Merry Christmas and Happy New Years Beirut!

All Things Lead to....Dubai?

At a time of a still weakened global economy and with the latest announcement from Dubai in failing to make their loan payments, one would think this isn't the best time to discuss new island projects...in the Mediterranean? But the Cedar Island Development envisioned by NOOR development is still an image along several highways here in Lebanon...and the latest news say, its not off just yet.

The 127.8 square mile island would be off the coast of Lebanon just north of the City of Beirut.

But...I couldn't resist getting a chance to see the Dubai first hand....see the pics here


*

Taanayel

This weekend road trip was with some a group of friends. Eight of us piled into a SUV and made our way over the Lebanese Mountains and into the Bekka. It was my first time that far "east" and was blown away (yet again) by the beauty, the food and the sites. Check out the photos here

From small villages to local artisan foods...

Local Druze guys making grape syrup from the newly harvested grapes.

A stay at the local "ecoresort".... straight out of new mexico....

And of course, not be missed... 2000 year old ruins...Aanjar, a rare Umayyad ruin built on the distinct rectilinear grid of the Romans.


*

Beino and Olive Oil Pressing

This weekends adventure took me to the most north I had yet to venture - The Akkar. Its olive picking season and the trees were loaded with green and purple little sour devils. This tour and a half visited the Zejd Olive Oil Company and their processing "plant" (a family run business on the bottom floor of their home). Zejd is the only organic olive oil company in Lebanon and its newest family member to take over, Yuessef (sp?) is a master olive oiler. After studying in France, he came back to pretty much revolutionize olive oil for Lebanon. The name of their company comes from the Phonetian name for olive oil, as it is said they invented the liquid substance ages ago in this very land known today as Lebanon. But today, it is Italy that is known for their olive oil, with Lebanon consider substandard...poor. And we got learn how olive oil is made, the steps to mess it up and the techniques to keep it Extra Virgin! Like did you know that you need to keep the olives at a under a temp of 30 degrees C (cold pressed) or else it looses valuable nutrients...and that only extra virgin can hopefully promise that?  Or that pressers mix their oils upon the season to obtain the best blends...that the olives are green (unripened) and then turn brownish purple on the tree...the unripe ones are good for table olives, the more ripe are better for oils. And, in proper olive oil tasting you swirl the oil in a cup, heating the oil with your hand...breathe in the aroma..and then take a sip...not swallowing...and breathe in with your mouth and out your nose...if your throat starts to burn...its a good one!

Check out the images...captions and geo-tagging included!

Deir le Qamar and Beiteddine

Deir el Qamar is a UNESCO protected town with buildings dating back to feudal times. Its a short drive south and east from Beirut. Perched up into the Chouf mountains the village still maintains its windy narrow streets and amazing stone architecture.

















Further up the road is Beitaddine (house of faith), a 19th century palace with styles of traditional damascene, due to the use of Syrian craftsmen in its construction. The grounds include an impressive courtyard, staircases, entry gates, reception hall, a private palace "apartment" and a hamman!


More photos with captions and geo-tagging here


*

Big Bowls, Bikes and Kebab's

Some little news bites from the Land of Lebanon:

The Lebanese re-claim their name to Tabbouleh and Hummus....almost the size of bowl we make for Thanksgiving....photos of the stuff
LA Times article and video here

A web series featuring a Brazilian guy returning to Lebanon to reclaim land from his family...
flying bebab

The Hogs of Lebanon take the streets and rally in Downtown Beirut
Hog Heaven
more photos


*

Laqlouq and Aaqoura hike

Sunday Hike - 
check out the pictures here - geo-tagged and captioned for your satisfaction


*

Jbail = Byblos

Claimed to be the world's oldest continually inhabited town, Jbail got its name Byblos from the Greek bublos, meaing papyrus. The place is as old as 8000 years! I don't even think I can imagine how long ago that really is. The major sites in the city are the renovated souq and the incredible crusader castle dating from the 12th century....the blocks its constructed out of are huge, most likely reclaimed bits and pieces of older Roman ruins. The views from the top are great. The city is only a short drive from Beirut and has a nice laid back sea side village feel. A stroll through the town allowed visits to medieval churches and the harbor.

Here are the pics


*

The Cedars of Lebanon

The Cedars of Lebanon - The Chouf Cedar Reserve at Maaser ech-Chouf. Elevation: 5,300 ft.
Cedrus libani...quite possibly the most magic place I have been since the Redwoods of California.
Only 5% of Lebanon still covered in forests...some of these trees date back as far as 3000 years.

