In Gazzeh

It was february 1990 or 1991 or almost the end of january, the weather was snowy.. And of course life in Beqaa is  tough but it was our choice to live here ,and not to leave for good for Canada or Australia as my brother , or to England as many members of the family did , and my sister with her family too. The war in Lebanon was a series.. Some episodes  you can manage others one cannot survive them ..So we decided to give Beqaa a try.... And if things didnt work out we can leave ... It was worth to consider this decision because it isnot that costly, and we are still in our country, and near our families,  we dont have to cross borders to visit them , as a matter of fact i consider being near my family and husband's family as a good reason to stay in my country.. Besides i have my daughters that i cont want to be broought up in the States . I was living there and my eldest daughter was brought up there ,completely different ,i mean the way to raise kids there  is not as we hope for ...Our decision and we never regretted it ,my husband would teach at OMEC and the girls will go  there too , six girls ranging  in age from 11 to 1 .. They would be my chore ..here life is no fun, tough life reminded me of {the little house on the prairie}  that i used to watch when i was younger. No phones, no central heating, no electricity for  most of the time, but alhamdulillah ,a big house, empty, bare but nevertheless it has a fenced  vineyard and a gate ,thats good . The house owners left for Brazil and they need someone to stay in the house , so it doesnt get occupied from strangers , thats why they  didnt ask for  a big rent ..
We settled here in September  just before school started in 1989.. um Lameie house was special... Baba started making some wooden stuff , bookshelves and shelves for toys and he made a wooden frame for a closet and i covered it with a bed sheet { a Cannon flwer printed sheet Pink in color} and we hung in it a silk line for hangers, we managed without a fridge first because in winter food lasts and we brought our fridge from beirut later and the oven range ,Abed, my husband bought  me a new washing machine, a white westing house big top loading machine  ,that was a treat for me  so i finish laundry easier but it turned out to be trouble that washing machine needs stable electricity and it kept bugging me so i washed most of the times in the  twin tub washing machine .
We bought a heavycast iron sobiya (heater) that used wood , and we bought a  and a regular  one that uses gasoline  , the sobiya was a must there , and Abed  bought a saw and a good axe .
I brought  my sewing  machine from Beirut  and 3 or four trunks of clothing for the girls , at first we put the clothes  in Pampers diaper boxes  each of the girls  had a box .
The girls except for Bayan   attended OMEC ,Bayan  was not school age yet , tthe kids didnt like school at first,  they were nicknamed as Beyrutis ,,, .... It was an experience for us all ,my husband was in beirut when a big  snowstorm hit, and of course i didnt expect him to come to gazze , i have a car with me , a Plymouth volare an american car and he usually drives the datsun to Beirut , because it saves fuel , and we dont have to pay a lot for gas .. Dahr Albaydar was closed ,two days, three days and no sign of the road openning or the storm  ceasing . kids stayed home,  no school , even the milkman didnt make  his ususl morning route ,so my neighbor would give me the milk free of charge knowing that iconsume milk products , labneh and yougurt and   ,hence  it doesnt spoil . i kept some milk in two cooking pots in the snow covering the car  well it kept well and  i made all these labneh balls, and  jarred them in oil,  because all this milk  would not keep for long .  My daughter reminded me lately : " do you still remember ?   55 liters of milk or 11 pails
" With no signs of hope i grew desperate , i know  Abed would be worried how we are managing , i thank god that my mom was visitng us and got stuck with us , that gave  us some support in cutting wood and managing extra milk and the stories and the cuddling of the kids ...
Phones would have been  helpful but  it was out of mind to have  a phone during the war and in Beqaa.
It was Thursday ,   The sky was clear but it was white with cotton like clouds and its going  to snow as it shows, though it was sunny ,  so before it did we took some carpets out to  air them from humidity inside and to clean them from black soot that sometimes seeps through corners , i was mopping when i heard  keys tapping on the window, HIS regular tapping sound , i shouted telling the kids ija Daddy, but i didnt hear any car,  well a car can't move anyway, roads are packed by knee-high snow.... Then we heard the door knocking, it was him He came ,his face was red and nose bluish from the cold he came through Syria, my father drove him to Tripoli and there he took cabs  to Homs then to Baalbak then to Gazze , it was the  best he did  and thought of ,  Baba was in beirut without mama but now  we knew that they kept daily trials to come  to Gazze but no use , the  storm  lasted for ten or twelve days  well it doesnot  matter to me how long it lasts now ,and the schools were off for a month . February was a  no school  month this year,  Baba came  after 15 days to take  mama to Beirut .. Now i talk about the memory but back then i was in such a fuss that i couldnot talk ..