Thursday, November 4th by Tom Garber

Beirut Nov 4^th

The survey is now about done and it is clear that I-TEC could really make a difference here and improve the electrical safety for these kids in a major way. Lord willing, we will return with a team sometime in the future if all continues here as it is right now.  Only God knows for sure what will happen, but the sense here, is that something is going to change very soon and not for the good.   

Today was a material exploration day.  It involved almost 4 hours of narrow streets, heavy traffic and what can best be described as controlled madness.  Everyone counts on the other person being just as aggressive as they are and only the person with the loudest horn the least amount of eye contact and basically the most ambition gets to go where he wants to go undamaged. Well, almost undamaged. We were only hit one time with a person who passed a parking spot and then decided to back into it with us on his bumper.  A quick look for damage, a few adjectives, (not sure if that holds true in Arabic or not),

a short display of hand and arm motions and back in line with traffic again.  There are many traffic signals here, but they seem to only be suggestions as no one ever stops when it turns red. 

Well all in all, it was a good day as we were able to find a good quality electrical supply house and we now have a contact that we can email with a material list.  He gave me two CD’s with all the material listed in Arabic along with pictures.  Anyone want to interpret?  

Linda had a much quieter day as she again worked in the school helping the boys with there English reading and getting to know the kids.  There are mostly boys here and they are all boys when it comes to being active.  It’s good they have a large play ground with lots of basketball and activity areas.  One down side is that everything is concrete. We are on a hill, as are most of the residents of Beirut, and when you look out, all you see is 6 to 15 story buildings, one against another. 

Maybe it’s just that most of our projects are in rural bush environments as this seems so extremely different. The need is very real and tonight the director is going to take Linda and I on a drive to show us where many of these kids come from.  I’m sure it will not be a very uplifting evening.  The outer covering of materialism is just as fake here as it is in the US.

It’s time to go, so check back tomorrow.  If the internet is on……..

Serving Together,

Tom and Linda