of them is a traditional chocolate Easter egg, known and loved across the UK and in many other "Western" countries. Underneath is a selection of maamoule, delivered fresh to the door by our neighbour just as she finished baking them. In Lebanon, this is the traditional Easter treat; stuffed with either nuts or pureed dates. Yum - to both!

When in Lebanon I bemoan the lack of decent tasting Easter eggs; if you've ever visited the supermarkets in England on the run-in to Easter and seen the massive selection there you will understand exactly what I mean. If in England, I know I would get nostalgic for the sweet and crumbly maamoule, especially the home-made ones delivered by Amale.

It seems that one side-effect of experiencing varied cultures and continents is that you will forever be yearning for something that you no longer have. Perhaps a small price to pay...