Election Sunday

My sister and I woke up at 10 relaxed.

Everyone else was already up, my dad's thumb was even purple. Purple thumb is the sign that he has already voted.

We decided to have breakfast first and then head to the church where elections were taking place in our small village Rejmeh in the area of Aley.

It was such a nice morning, Celine and I sat on the balcony overlooking the garden. A magnolia flower decorated the table. Inside, on the other table Zanba2 Mar Youssef smelled so beautifully. Ralph joined us trying to convince us to vote to the party he supports giving us hints and clues, suggesting names and defending his cause.

After an hour or so, Celine and I decided to dress up, go vote and then go pick up peaches (درّاقنات mom called them).

Then before I leave, I went to Ralph and told him: "I will vote زيّ ما ..." He was so excited and he put his "not purple yet" thumbs up. So I continued: " ... Dad voted." Dad does not support any party and he didn't vote for a full list; neither زيّ nor متل.

Ralph decided to join us to go and vote. As we walked towards the church, he was giving us his last recommendations full of hope. Khalo Toni, Antoinette and Gaby were there. Gaby's thumb was not purple yet. We searched on the lists for our names, my name was there so I am ready to go in!

The officer on the door checked my ID and he let me in. I was smiling unwillingly, maybe because it was the first time I vote, maybe because I was still undecided who I should vote for, maybe because I was wondering what my vote will change or maybe because I was hoping it will...

Inside there were around 10 people. I asked to whom I should give my ID, they all pointed to a guy. I gave it to him, he looked at it then at me and asked me: "Is your name Mirna?" I smiled even more to his question. He was not smiling so I wiped the smile of my face and replied "yes". He then read my name aloud, the others (representatives of each party) put a mark next to it, a mark that I came to vote and one of them-a woman- told me: "You are the youngest voter here..." Another woman added: "The youngest and the most beautiful!" Of course that last line had a clear purpose: buy my vote. Though I knew that woman, I did not know which party she was supporting.

I went behind the black curtain, took the pencil and wrote the names, I was worried I am taking too long in there, then I was worried the pencil was not the right choice of pen I should use. I wrapped the paper anyway, put it in the envelope and went out and placed it in the box.

Then the ink! A sign that I have indeed voted and to ensure that I won't come to vote again using a fake ID- I barely wanted to vote that first time! That ink took a week to disappear. It became the subject of all talks, the status of many of my friends on Facebook. Thanks to red nail polish I was able to hide the few that was stuck on the border of my nails.

The guy who asked me my name and did not smile asked celine if she was left-handed- we still don't know how he knew she could be a left-handed- so her right thumb joined the purple thumb party.

A conversation about the purple thumbs with 2 of my friends on Monday June 8th at 9.30 PM
Ingrid says:
how was ur voting experience?
mirna says:
hmm 3adi
mirna says:
i hate the ink thoughhhhhh
Karen says:
ca vaa pas maal
Ingrid says:
what did u hate?
mirna says:
ma birou7!!!
mirna says:
ink!!
Ingrid says:
wi ana kamen ba3do
Ingrid says:
ouiiiiiii
Karen says:
ana jarrabet kell chi la chi el iink
Karen says:
raho now
mirna says:
ino from my thumb ok but nails!!!
mirna says:
contour
Ingrid says:
oui moi aussi
Karen says:
esaaaie el acetone
mirna says:
oui i did bs contour c tro dur
mirna says:
et under nails!!
Ingrid says:
ouiiiiiiii
Karen says:
heheh mets vernis rouge bi batlo mbaynin
mirna says:
oui i though about that
Ingrid says:
hehehehe mni7a

After voting we went straight to pick some peaches. We climbed on the trees and brought two types one with hair and the other without any hair on the outside. I volunteered to climb the tree and get every single peach, we had to pick them all because dad wanted to put some kind of bug killer chemical so we won't be able to pick the peaches or eat them for a while.

