liar-men and heroes
i love these photos of us. i took them on the day we went to baalbek. we are sitting on the steps inside the temple of baachus which is amazingly quite intact. look at us. so beautiful--full of love and life and joy in each other.
i'm missing him. i pray he's safe and well and that he finds a good place to live. is he safe? is he safe? is he safe? it rings like a bell in my head. almost 2 days without contact...how did people survive before? when letters were the fastest mode of communication? it's a kind of torture--the not knowing.
we went to baalbek when we were staying in tripoli. after mohammad got permission to stay in lebanon for 15 more days, he agreed we could go. it was not easy to get to. we could hire a taxi to take us there but that was too pricey. so we went the way of the people--mini bus. mini buses travel up and down all the highways. you stand on the side of the road and they pick you up. we had to mini bus back to beirut and then from there mini bus to baalbek. baalbek is in the east towards the border with syria. you drive up and over the mountains. the views were pretty stunning but i didn't take any shots. we had to switch mini buses a 2nd time. many taxi drivers and min bus drivers are less than honest and one must be wary of them charging too much or not taking one to the destination promised etc. this greatly aggrieves jozi who gives all such charlatans the epitaph 'liar-man'. so after 3 hours or so we made it to baalbek. to the area where mini buses drop off and taxis wait to pick up. a guy targeted us. the worst kind of liar-man. he promised us many things but once we were in his car and on our way his demands for more and more money escalated. his demands were outrageous. i didn't know until after we got out what was being said, but i could tell by the way they were arguing what was going on. it had happened enough times to know. liar-men really put jozi in a bad mood. he hates baalbek and everyone in baalbek is bad, this is why he didn't want to go to baalbek, there aren't people like this in syria, etc etc.
but once we reached the roman ruins and started exploring and taking photos we forgot (momentarily on jozi's part) about the baddies and lost ourselves in the wonders of the ancient ruins. we found a little turtle. we posed, i asked jozi to jump, which he did, and we oohed and ahhed and immersed ourselves in the experience.
afterwards a nice man helped us find a shawerma shop. so not everyone in baalbek was bad, something i remind jozi of every time he starts winding himself up on the liar-men of baalbek topic. the thing is, jozi would never ever hurt anyone or cause anyone harm so the bad actors really get his goat, my sweet gentle lover.
looking at these photos brings me back to those moments of joy lost in that world and lost in each other. the liar-men are all part of the adventure. if there were no villains there'd be no hero. and for me...a 55 year old science teacher who says 'mostiqwo' and chemistry with the ch sound, who peels my oranges eagerly, takes out my hair elastics without pulling out a hair, who gives me his most delicious bites, steadies me over uneven roads and sings me happy birthday in the sweetest, purest way, who sleeps cold because i was hot, who makes me laugh when i am sad, wipes away my tears and his own too, because my tears make him cry, who frets over my medications and cpap machine, who sacrifices day in and day out for me and puts my well-being first--that guy--he's a hero.
God watch over my love. keep him safe. comfort him. give him courage. bring him back to me.
Comments