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in theory there is a pool at the compound. right now we only use it to breed mosquitos. it’s also full of little green surf dudes.

Montag, 1. August 2004

Blutsauger, Räuber und angewandte Physik

Wir ham das ganze Wochenende gebuddelt wie verrückt und habens wirklich geschafft komplett in die neue Wohnung umzusiedeln. Totaler Sieg auf allen Fronten. Der grösste Durchbruch waren die superdünnen Vorhänge von Ikea die wir zerschnitten und als Moskitonetze mit der Klammerlmaschine an die Fensterrahmen gehämmert haben. Jetzt haben wirs angenehm frisch und kühl und die lästigen Blutsauger sitzen draussen und schaun rein.

In der Nacht von Freitag auf Samstag ist in der Firma eingebrochen worden. Aus dem Safe sind fast $70.000.- gestohlen worden. Sieht so aus als hätte jemand die Schlüssel gehabt was wiederum heisst das die Versicherung nicht zahlen wird. O la la, ich glaub da werden ein paar Köpfe rollen.

In der Arbeit werd ich schon schön langsam zugeschneit mit lauter Sachen die zu tun sind. Ist schon bald vorbei mit der klaren Übersicht des unbeteiligten Beobachters. Den Effekt hab ich ja schon öfter beobachten können. In einem neuen Job oder nach einer längeren Pause liegt alles klar vor dir ausgebreitet, wie auf einer Karte. Du siehst alle Zusammenhänge und Schwachstellen, sprühst generell vor Ideen und hast so viele Verbesserungs-Vorschläge dass du allen anderen, die ja immerhin schon mehrere Jahre und auch nicht grundlos so dahinwursteln, auf die Nerven gehst. Und genau diese kühle Distanz kommt mir jetzt schön langsam vorhanden und indirekt proportional zur Länge meiner To-Do Liste wird die Übersicht wieder weniger. Ich nehm das allerdings als gutes Zeichen dass ich schön langsam Teil der Partie werde. Die Kunst wär halt auch im Alltag willentlich in die Vogelperspektive umschalten zu können.

Apropos Vogelperpektive, denselben hat der gute Josef heute abgeschossen. Nachdem er uns schon auf dem Weg in die Arbeit angerufen hat ob wir eh kommen weil er braucht das Auto haben wir die Kiste dann am Abend mit Patschen vorgefunden. Danke Josef. Wahrscheinlich ist er eh nur damit an den Strand gefahren zum abhängen. Sieht so aus als würd ich diesen Blog hauptsächlich dazu benutzen meine Mitarbeiter schlecht zu machen. Na, wo ich doch allen Grund hab! Nevermind, der Reifen war gleich geflickt, hat ganze $3.- gekostet und eine halbe Stunde gedauert, noch Zeit einen neuen Strand zu entdecken. Wen ich jetzt noch tanken auf Arabisch lerne dann bin ich wahrlich unabhängig.

One of the best things about being with Ale is that she really cracks me up. Right now she is pacing the house with her brand new fly-clap, much more efficient than the old kitchen towel, mercilessly hunting down mosquitos, her arch-enemies. While doing that she is holding a monologue for several minutes, expanding in great detail on how we are terrorized into being afraid of the sun. Ab-so-lu-tely ri-di-cu-lous, all this pa-ra-noi-a that we are exposed to. When I start giggling she gets aggitated, aksing what’s funny? How can I explain to her?

Today we got lucky, we got the flat above ours, the one with the terrase with the unbelievable view out onto the sea. The appartment is wicked and has two different levels. When the sun sets the whole living room is flooded in red light, it’s really special. So we started cleaning it up right away and moving some of our stuff in. Tomorrow we’ll do the rest, if we can move the stove and the washing machine up the stairs that is.

Yesterday night after work we went to Jeita, probably the biggest cave I have ever seen, certainly the most beautiful one. In the lower grotto they take you on a boat trip on an underground lake, it’s fantastic. There we met Elias, a 22 year-old, multilingual tour guide. He is a staunch supporter of the Lebanese Front, a Christian fundamentalist, has a gun, a knive and a baseball bat in his car and a few more automatic weapons back home, just in case, and is a real fast-talker. We ended up going for a drink with him and ran into a concert of the Four Cats, the local girl-band that specialises in warming up old popular songs and presenting them in a mega-cheesy but somewhat progressive girl-power format. Incidentally Elias is also good at teaching Arabic and he may become our personal teacher. He also knows a lot of old stories and fairy tales.