Celine's fiance Stratis came with 2 other greek friends and one lebanese friend. They were touring around looking at how elections were going in different areas. Rejmeh was not a hot spot for elections, but definitely worth coming there for a good meal.

Main dish was Moughrabiyeh! Of course there was Tabouleh, hommos, loubyeh, kebbeh nayyeh, and much more.

Recipe for a deicious sunday meal.

You need:

-A bag of Moughrabiyyeh

-Chickpeas

-Meat (موزات غنم و بقر)

-Chicken

-Onions

-lots of spices

*Boil the meat and/or chicken (if using both boil each apart), remove the upper layer of water with that comes out after boiling.

*Add salt, pepper, cinnamon sticks (2 sticks), onion (2-3 small ones).

*Fry the moughrabiyyeh in a pan with a little bit of oil, add the gravy and let the moughrabiyyeh boil for few minutes. Wash it with cold water when it's done. (jut like pasta!)

*Add spices(salt, pepper, cinnamon) to taste

*Pour the meat and chicken on the Moughrabiyyeh and serve hot!

We spent all afternoon and night in from of the TV, looking at results. The results, interstingly enough, varried widely from one channel to another. Channels suporting 14th of March said they were winning and channels supporting 8th of March said they were winning.

I didn't care much honestly but at times I would get worried. What if they get into a fight, what if we go into war, what ifs and what ifs. But I managed to fall asleep at 11pm.

The next day I woke up and when I saw dad I asked him who won? He said: "14th of March won the majority."

A day in Rejmeh just like no other

Just like many other Sundays we woke up had our breakfast and up in the car to Rejmeh.

Rejmeh:

Mom was standing there with Jaco and Antoinette prepared to go plant/flower shopping. I went up and had an orange and discussed with Amanda how much the orange peel needs to disintegrate (I just googled it 2-5 weeks).

Then we went upstairs and stood on the balcony. We thought we saw Razouk, he was putting on some fire in the old dead plants. Surprisingly, the fire seemed to be getting bigger and bigger. Ralph and Amanda went there to check it out. Five minutes later I was there with 10 other people trying to put down the fire. "Woslet 3l khawkhet!!". Fortunatly we were able to put it off on time -after10-15 minutes- only a part of the apricots were burnt, but dad says that most probably they won't be able to give any fruits, we'll have to wait and see.

Then it was Jako coming back with flowers to say sorry! I was the one who planted them next to the big rock in the garden: "Nakashna, zara3na, tamayna w s2ina... Lots of water is needed!"

But where is Ralph? He is with Razouk, one of the chickens was jumping "min jal la jal" and she got lost... Ralph and Razouk were trying to get her back but she was scared and she flew further away.

Finally it was time for lunch, good food: Mloukhieh and Shawarma on the menu. And of course at 3p.m., while we were still eating, Khalo Elias (my dad's uncle) came to visit us for Easter. He can barely hear, but he is one of the nicest old men I know.

A good sleep was what I really needed at that point, the house was colder than the outside but the cover on my parent's bed was warm enough.

After an hour I woke up to some sounds. Dad, Fany, Ralph and Amanda were cleaning the cars. Better than "Troumba" cleaning. I was there at the point where they decided to vacuum the inside!

At 6p.m., no more electricity, no more vacuum.

We decided to have a walk "3ind khweli". They were sitting down there chatting. Finally Ralph told Khalo about the missing chicken and they decided to take the hunting dogs and go search for it.

We all went down to Jako's along with Pepper and Rocky. Pepper and Rocky were running down and up and uo and down and peeing on the side of the road defining their territories.We had to go down, near our "Shemeh, ta7et bil jlouleh" the dogs were running, khalo was throwing rocks and they would go try to get it. After more than 20 unsuccessful "Yalla Pepper, Rocky rou7 jiba" we decided to give up.Too bad she used to "tbid bayda" everyday!

We went up to Jako's, tasted her "ma3moul"- "tamer" from my side.

It was already 7p.m. so it was time to go back down to normal Beirut. Result of this day: A broken nail and a lost earing.