I will let the photos do the talking on this one


*

The Trip Over

This was the ship that Elias, my great grandfather came over on. He arrived at Ellis Island, alone, age 18...with 15$ in his pocket and a ticket onward to New York City. The ships manifest listed him as a farmer, dark skin, brown hair, 4'-8" tall.  In line before him were the Yacoub family...US Citizens returning from Beirut to St. Charles, LA...presumably with more family. I like to think Elias confided in them on his trip over.

His journey wasn't as simple as one would think. He took a boat first from Beirut (Beyrouth) that would have most likely gone first to Alexandria, Egypt, then Italy and then to Marseille, France. From there, they departed from the boat and got on a train, crossing the country to a port and their final boat for America. for Elias this was the La Gascogne at Le Havre, France. This is all a guess. But according to a researcher that I just heard speak, the train ride would save the passengers actually three days of travel, and a significant amount of money.

The researcher is Raff Ellis, the author of "Kisses from a Distance." He spoke at AUB this week with the topic "The Lebanese Emigration - 1881-1914". Nearly every detailed matched my family stories.

So, who were the people leaving Lebanon at this time? Mostly Christians in fact. The Lebanese spread out all over the world, but mostly Christians headed to the US. The most common of them the Maronites (typically farmers and laborers) and the Orthodox (mostly traders and merchants)...Elias was a shoe man...and I was

The Qadisha Valley

This Sunday Hike took me up north to the Qadisha Valley. Its the final resting place of Khalil Gibran and possibly one of the most beautiful places in Lebanon. I will let the local historians tell the story below...

click here to get right to the images

Below from the Ministry of Tourism Lebanon:
"At the bottom of this wild steep-sided gorge runs the Qadisha River whose source is in the Qadisha Grotto at the foot of the Cedars. And above the famous Cedar grove stands Qornet es Sawda, Lebanon's highest peak.  The word "Qadisha" comes from the Semitic root meaning "holy" and Wadi Qadisha is the "Holy Valley". Filled with caves and rock shelters inhabited from the third millennium B.C. to the Roman period the

The Tale of Two Aintoura's

While I was told by my grandfather the last time I saw him that my great grandfather came from the village of Aintoura, I didn't think there would be two villages both named Aintoura and both a bit north and a bit east of Beirut.

In my first week here I had been making my introductions stating that I was both a visiting professor at AUB and on a bit of a family ancestral exploration. And that is how it came to pass that there were indeed TWO villages of Aintoura, one slightly higher than the other. I knew there was a "school" there...and I knew it was in the mountains. It turned out that BOTH fit those descriptions. One new faculty member from the "higher up" Aintoura asked what my family name was, and with authority, insisted that I was not from her village. I still wonder what tipped her off? Must be the ears.

And with further research I found that the Aintoura the family is from is indeed from the lower Aintoura village, laying within the area of Kesrouane - I found an envelope in my grandfathers basement with that as the return address.

Aintoura is less than 20 miles from Beirut. A short drive if there wasn't such maddening traffic and if I had a car. I actually manged to take a bus through the village, and found it hilly, filled of stone houses and indeed a beautiful regional high school. Click here to see it in Google Earth

The most amazing thing is that a man on that bus (the Sunday hiking group) was also from that village and KNEW the name Ghosn, and thinks he knows the family, the story of them going to the US...and has invited me up to help investigate...He even thinks there might be some left over land...?

Time to get up there...this will for sure, be continued...

Graffiti

I always like to read the graffiti on a cities street. Its a nice way to read the city, its under currents, its anger...its humor...its creativity. Beirut is full of great graffiti. Its limited to locations and size, but from what I have experienced, it seems a more accepted form of expression - even in the class room.

I have asked around, about graffiti and what they mean. Most of the tagging occurs on either abandoned (read bombed out) buildings or blank privacy walls along sidewalks (the ugly ones - not the nice stone ones). And they arn't quickly covered over. From what I can see, there isn't a sort of need to "preserve" or even "maintain" certain elements in the city. Its where memory perhaps prefers to be encoded with new thought, new exclaimations. The graffiti is political, humours. The work is graphic the work is repetitive, abstract and some is just bad.

On the first day of studio, after doing our introductions to the course, the students returned our assigned room. They are each given one desk, one stool and a locker. In the long tradition of architecture studios, the fight for the best desk and the right stool - as well as proximity to or from certain individuals is an immediate first minute action. Surprisingly...not only did the students claim their desks in person, but they passed around a red spray paint can, tagging their desk with fresh paint. The room filling with aeresol. How cool is that.

And how could this come as a surprise even, the architecture and graphic design programs share the building together and the halls are adequetly marked with a series of life sized to miniture artwork, colors and verbel exclaimations. My favorite is a collage of color prints under the stair case documenting all the graffiti in the building.

I will try to give some translations to the graffiti I do know under the images. Check them out here. I am sure there will be more to come.


