Exploring Beirut (Photo: Emily O'Dell)
Falling to pieces (Photo: Emily O'Dell)
A house that lacks, seemingly, mistress and master,
With doors that none but the wind ever closes,
Its floor all littered with glass and with plaster;
It stands in a garden of old-fashioned roses…
— Robert Frost
On my way home today from volunteering at the Children’s Cancer Center in Beirut, I stopped in a vacant courtyard to explore several abandoned homes. Most of the hollowed out houses in Beirut were left behind during the civil war–and the old furniture and objects still residing inside evoke a time that most would like to forget.
When I peeked inside of the home with the teal shutters above, I was surprised to find that its beautiful tile floor was intact–though it was covered with garbage and dust. A dirty mattress in the corner suggested that some squatters had taken up residence–making me wonder what number of Syrian refugees have sought shelter in Beirut’s bombed out homes. What sad irony that homes like these, abandoned during the civil war in Lebanon, are now serving as sanctuaries for Syrians leaving behind homes of their own–as the civil war in Syria rages on…
Stepping into the past (Photo: Emily O'Dell)
