Listening to F-16s & What's going to happen

On my way up the stairs to make copies, I saw two teachers standing next to an open window. Listening.

"What's going on?"

"We're just listening to the F-16s."

"Okay." Before the war, I would have walked on unperterbed. But today I'm slightly more perturbed. I saw on the front page of The Daily Star that the Israelis attacked a German ship "outside of Lebanese waters."

And just now I read on Yahoo! News that eight Israeli planes flew over southern Beirut and over the South. Israel refused to make any comments about it, because they won't talk about their military operations. But the Lebanese army fired some anti-aircraft stuff at them. And the French members of the UN peacekeeping forces are demanding that Israel comply with the ceasefire.

I am going to the South this weekend. I'm visiting my boyfriend's sister's fiance's village. They have many olives. They might have made a big part of their living from the olives. But now, they might all be poisoned. The government has to check all the produce coming out of the South. People have lost their livelihoods. And our, my, food supply in Beirut is surely affected.

And of course there are cluster bombs. The last three days before the ceasefire Israel just went wild--destroying factories and more bridges--trying to get it all in before the clock ran out. But the best was dropping cluster bombs, like little land mines that haven't blown up yet. I heard about 200 people have died since the ceasefire from these cluster bombs. I also heard that Israel finally gave the map of the cluster bombs to the UN last week.

But as some of you know, I've kept away from the computer and the media for the most part. I don't feel like wasting away in front of the computer anymore. (Who knows maybe I'll come back.) And as you know, my hard drive with photos, music, etc, is all messed up, and I still haven't rectified the situation.

I go into Dahiyeh a lot, too. I have pictures. On the weekends, I'm visiting my boyfriend's family who lives there. I saw the hole in the ground that used to be the two apartments his family owned in Hrat Hreik.

People were saying that maybe things will start up again when Ramadan ends. Others say it won't definately be until after January. The people in Aley think it'll be the summer.

But it's like everyone knows it's coming. "The situation is not stable." I keep telling that to the new hires. "Just keep a bag packed."

Am I sounding too over-dramatic? Not really. But like a Lebanese person, I just chose to not think about it. I mean that's the reality of life. "In sha allah (God willing), nothing will happen." But inside, we all know. We've had all kinds of drills and evacuation procedures at school. And the Internet-based Virtual School is set up. The kids all know how to access and turn in assignments. . .just in case.