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Maktoub

Spotlight on Israel and Lebanon. Letters from Raaya.

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Spotlight on Israel and Lebanon

It isn’t so eerie anymore, it’s all out in the open. Maktoub. A word often used in Arabic it technically means written but in fact it means fate or fated. For us Lebanese it has so been fated…that we live in times of war. That the generation that lived and grew up learning stories of a war and were lucky to escape are now sitting living a war as professionals or students or … the older generations are sitting through a second war…they are not panicked nor are they worried. They sit and they know what to do. They know that this will not be over soon.

They are scared, because they have seen the unending destruction as a daily reality and mostly I see them scared for the young, there are children and babies and no schools. Already and it hasn’t even been 1 week. Now we can only wait and pray, and for those who do not know how to pray I’m sure there are people doing it for them…they can find productivity otherwise. We sit and wait for the next boom to land and then we turn on the television, if it is not already on, just to know which city we are to add to our list of places to stay far far away from.

As I write I listen to Fairuz. She wrote songs about us during the war and so did her son Ziad. I never thought I would experience the sitting in a cafe with Fairuz on and hearing the bomb outside and whipping a brow knowing that it was only 500 meters away—then turn back to my lover just to sip on my juice. WHAT? these, stories I was told only a few months ago are another version of a reality here for the same people. The people who only a matter of weeks ago started to reveal about the amount of tourists and the crowded downtown streets, full of huge world cup soccer screens for the first time! The same people reassured about the economic situation in the country for the first time since the killing of Harrir.

The people are also the Arab American students here to learn the Arabic language at AUB, LAU, USG, Atlas, and other schools. These are the same people that are here because they love it. Those that work here at the school the embassies, the universities. And the people that have no ties other than the pure and utter desire to be here. to live, work, play and stay. Families have been split apart…running away to places not in Syria that are quiet. I’m thinking of doing the same now.

I will start chronologically with the latest: now an Israeli war plane feel in the town of Kfarsima this morning at 6 am there were 2 hits it turned out were on the port of Beirut (second time) 3 trucks according to a photographer. 2 men who were there to pick up wheat to make flour killed then they hit an area called Doura where many of the labor force live and a lot for foreigners at about noon the airport was hit for the fourth time yesterday night they got more of the fuel reserves at the airport Sur is at the southern most main city with a lot of ruins and old very beautiful and quaint place. An LBC reporter (Lebanese Broadcast Company) was tearing as he was running amidst the ruble my friend, a reporter for the English paper the Daily Star said that everyone watching just collapsed. We were saying that this is not a military base there is nothing, but that its a city of families children and now babies split in three by death.
Love
Salam,

Rayya

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