WAR ON LEBANON-JULY 2006
The Ruining of the Perfect Summer
Zina Nancy Abu-Haydar
October 11, 2006

This summer I was so excited. I was going to go to basketball camp in Afqa with Deena Dalal, Dina Sharara and Jeneen. We went to camp, and it was amazing. The people we met there were so much fun, and we never wanted it to end. On the third night, we girls were staying up along with five other people, chatting and laughing in our tent. At around one thirty in the morning as we were talking, Jeneen’s phone rang. She was surprised to get the call, but she answered it anyway. It was Lara. We continued talking until we looked at Jeneen and saw her face was filled with shock. We all crowded around her and demanded to know what was happening. Jeneen told us that Lara had called and told her that bombs were hitting Lebanon, mainly in the South. We were all scared and panicking. We looked at Deena because she was dead silent. She told us that Faysal lived in the south, and we had to tell him. We each put on other peoples shoes and ran to his tent. We woke him up,
Deena said “Faysal, Faysal they are bombing the south.”
Faysal got so scared. He loudly yelled “what?!” As we were explaining the situation, Coach Bahi (my uncle who owns the camp) walked in and everyone was too scared to say a word. Bahi said “What are you doing here?”
Everyone was so scared they were unable to say a word until Deena explained the situation. He understood and sent us to our tent. We were all scared and unable to sleep. We started to talk about it and everyone was text messaging their parents asking if they were all right. The next morning we all got messages from our parents letting us know that they were all right.
We all got dressed and went up to breakfast with sad faces and heavy hearts, and we could hardly smile. During breakfast, the coaches told us that all of our families were safe and that so far they were only hitting the south and that where we were was safe. After breakfast we went up to the basketball courts and as we were playing it was my turn to sub. Coach Nicole and coach Bahi (my mom and my uncle) called me over and told me that that day (Thursday) Deena and Jeneen were going to go to Beirut. I got so annoyed because this summer I got close to both of them. I asked if there was any way they could stay but there was no way. I sat on the side unable to play. Dina came up to me and I told her what was going to happen. She froze in shock and decided to sit with me because she could not play either. We watched them play until it was time for them to take a water break, and coach Mira (my aunt, Bahi’s wife), took the time to announce the news. People started crying and we were all crowded around the two until they got pulled away to camp to start packing. An hour later we rushed back to camp hoping they were still there. Luckily they were, but not for long. They left soon after we had gotten there to say our goodbyes, and we called them many many times after that because camp was not the same without them and all the other people that had left as well. Everyday we would hear more and more news until it got to the point where the war was serious. By the end of the week we were about 10 people out of 40 but we made it fun by singing songs and trying to keep our spirits high…it helped us forget what was going on in the country and remember the we had each other. But that was about to change. On Saturday, Jeneen called us and told us that she was going to leave Lebanon and had no idea if she was ever going to come back. Soon after Deena called and told us the same thing. That was when it hit us; there was a war and we could not forget it because now it was taking the people we loved and cared about away from us. We were crying, and it was insane. Then Dina got a call from her parents telling her that she was going to stay with my family until they could get a hold of her because, unlike my sister, dad, and dog Rusty who joined us at camp, the Shararas were unable to come to camp because it was several hours away from the city. Finally, on Sunday, the week at camp was over, and the five of us along with my aunt’s family, went to the village where we are from (Hammana). Luckily Dina was from a village near by so her family was able to pick her up that afternoon. Four days after that my mom, my sister and I had to leave to Dubai for safety, leaving dad and Rusty in the village. It was such a sad day but that is another sad story for another assignment.