a fresh start

so, it turns out that the list of sites blocked in china includes more than just facebook and youtube! so far, i've had luck with wordpress, so here is the address to my new blog:

http://whereintheworldiseva.wordpress.com/

see you there!

flying soon...

... will keep you posted!

last minute snapshots of beirut

greetings, all! for my last day in beirut, i spent it with the lebanon country office team at a workshop on child protection issues. it was a great way to get to know some of our country office staff, and understand a bit of the challenges that they face as they work with partners and children in various environments across the country.

in the afternoon, i wandered from raouche to the corniche. i felt like i had to soak in the last little bits of beirut that i could! here are some photos:

view of the beach along the top of raouche - look at all the construction!

pigeon rocks - a beautiful set of natural rock formations

walking along the corniche - a pathway that runs along the water all the way into downtown

parts of the skyline are so modern and contemporary...

...however there are constant reminders of the effects of war.

i must leave you with one last photo of food... at a local restaurant called "le chef" in gemmayze, i had the most delicious lamb with rice. mmmmmmm...

enjoy!

weekend in beirut

it has been a lovely, low-key weekend in beirut.

saturday was spent at byblos, the home of the alphabet. it also sits on the seaside, and is known for fresh fish restaurants and its sea views.

delicious muttabel (like babaganoush) with pomegranate. so good!

this is for sarah s: tabbouleh! it was very tart... but nisrine told us that adding some salt and some olive oil would even things out :)

and of course, the fish. although it's rather scary looking here!

after lunch, i went to byblos castle, which was built in the 12th century. stunning views of the city and of the sea!

the ruins in the foreground, the city and the sea in the background

remnants of old columns

view of the castle

today was yet another beautiful day in beirut. this morning, i wandered over to the national museum. i have to say - it is a must-see destination. during the war in the 1990s, the museum and its contents were badly damaged - many of their large statues were protected using concrete boxes that were built around the artifacts. smaller pieces, such as pottery, figurines, and jewelery were broken and mangled. after years of restoration work, the museum reopened its doors. its collection is small but tells the history and influences of many empires on lebanon.

this stunning mosaic of the seven wise men was preserved through the war, and is the first thing you see when you walk into the main foyer.

one of my favourite pieces - a painted glass bottle

these are little wee figurines two or three inches high. they were very bizzare!

this is my new friend, colossus :) he was flanked by two little sphinxes. something i love about this museum - you can get so close to the artifacts! (a few times i wanted to reach out and touch... but i held back :)

for lunch, i was invited to dine with the family of my regional director. it is mother's day today, so we went to his mother's home, where she had been cooking up a storm. two types of fish, roasted chicken lebanese style, served with a dough and chickpea stew, rice with a spinach-like vegetable, spinach pies, roasted oregano with pita bread, vine leaves stuffed with tomatoes and rice... it was all so delicious! two types of dessert (a napolean cake and a home-baked orange cake) later... it was time to walk back to the hotel, i was so full. no pictures, for those of you that might be salivating... since it was a family meal, i thought they might find me very strange if i asked to take photos of all the food! :)

tomorrow is my last day in beirut, and the last day of my wonderful adventure (i swear, i have been doing work!). back to toronto on tuesday...

views of jounieh

i have been very thankful that my colleague, nisrine, has been letting me trail around with her as she goes about her days. yesterday, i had a chance to see nisrine's hometown, jounieh, from a unique vantage point!

jounieh is about 15 km north of beirut, and the drive from the office to her home feels like a commute from downtown toronto to richmond hill in afternoon rush hour traffic, weaving and winding through the roads until the 404 clears (if it ever does!). so much of the town is built on hills that lead down to the coast. in the middle of the town, there is a teleferique, or cable car, that runs all the way up to the top of the hill, where a statue of the lady of lebanon, its patron saint, sits.

it was late in the day by the time i got to the teleferique, so unfortunately i wasn't able to get out at the top of the cable car and wander around. but here are a couple of views of the city from the ride up!

the individual cable cars - going 650 m up!

view of the town, towards beirut

the sun setting over the water - beautiful!

afterwards, we went for dinner with some of nisrine's friends from elementary and secondary school. we went for sushi... and this was a super-neat contraption that i've never seen before!

"automatic" chopsticks!

this dessert was something else. imported gelato from italy in pineapple and coconut shells. it tasted like cheesecake. SO GOOD. :)

sleeplessness

so, i had gone 3 weeks without coffee while in africa (one bad experience in tanzania with milk in coffee, and i decided i should quit).

however, since arriving in beirut, i have realized what a coffee culture exists here. on my walks to work every morning, i pass by a little grocery store on the side of the road that sells coffee in little expresso takeaway cups - cars pull up to the side of the road (i saw a police SUV today!), order their coffees, and the servers rush back and forth, bringing their orders to their windows. a rustic drive-through, i guess you could say. and of course, i am back in the land of starbucks :)

alas, overcaffeination has been the death of me and the end of my ability to sleep. i have gone from one coffee in the morning per day (before the trip started) to a coffee at breakfast at the hotel, then a turkish coffee when i get to the office, diet pepsi for lunch (an office favourite), and then another turkish coffee after lunch. one of our staff offers to make coffee regularly - when i politely declined yesterday, he made one anyways, saying, it was our office policy that we each have a coffee after lunch!

hello, delicious goodness. goodbye, sleep.

this is a little wee expresso cup. but man, is it potent!

sights and sounds of beirut

lebanon is a fascinating place. everyone speaks a mix of french, english, and arabic. christians and muslims live side by side, as you can see in the photo of a beautiful mosque in downtown beirut, beside which is a small little church. while it hasn't always been a harmonious cohabitation, it makes for a diverse backdrop to the city and to the nation.

yesterday afternoon, nisrine and i went to meet with a group to explore some professional development opportunities for our staff here. the meeting was a fluid mix of the three languages; i spent a lot of time in deep concentration, trying to understand the french that was being spoken, as we had decided that french was the common language that the four of us would understand!