Official opening of the norwegian embassy in Lebanon

Picture taken on "by the way" here you see Camilla and I with the Norwegian flag in the back ground.

We were invited for a celebration, it was the official opening of the Norwegian embassy in Lebanon, the embassy was opened the 22^nd of October 2007, and the ambassador will be approved when the new president is elected and approved her, inshallah, I hope that this date will come very soon.

The opening took placee in a Norwegian owned pub called “by the way” where they actually sells Norwegian waffles. It was a big surprise for me that there were so many Norwegians in Lebanon, I guessed there were around 30 Norwegians in this country, but after I talked to the internship (that turned out to be from Ålesund) there are as many as 70 people here.

It was strange to be surrounded by so many people speaking Norwegian, and I must say it would actually be more comfortable to speak in English. It was served food with a loud speaking crowd present. We mingled around and tried as best as we could to talk to many people. The most people living and working here are on different missions through helping organisations, like for example Norwegian refugee council, the UN and ect. It was really nice to meet Norwegians again, and it temps for repetitions.

A trip down to south Lebanon

Tuesday was the big day, when Camilla and I finally could take the trip down to south Lebanon. We have been travelling around big parts of the country before, but unluckily we haven’t made it to the south. We were invited for a whole day where we first visited a school around a 15 minute drive away from Bernt Jbeil, where the Red Cross Youth had made a theatre about environment for the kids in the school. The school had been bombed during the July war and the Red Cross had helped the school with new equipments.

The trip went further on to Bertn Jbeil, where we visited a medical social clinic. They offered doctor and dentist services for the local community. This was the only medical clinic in the local community, because the hospital was not up running yet.

We went to a small village on our way back to Beirut to visit some relatives to one of those who came with us on the trip. There we got tea, sweets and fresh almonds, the hospitality in Lebanon is incredible, and specially when we come out on the countryside. I feel I am getting really good care of, and I feel warmth deep in to my heart.

On our way back to Beirut we stopped in Nabatiyeh where we ate some lunch. Then we once again were back in Beirut, where we spent the rest of the day babysitting a little puppy named Oleo, Ann Katherines dog.

A new bomb in the suburb of Beirut....

Published Friday, January 25, 2008

Many people ask me how it feels like to live in such a stable unstable country as Lebanon, don’t I get scared? Today there has been a new bomb in the suburb of Beirut. Where in this writing moment, 11 human lifes has been taken, and 16 more have been wounded. It is terrible, and my heart really goes to those who are touched by this. You can see that the Red Cross is really working hard to alleviate the human suffering. The red cross is shown in every news where they help the affected.

Many impressions the people at home in Norway have, is that Lebanon is under continuously war fighting in the street, something they often get reminded of in the news and other media. This is not my impression of my reality here. It feels just as surrealistic to watch the news on tv in our apartment in Beirut, to see what is happening in the same city you live in. I haven’t been directly affected by any of these tragically accidents, and I follow the security restrictions that’s been given. I feel very safe walking in the streets of Beirut, I actually feel safer here than walking in the street of Oslo one late afternoon.

To the question if I am afraid? I haven’t been afraid up to now, I feel my security has been taken very good care off by the International Federation of the RC societies. I really trust them to make the right decisions when it comes to our security, and if you in addition has a good common sense and do not take any unnecessary risks, you have a very good starting point. It is a different random crime you meet here then in Norway, but as long as you follow the instructions you are pretty safe.

Back in Beirut

Published Tuesday, January 8, 2008

I arrived the Lebanese soil Thursday night, after spending the christmas vacation in Norway. It felt good when I saw the nightlights in Beirut city from the plane. It was a joyful reception at the Hariri airport, where Camilla and Elie came and picked me up. I was very happy to be back, where I now would start once again my every day life here in Lebanon. I started my work already at Friday after a long vacation with my family, and at the same time I had to go through the cultural differences once again. I had already been through this when I arrived to Norway, I remember I was really confused when I didn’t know where I’d put the toilet paper in Gardermoen (Oslo, airport), there was no trash can for the toilet paper. I thought to myself “it is going in the toilet” and I laughed out loud to myself. It took a couple of days before I got used to the Lebanese style again, and I am now in to the more routine every day life again, it was good after I’d reloaded my batteries at home.

