Hi! Just a quick update from me. Last weekend I was invited to the country home of one of my students. It’s about an hour outside of Quito…lots of families have their country homes, a place to escape the city on the weekends. This family, from Lebanon has a beautiful (palace is one way to describe it!) home- way over the top-a pool, sauna, outdoor grill, pizza oven, outdoor seating all overlooking the Andes.
Claudine, the wife, loves to cook and entertain, so she went all out to prepare the best foods of her country. We started with a salad course, hummus, handmade pita, empanadas, fresh fruit. Then was the meat course-marinated chicken and lamb on the grill with a lemon and garlic. The seasonings were perfect…Then a huge platter of rice with almonds, lamb, pistachios. When we thought that was enough…she brings out three desserts. Layers of crepes with fresh peaches and cream, pistachio flan and chocolate cookies and finally Arabic coffee! A feast indeed…
Along with me, was the director of our school and his wife, another Lebanese couple and an Ecuadorian couple. I think there were about 10 of us in all. It was an interesting mix of Spanish, English, and Arabic (Spanish being the unifying language…although not really the mother tongue of any of us!). The conversation didn’t get too deep. I asked about the violence in their part of the world, with Syria being in the news so much and Lebanon being so close. According to the family, Lebanon is peaceful and they are planning to spend the summer months there. Of course, it’s their country and they speak of it as a paradise. I believe the man is a cloth merchant…he’s been here for years and years, but like immigrants everywhere longs for his country and maintains his traditions. They did speak about the times during the war when they had run through the streets to avoid getting shot. That’s when he decided to leave and come to Ecuador to sell his cloth. Actually, I learned that there is a small population of Lebanese here…mostly merchants, business people and that Ecuador has had two presidents of Lebanese descent. All this was to illustrate that “Lebanese are the most successful people where ever in the world they go.”
I felt blessed to have been invited by this wonderful family for a great afternoon of conversation and delicious food.
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