mercredi, juillet 19, 2006

An english translation of the e-mail below from Katerine...sorry...my translating skills aren't up to par...so...obviously the words "lost in translation" are fitting. please continue to pray for Katerine and Vaughan.


On Saturday morning, we left the residence to live with the other Canadians in Hamra, in case of a possible evacuation of our group of interns. After leaving some superfluous baggage and packing the food we had purchased at the beginning of the week, Genvieve and i left our rooms and Vaughan accompanied us to live near to the American Hospital in Beyruth. In our new quarters, we were a bit closer to the Muslim part of the city and it might have been thought that being closer to the bombings was a bad thing. But, it must be understood that the American hospital and university are considered as american territory, and thus, it isn't believed that Israel would send bombs here. The trip between Achrafyieh and Hamra was rich with emotion. The driver took small streets and just when we hit the highway, we heard bombings. We took the first exit. In passing, we saw a couple kissing on the side of the highway. It hit me that at moments like these, we realize that human relationships are the most important things in life. I wish i could have captured that moment on camera with the caption: "haven't we always thought that love is the solution for war?"

...

Sometimes, we remain surprised by the occasional news breakdown...but at the heart of it, the worst, is waiting. waiting for news, waiting for the day to end...the war has paralyzed us all. Everything that we were doing seems futile because we know that we will not be staying here.
...

Our building is now practically empty. The 20 other students that came from different parts of the world have already been evacuated. If i'm not wrong, there isn't more than 3 girls from France, one girl from Kuwait, one Sudanese and a Danish-Lebanese. As for us, its difficult to keep in touch with our ambassador because everyone is using the line at all times, and so the phone is always tied up. They keep sending us the same message: "Stay inside, do not move for anything, do not go to public places."... Yesterday we received our first call from them to tell us that there is a boat for the Canadians to leave on, starting tomorrow. Upon hearing this, we were already set to go...however, now, we have learned that they have to evacuate infants and people with priority first. It could take another couple of days for our turn to arrive.

1 commentaires:

Anonyme a dit...

thanks for putting this up for us