26 posts tagged “beirut”
Sorry, we forgot to display this one. It is a summary of our time with the Kids' Club at the INMA centre.
So, the end of our last week at INMA. There has been a lot to finish off and fit in. One of the things that I'd been building up to was running a 3 hour craft workshop. I'd made examples of about 10 craft ideas (thanks for the help with this Chris) and we gave some of them a go in the workshop.
Ben's put a lot of time into finishing off the INMA booklet and we're all really pleased with the end result.
Our leaving present for INMA were some specially printed mugs with the INMA logo and tagline on (filled with chocolates). We were quite chuffed with them. We received lots of little gifts from the guys, included a very groovy scarf for me.
We've had such an amazing time here and we've had a wonderful time building friendships with the people we've worked with. Saying goodbye is quite hard. But we know that there are more exciting experiences ahead.
We'd been meaning to go here for a while, but didn't get round to it till our last week. The campus is full of life - and young, beautiful Lebanese students. It is very green and lushous and there is a great atmosphere. They have a cat protection policy. People can bring stray cats to the campus, knowing that they will be fed and well looked after. There are stray cats all over the place in Beirut, but they're thin and scabby and they spend a lot of time haning around (and in) the bins. The ones scattered all over campus were very cute.
Ben and I were invited to the wedding party of a niece of one of the guys we work with. Unfotunately we arrived a bit late, but we still had time to some a nargileh or two and Ben had a go at Arabic dancing - it may have been called the debka.
The poor bride was celebrating on her own because her new husband lives in another country. They did the formal bit of the wedding a little while ago, but he couldn't afford to fly over for the party. He did call her though, which was quite sweet.
One of the jobs we were given was to write a puppet play - partly to demonstrate that they don't need to be too serious, use a bit of good "ole British pantomime. There needed to be a message as well, so we decided to adapt "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" to "The Boy Who Ruined Iftar". We had a king, a dragon, a cake, a clock and Sami, our boy. The cake was quite cool, chunks disappeared out of it as the dragon ate it. E translated for us, but the kids soon got the hang of the interactive bits, bless 'em.
With financial help from a local Sheikh the INMA centre was able to take all the staff and local supporters to a local restaurant for yes... you've guessed it, Iftar. It was a way to thank everyone for their support and hard work and also an excellent opportunity to bring together different religious and politcal persuations; western and local Christians, Sunnis, Shi-ites, etc. to share in food and company. The essence of what the INMA foundation does. Eating together were Saudi millionaires, Palestinian refugees, Hammas, Sheiks and err... Ben and Emma from a little village in Oxfordshire.
OK, yes. Every day is a day in the sun. But this one was a lazy day in the sun. This is "Waves" a big water park near where we live. There are lots of slides, a lazy river and waves...except when we got there, we discovered that all the fun thing weren't running. In Lebanese terms, we're now out of season. It's nearly winter, for goodness sake! The fact that the weather was the hottest it would ever be during a UK summer was neither here nor there. Apparently, it's normally heaving with people. There were about 50 people when we were there!
This is our “boss”, who has learned to blend East with West. He and his wife have become so “Lebanese” that other Westerners here tease them about it. Here are some of the differences in the cultures that we have needed to think about and address.
Non-Westerners are:
More relative-orientated than absolute-orientated
The absolute-orientated person has a set of rules that must not be broken. The relative-orientated person says that there are exceptions to those rules and special cases.
More event-orientated than time-orientated
A time-orientated person is bothered by people being late for a meeting or an appoint, whereas the event-orientated person wouldn’t mind a meeting starting late, just as long as it starts sometime.
More fellowship-orientated than goal-orientated
Goal-orientated people may find themselves so busy working on projects that they don’t have time for building relationships and spending time with others. A fellowship-orientated person loves spending time with others, an always has room to welcome one more!
Not used to confronting
Non-Westerners are taught to conform, to obey and are discouraged from being different from others. They are taught especially never to confront an older person, even if the younger is right.
Group-orientated, not individualistic
Those in the West often focus on personal rights and freedoms, but non-Westerners will choose to do things the way the group wants to. They often thing of others first, rather than just ”me”.
© Adapted from INMA’s welcome booklet
We came across another interesting difference of culture the other day. There are many small local shops as you would expect e.g. butchers, bakers, patisseries etc. dotted around the city but western supermarkets are popping up more and more, one chain called Spinneys has a logo near identical to what Safeways was. Many locals however don’t believe that a large supermarket that sells so much meat in such quantity can be as hygienic as the local butcher. I don’t think many westerners would touch the local butchers with a barge pole. When you think about it you can understand both views:
Locals’ view: The supermarket meat is slaughtered miles away and transported in, the staff are probably not very experienced and the meat often stays on the shelf for more than one day. The specialist butcher gets the sheep the night before live and kicking. He kills, skins and guts the animal right there at the side of the road hosing down the shop and pavement when he’s done, washing the blood into the gutter. When you buy the meat the next day it’s taken off the carcass as fresh as you like.
Westerners’ view: The large supermarkets have standards to adhere to and you can see all the good practice of the staff wearing gloves and the general cleanliness of the place and all the cabinets are refrigerated. The local butchers do the killing and gutting right on the street then hang the animals up in the open air.
There is one thing that nearly all motorcyclists hate doing. That is riding pillion. Today M asked me to go in the camp with him but to save time and precious energy (he’s fasting of course) he took the moped. I feared this moment might be coming soon. I hopped on the back of the bike and we whizzed off. No helmets or even long sleeves. Nothing to protect us from the gritty road or the rusty shards of metal that some Lebanese call a car. The usual short cut has been blocked off with no warning – they just moved some concrete bollards. So we rode a much longer route over loose grit, discarded food and big pot holes. M was zipping through gaps 2 up smaller than I would attempt riding solo – bear in mind that we’ve been here three weeks and seen a dozen accidents or near misses. On the way back he collected his car from the garage round the corner and asked if I can ride. “If the Police stop you, ride away very fast” he said. Later I found out that following his advice may well have got me shot. Fortunately we arrived back without incident, and another interesting anecdote to tell.