That’s when Ale and me had the idea of starting a little story collection. I really regret not having learned story telling in Braford from Mrs. Vera. It might be nice to build up a selection of folk tales from this area. From Elias I heard this one about his grandpa:

One day Elias’ grandpa, Maroun, walked through the woods, with a big load of branches and leaves on his back for the goats, when he suddenly saw a fire and people celebrating a wedding. A beautiful young lady, obviously a forest ginni called him with his name. She gave him a stick and some sweets which he wrapped in his handkerchief. He said thank you and God bless the bride. At that moment, when he mentioned God, the whole party vanished. Maroun went home full of fear, praying aloud. But strangely, his heavy load felt light because he had the help of the magic stick. He left the stick and the branches in the stable with the goats and when he came back it had turned into a big black snake. Quickly he took out his pocket knive, killed the snake and burned it. He didn’t tell his wife. Then he called in the kids to give them the sweets, but when he unwrapped them, thay had turned to goat shit. His wife was scolding him for teasing the children and so he told her the whole story. They brought in a virgin Mary and started praying. Next day Maroun went to mass and confessed to the priest. The priest told him the he had been tested by the spirits and that it was only because of his good heart that he could get away. Had he eaten any of the sweets surely a spirit would have entered him and would have taken possession of him. Now every time Maroun goes through the woods he prays constantly and so the spirits stay away.

For the last two days we are lving in cloud castle. During the day the fog is so thick you cant see much further than 50 meters with little wafts of fogg drifting through the garden. In the evening the whole mass will settle below us covering the whole seaside and the sea so we look out onto this perfect soft white mass stretching to the horizon and only a few hilltops sticking out. Magic.

Today we had the ‘conference’ on globalization. Of course I couldnÄt understand a single word all day, what unsufferable boredom. More significantly I found out that people here have a liking for conspiracy theories and Ayman as a disliking of Jews. So cautioning him about making alliances with Hezbollah didn’t work out too well.

In the evening him and me tried to fix the solar panels and nearly ruined one. Slight improvements were made, however, at the expense of Ale’s lovingly cooked dinner getting cold. Oh well, small price to pay for some male bonding.

I get slightly annoyed with not being able to understand fuck all. That makes me try less to be involved in conversation, in fact I get pissed off at people, which creates a kind of self-reinfocing feedback-loop. Maybe some mood control combined with a little effort would work?

This morning Raimon picked us up from Ayman’s house in Ehmesh and drove us to work. There everypne was running to fix stuff for the conference. Just not Mohammed who turned up at lunch time and then fucked off again at three, still faking heavy stomach cramps, guess I’b better not get excited about the dude. He keeps my brains occupied, though. During lunch I realized his style of working is not to work towards finishing a task but to fill the time he has to spend at work. It’s been a long time that I have been around someone like him, an unpleasant reminder of jobs past I suppose. In a way we are also in a competition for the car, not sure of that can be resolved entirely amicably.

In the evening we went to Gisella’s family in Hemlaya. They were really nice, all speak fluent Italian including the granny and they served us fresh pasta. I guess that’s the only place in the whole Middle East where a treat like this is to be had. In the end we smoked a narghile, listened to the wolves howling and then they loaded us with fresh vegetable and fruit. We’ve also got a wedding invitation for 6 August – probably 500 guests, jupieh! And I am all proud that we navigate these hinterlands without roadsigns so well.

I also had a good chat with Ayman, he was very clear today and I recognised some of my own search for rootcauses. I guess it’s the spiritualist logic at work, the wish to find that one point from which one can change the world into the promised land. I should ask him if he had a religious upbringing, his New Age interests certainly indicate a seeker personality. Well, I can work with that. To understand HGSD better I really should dig my way through the archives as well as getting back to the job description he sent me. Once that conference is over we can start working on the management stuff and then a certain routine may emerge. Throwing myself in is probably the main thing, rather than thinking about how to throw myself in. Important now is also to start some regular exercise, maybe even join Josef’s club.