TRANSCRIPT OF SPOKEN WORD IN BOMBS OF BEIRUT (2014)

Editor: Mary Kouyoumdjian

I. Before the War

VOICE 1

I always fantasize about Lebanon before the Civil War

And I think about my parents, how they grew up

And the pictures that I have from when they were kids and my grandmother’s stories

I just wish that that could’ve continued on instead of having the Civil War

I just imagine what an amazing place Lebanon would be right now

It’s just a completely different world than what it was destined to be

VOICE 2

I was born in 1950 in Beirut

There was no war during that time

I remember my childhood having [a] very peaceful life

Before the war it was a very normal life

No matter which neighborhood or which part of Beirut you were [in]

You can visit to any area of Beirut

There was no such thing that you will be scared to go [to] certain areas

You were free to go anywhere anytime in the middle of the night

Parties, restaurants, or you go to a movie, after the movie, after midnight

You go to any restaurant to eat, you come home in the morning four o’clock

Sometimes you don’t even come home four o’clock, you go for breakfast early morning

Then you come home

It’s a little Paris of [the] Middle East, because all over from different Arab countries…

Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Iraq, Egypt

No matter where you were in the Middle East

People used to come [in the] summertime to Lebanon

The life in Beirut

We were born there

VOICE 3

I was born [on] July 18, 1962

What I remember of the War?

I was in a monastery

I was sent to a monastery because apparently I was a very good boy

To become a priest

But it wasn’t the War; it was the prelude to the War

It was like three… four days they were fighting and whatnot

And the monastery was set up on the hills and

We were watching the gunfire actually going back from one side to the other side

But that was the prelude to the war, and I think it started in ’75

It really exploded

They were collecting everybody and anybody that could hold a gun

Little kids with weapons bigger and taller than their own heights

By the time the War was going to start, I was shipped to Cyprus with my other two older brothers

So we were actually in Cyprus when the war erupted in Beirut

One of the good things that my father did was to ship us to Cyprus

Otherwise we would probably be in some group fighting and probably dead by now

II. The War

VOICE 4

I was born in 1979

I left Lebanon in 1994

VOICE 5

I was born on June 8, 1983

We left Lebanon in 1990

At the time I was born, there was no war

VOICE 1

I remember

VOICE 5

I remember

VOICE 4

I saw everything

VOICE 1

I remember my neighbors, I remember our house

Every room in the house, the backyard and the chickens

I have a lot of good memories

VOICE 4

Growing up at war I think

Because I was younger and my parents... they did a fantastic job

They kept us in a positive happy environment

It was kind of fun sometimes

We didn’t have to go to school

VOICE 5

When you’re five, when you’re six… you don’t really know what’s going on

I didn’t feel any fear, or I didn’t think I was in danger

I would think that that’s our life

You’re a kid

VOICE 2

The main war started in ’75, 1975

Because when we planned our wedding, our date was in May and

We didn’t expect that fighting would start then

We had to postpone the wedding because the church...

It was in the same area where the fighting started

VOICE 3

It was very, very strange coming from Cyprus back to Beirut

Where they’ve had three… four years of war already

Civil War

We couldn’t wait until daylight because that night was the darkest night

I mean I’ve never seen black that black

All the lights where off and everything

Apparently there was a ceasefire

But we couldn’t sleep… me and my two older brothers

Because we could hear the gunfire and rockets zooming by

VOICE 2

In ’76 I had my first child: your brother

And during the pregnancy we had the same thing

On and off... the fighting

Luckily the hospital was right next to our area, so

Even while I was having the baby

The bombs were everywhere

They had to move my bed from one area to another

To keep me safe

Of course there were other people too

But I after I had the baby, I had to go home

To feel safer, to be with my family

People... they continued their normal lives, but

Any day, any small reason can start the fighting again

And that’s what happened… on and off

VOICE 3

At that time we had never seen so much weapons and tanks and M-16s

As we moved deeper into the city going home

We realized what’s been going on there

All the buildings destroyed

Then we started hearing stories about how they were killing people on the street

When it really, really got bad, we used to go down to the basement

Basically the whole building used to go down

VOICE 2

Whenever there [are] bombs going on

Everybody with kids, older people

Everybody has to go down

Everybody’s in the basement, so

The bomb came from the parking side through that open window

He is a tall guy and he was standing, keeping everybody quiet and calm

Kids they cry, and you know... it’s a chaos

They know... the kids are scared, they cry

He was trying to calm everybody

And what happened is when the bomb came from that side

He was the only one that was standing on his feet

So the bomb came from that opening and... right to his both legs

That’s how he lost his both legs

VOICE 5

A bomb hit my building and my dad was injured

He actually lost his legs

VOICE 3

You could see windows that had all these bullet holes around it and then [these] big old holes next to it

And we were just sitting on our beds and watching the city and

Seeing bullets flying from one side to the other side

Some were green and some were red

We were like “Wow! This can’t be war. This is like almost Christmas... fireworks or something!”

But it wasn’t

The most interesting part was that when we were going sleep actually

When they were firing their tanks and whatnot

You could hear the sound

But then, ’cause I guess cause it was so quiet or something

You could almost hear the rumbling of stones or buildings falling down

We knew that it couldn’t be good

It couldn’t have been good

VOICE 1

The whole building was gonna come down cause the bombs are so powerful

A bomb goes off and the shockwave from this bomb just rushed through me

And I opened my eyes, and I just see the room, swaying like a wave almost

I can just see the air in the room, in waves, in and out

VOICE 2

You can hear that it’s coming close to you

The sound that it makes, the bomb, you know it’s coming to your side and

You get ready by closing your ears or covering your head

You know it’s going to hit somewhere close to you

But for us, it was like just staying between walls in the house

You know that it’s going and it’s going to hit and as soon as it hits

You can hear the sound…

VOICE 4

…sounds like boom!

And the whistling sound and the loud explosion

VOICE 5

I could hear it, for example, it’s like

Hearing very loud thunderstorms

That’s the memory I have of the bombs

VOICE 2

Very powerful

You see something black is just passing through

If it’s at night, you can feel the fire

The light coming out of the bomb

III. After the War

VOICE 1

It is home

Makes me happy

VOICE 5

I have never been back to Beirut since I left

VOICE 4

I think they have good life there

VOICE 3

To stay there, for whatever reason, to protect their home

To not leaves their homes and have to live through this hell

These people lived through Civil War

VOICE 2

You can see after the War lots of buildings

Half of it gone

It was very emotional because

You lived in those neighborhoods and

You go through those neighborhoods and

You remember your childhood

Your good days [that] you were there