My life in Lebanon.

The more time passes, the more I hesitate to write about the countries I visit and live in. The whole world seems prone to misconceptions and oversimplifications. I am afraid to speak at all, afraid something I say will be twisted, or taken out of context, or used to justify a worldview I don’t believe in.

Still, I get to spend time in some pretty amazing places, and do things that I think are out of this world interesting. Most of us are sharing our whole lives on impulse, and sometimes it doesn’t even seem fair not to be. Sometimes I’m thinking about my obligation to also yell into the void, sometimes I just feel left out.

Maybe there is no region in the world that people are always trying to discover the “true” side of, unraveling, making broad generalizations about, as the Middle East. People have coined a thousand stereotypes to talk about Beirut and about Lebanon. Mostly simplistic, often cringey, and almost all off the mark.

With that opening tangent/ disclaimer/ caveat I’ll present the below video I put together, mostly of my friends and I hiking and dancing in Beirut and the surrounding area. What I am qualified to do is show you what my life was like in Lebanon for 12 months from September of 2018 until September of 2019 and the experiences I was able to have as a young, American woman working at a well-established NGO. (Of course, this video skips the boring parts, so enjoy 3 minutes of the fun stuff).

Ok, I’ll say one more thing. Lebanon is an absolutely stunning country and I had one of the most exciting and beautiful years of my life there. 10/10 recommend everyone visits (when we are allowed out of our homes again).