I can feel that the temperature outside is getting colder, even though the thermometer shows 14-18˚ celcius (which for us who comes from the west coast of Norway often would have called summer) I have taken out my wool underwear, and turned on the AC to heat up. The houses are not well isolated, so it actually feels colder inside, than it is outside. And yet they say that the coldest month has not arrived, already I walk around full dressed in the streets, with scarf, gloves and a hat, I am actually more dressed than the regular Lebanese person I meet on the street. I find this funny, because I come from the so called cold North, where we for some people are immune to the cold.

A closer look to Baalbek

Published Friday, December 14, 2007

After a conversation with Nasma, a Red Cross Youth volunteer from Baalbek, a Thursday in the office, we got invited to Baalbek to meet the volunteers there. We thought this was a great idea, and we wanted to travel already the up coming weekend. Since we were not that familiar with driving out of Beirut, we chose a route we knew, this showed up to be not as easy as we thought. The road signs were in Arabic and the roads were splitting without any pre notice, this resulted that we got lost a few times. Luckily we have a Red Cross car, which make me feel very safe. After a three and a half hour ride with endless phone conversations with Nasma we arrived late, but safe. We were met by the local Red Cross Youth committee in a restaurant, where we ate a delicious Lebanese meal. We were invited to Nasmas home where we were going to spend the night. The house was so cosy, with a warm fireplace in the living room. Outside it was really cold, and the wool underwear from Norway was well used.

Sunday morning we woke up early, and we were real tourists, with the camera close to the hand and good walking shoes. Baalbek is a historical city, with temples from the old roman times. Baalbek was the religious capital, and it was decorated with beautiful temples in the honour of the gods, and all of this was really well preserved. You can see from the picture how amazing it was. After the temple visit we went to see the largest rock in the world, which was cut out from the mountain, this was meant to be used on the temple we was in earlier, but it was left as an extra resource. We closed the trip by going back to Nasmas place where we ate a traditional Lebanese farmers meal, ktir tajib.

The Lebanese independence day

Published Thursday, November 22, 2007

This should be a day were everyone was celebrating, with military parades in the street and with the flags waving in the sky. But the streets today are very quiet, or at least the streets we’ve been in. The presidential election that was supposed to be yesterday, has been post pond again. The election has been post pond until the coming Saturday, and the situation is very tensed. After a security briefing with the head of delegation, IFRC, we have gotten some security restrictions to keep a low profile, and report any movement out of neighbourhood. I can see that the streets are being filled up with military and police patrolling and observing, especially around the various parliament buildings. The Lebanese I am in contact with are busy continuing their everyday life, and they rather don’t want to speak about what’s going on. The questions arise, will they reach a consensus? Will we get to governments, or will we get an ad-hoc military regime? It is hard to give an analysis of what is going to happen. Up to now, no one knows. I really hope that a consensus will take place, and that Lebanon will get a peaceful end. Anyway I would like to congratulate Lebanon with its independence day, despite the political situation.

Almost like a day along the west coast of Norway

Published Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Now the winter has started to set in. Tonight it was almost impossible to sleep, even for those who have a good sleeping heart. It lightened and thundered all the way through the late night hours. At first I didn’t hear it, because I slept when it started. I woke up when Camilla really carefully knocked on my door, she asked if I didn’t want to plug out the electricity. I didn’t understand anything, I was still half asleep, I said yes and saw that she (kind as she is) plugged out all the contacts. The flashlight stood as it had own feet to stand on, I almost thought that someone stood on my porch taking photos. This resulted in rain all day. The streets are wet and slippery. And I can feel that the air is cleaner. I got a memoryflash that I walked in the streets of Bergen (the city where I study in Norway), wearing a raincoat and with wet skin, and everything felt like home. I almost hope it will rain some more. (crazy, but true)