where is noah

Well, I would apologize for taking so long to make a post, but it is becoming so common that I figure everyone is getting accustomed to the long delays. Things have been very busy here in Lebanon. I am still in the search of an apartment that is reasonable priced. Plus, after being here for two months I have realized that I do not want to live in Beirut proper. It is quite possibly the most disorganized city I have seen. There are times it will take 2 or 3 hours to get across town, which is only about 10 km (6 miles). I think a suburb would be just as good, but I’ve been told that I should wait until the summer when it gets scorching hot then everyone will move up into the mountains and there will be lots of good places for a cheap price. Also, after a year and a half of living in the middle east I decided to get a car. I think I have finally gotten used to the “driving” here enough to feel confident enough to drive. I never thought that all the racing video games (especially grand theft auto) I played would actually help me in real life. However, basically the way things work here is that you forget everything you learned about rules and drive like it is every man for himself, because it is. The only rule you follow is “also pay attention”. You never know when some guy on a motor scooter will come flying up the road going against traffic, or someone will pull out in front of you without warning. In light of these conditions I decided to get something small (so I can fit into the non-existent parking spaces in Beirut) yet something that is strong. I was going to get a Jeep, but after thinking and praying about it decided it against it. Instead I found a Toyota Rav4. I thought I was getting a decent deal when I bought it, only to find out that the guy who sold it is quite possibly the biggest cheat and liar in Beirut (which is saying something). In addition to the mandatory government inspection, I even took the car to a mechanic before buying it. I later found out that the guy bribed both the mechanic and the government official to tell me the car was good. Anyway, to make a long story short, I got a car that needed some work, which for those of you who know me is nothing new, in fact if I ever had a car that didn’t need work I wouldn’t know what to do with it. I sure miss my mechanic tools though…

On a more positive side, my back is getting better, much slower than I want, but I can at least move around with relative freedom. I still can’t play sports or do anything too strenuous lest the pain comes back. Right now I just have a light, constant pain through my left leg. I am hoping that with time it will go away too.

I’ve been able to make a few trips down to the some of the villages in the southern part of Lebanon. It is very pretty there, and we met lots of people. However, we ran into some problems with a certain extremist group that has hence temporarily disallowed me from entering certain areas. The most important thing to know in lebanon is to expect the unexpected.

Another positive thing is that I finally got internet access. After being told by nearly everyone that there is no wireless internet in Lebanon (by wireless I mean the microwave based internet technology), I met a guy who has wireless internet. So I went down to the company, and in two days got hooked up with a USB wireless modem that works in all the major cities of Lebanon. It is not super fast, but fast enough. So I guess I have no excuse to not write more blog posts.

The pictures are from what remains of the famous Cedars of Lebanon. There is only about 10 acres of them left...pretty sad.