Summer in the Mountains

Khaled helps Yusef with his chicken kebab

There's been at least one bright spot in all the bad news from Lebanon. With so many many tourists scared away by a recent terrorist bombing campaign, my driver Khaled was able to rent a vacant apartment in the mountains so that his family could escape the heat, humidity and tension that have descended upon Beirut.

Not that it was easy to find a summer rental. Mountain folks, who tend to be Druze or Christian, are increasingly wary of strangers, especially Shia Muslims, who are are on the opposite side of Lebanon's current political and sectarian divide. Though Khaled and his family are Sunni Muslims, he only found this place because a friend of his wife lives in the same town and could vouch for his character.

Khaled still has to work with me down in Beirut during the week, but as a special occasion we drove up for dinner with the family last night. Seeing how excited his three children were when he arrived -- "Babba!" they shouted -- reminded me of waiting anxiously for my own father to arrive at the beach on summer weekends when I was a child.

During last summer's war with Israel, Khaled's youngest son, Yusef (who was six years-old at the time) got so scared by the sound of Israeli bombs hitting Beirut that the boy spent several nights sleepless and vomiting. This summer, the only thing keeping him up at night will be the sound of frogs croaking from a nearby creek. Insh'allah.

--Andrew Lee Butters/Beirut