Another day in Beirut. It has been really swampy lately. The temperature hovers around the mid-80s, but the humidity tends to be between 80-94% (yet it pretty much doesn’t rain in summer). So the heat index will be 102F with the actual temperature at 84F. But I shouldn’t complain- it is mid-July and we still have not turned on the air conditioning. We have a great cross breeze in our apartment.

Today I spent all morning in Chatila. I brought Carrie and a journalist acquaintance of hers who is here for the week taking a break from Iraq. We talked to some people about Palestinian leadership. No one seems to be too thrilled with Mamoud Abbas. Some were angry that he came to Lebanon last week and didn’t visit a single refugee camp. There are half a million refugees here and he didn’t speak to them.

There was also a discussion about how there is no way that a Palestinian from Ain il-Helweh camp orchestrated the attempted assasination of Defense Minister Murr a few days ago (which is a prevailing theory, as well as one about how it was definitely Syria, trying to deflect blame about the other bombings, and another- which is a theory anytime anyone is killed here ever- is that it was Israel). We were also solemnly informed that Israel definitely poisoned and killed Yasser Arafat.

Later we had lunch and talked about the camp, Lebanese history, and what Iraq is like now. The journalist kept reflecting on how great it is to be able to walk around with no protection and without worrying that he is going to be killed or abducted. Though he told a funny story about how last night as he walked down the street here in Beirut, immigration asked him for his passport. A bunch of undercover guys all came out of an SUV speaking Arabic and moving toward him and so he started to run because his first thought was that he was being kidnapped.