*

The Corniche

In a city like Beirut, public space is a rarity. While the government struggles to simply organize itself, the city is left to fend for itself - typically with money making the decisions. Big tower development and high end commerical hubs are springing up faster than you can even say United Arab Emirates- there are even plans for a coastal island community in the shape of a ceder pine. But, what does work here is the Cornich.

The palm tree promenade becomes one of the rare public gathering spaces. It was formally cleaned up with new railings, sidewalk patterns and planters in 2007, and now regularrly hosts a number of bikers, walkers, strollers, fishers, swimmers and late night rendezvous. You can sip coffee from traveling vendors or even catch an occasional art/music performance. And of course the whole time taking in the incredible Medeterrian Sea views.

What makes it work? If I could make an assumption after only being here 15 days...its becuase its linear. Its not one open space. This is a city of movement and commuting. With no public transportation, its the automobile that gets people around. Its a city of diverse neighborhoods, communities, beliefs...perhaps its a space that one can be moving in that feels the most familiar, secure...safe?

Maybe the question to ask is more like...how did stay public and not get privatized? And what does it take to get manipulate the city space for MORE public spaces like this?

Check out more images here


*

Maasser el Shouf to Baadarane

It was only three days after I arrived to Lebanon that I was told about a local nonprofit that charters a bus every Sunday to distant parts of the small country. And on the fourth day, I was on that bus, a day trip several hours south of Beirut in the Chouf region. It was an 18 km hike from Maasser el Shouf to Baadarane. The name meant little to me at the time, but it was an incredible introduction to the country side of Lebanon and the villages, orchards and communties that dot its landscape. We walked through small towns of homes built of white stone with orange clay tile roofs, fig trees and grape vines just about picking time and trees full of ripening pomogranets.

Here are images from the hiking trip, and I have many many more to share from trips since I arrived.

Most of the hikes are in the Lebanese Mountains. A recent project called the LMT Association (Lebanese Mountain Trail) documented the trails creating a continuous 440 km trail from north to south. The trips are arranged through a non-profit called TLB Destinations and CIFA. Their mission states:

Established in September 2005 by tour operator TLB Destinations, CIFA has initiated training programs which focus on the linkages between tourism, conservation and sustainable development, all within the movement for responsible tourism. CIFA also supports and creates projects to provide motivation, income and livelihood for members of the local community, with a focus on rural regions.

First Week

This first week is for walking, exploring and learning that people don't walk in Beirut.

Check out the attached photos via Picasa. I will try to geo-tag the images so you get an idea of where these are taken.

Beirut I & III: My neighborhood, the newly built downtown and the Soukel Tayeb - organic farmers market

See all the photos from this walk here

and some more with sea views here



*

The man from Lebanon

I think I inherited the big ears.

Elias Thomas (born in Aintoura, Syria/Lebanon, June 15, 1889 and died, Missouri, December 4, 1959). This is my great grandfather. He arrived in the United States, through Ellis Island in 1906/1907? spring, he was alone, age 18. He had a ticket to get into New York City to meet with his uncle Amir El Kouri on 12 ½ Washington Street.

He left behind a world of war and struggle. He left behind his mother Mary (Marie Mansour Oissaf Thomas), a widow, (Thomas or Thanios Genad Ghosne was murdered in South America!) but would reunite with her only 3 years later, when she would come to America in 1909. His brothers and sister, Rose, Joseph Thomas Ghosen and Charles Mansour Thomas all would come to the United States in time to become US citizens.

Elias married Sarah Kalaf (parents Martha Massoud and Nathan (Namitalla) Kalaf) in July 1915. She was born in Aintoura as well (September 1892), having immigrated to America in 1909. While Elias was naturalized in March of 1927 it wouldn’t be till March of 1953 that my great grandmother “siti” would become an American Citizen.

The legend goes that my Great Grandfather Elias came over alone and ended up in Missouri, where there was a burgeoning Lebanese community. He was a shoe maker and would make shoes and peddle his wares around central Missouri (Independence to Meta?). In May of 1919 he located to Jefferson City, the state capital, to open American Shoe Store. A name, I was told, he gave out of pride of being in the United States. He would run the store with his brother Charlie and eventually, with my grandfather, James George Thomas, at 129 E. High Street in downtown Jefferson City, Missouri.

Now its 2009, fall and I am making the trip back to the ancestral lands. Triggered as much by the economic conditions of western world as the interest in seeing this part of the world. I arrived alone, September 24, 2009.

I have a one year contract with the American University of Beirut, in their department of Architecture. I look forward in exploring the city of Beirut and the country of Lebanon in the coming year…posting my time within these virtual pages of a blog , for documenting my past as much as sharing the present with you all.



translation:
"We took this picture on the side (or from the side) of New York or Newark on the 1st of January 1914, and we were 23 years old."