Lebo Land Part 3

All,

I am writing this in the car on the way back from sepnding most of th days ip in the mountains, Dala tells me its a very atypical lebo day, and if so this is the side of lebo culture that i admire. I went with Dala, Mohammad and Mohammads mother, Ma’aam as Mohammads has instructed me to call her, which is weird because for friends mothers in my usual culture of indo-bengali its common to call your friends mum as Auntie, so it feels a bit weird. Anyway regardless of what I call her, I think shes brilliant! So friendly and welcoming, you hear of Arab hospitality but you really see it with her and her family. Mohammad has a house in a small village called Ainab which is in the mountains of Lebanon, and his whole family come here every weekend and Dala told me her family do the same, the Grandparents kinda own the homes but all the children from all sides of the family come and its a really family atmosphere, and the spend the whole day from young to old, eating, smoking shisha, playing badminton, walking about and just talking.
I saw so many animals, one hell of a scary dog that surprising to me Dala was less scared than me but then again for the people who have seen me with dogs will know how shit scared i get! There were rabbits, roosters and rumours of snakes though im pretty sure Mo was referring to Jts infamous reference to snakes...
I went camera crazy today as did Dala and ended up takingover 200 photos in the space of a few hours which boarders on the ridiculous really lol but there was jus so many wicked photos to be had, especially ones captain the animated Lebanese characters!
I also met this guy whos Mohammads friend who was a Maronite and then reverted to Islam. He had some stories and told me how he couldn’t tell his parents at first and that even now 12 years on they don’t acknowledge it and he has to becareful who seems him at the mosque, inshallah the effort he is putting in will be rewarded because it seems like he has alot tribulations. HE told me it took his brother who is also a revert to speak to him for only 3 days of talking with his brother to believe he was following what wasn’t right for him and what is right for him, its reallt amazing always to speak to reverts, as they are often so passionate but the ones i met in the UK have most of the time don’t need to hide their new faith but in a country which is so divided by what is in your heart that any betraly in this aspect really is like a death curcse!

Aneway I best go but will keep u updated inshallah as I head to Syria in a couple of days!