stella and her bike

Today I met some friends at one of Beirut’s only real parks, in Sanayeh, about a 15 minute walk from our apartment. Mostly, we adults followed their 2 year-old around on her adventures, which included inspecting different sorts of trash on the ground, puddle stomping, and dodging big kids on the slide.

There is a huge fountain in the middle of the park, but there is no water in it. Ultimately, this is probably for the best, since it would no doubt be ignored and serve as a massive breeding ground for mosquitoes. Since it is empty, kids tend to use it as a bike riding area. S. has a new bike, which absolutely thrills her, but she is not ready to actually get on it yet, so she just pushes it around.

[Speaking of mosquitoes, they are out in full force now that is it winter, go figure. When we were stuck at the border the other night, we found ourselves simultaneously wishing that we had gloves and trying to avoid being eaten alive by the little bloodsuckers.]

The park itself is actually pretty nice, if a bit run down. There are all sorts of trees and plenty of cheerful families. It really stands out, since there is a real lack of parks here, which is something that I miss about New York. Sounds odd to say that I miss the greenery of NYC, but it’s true.

As the sun went down, a guy came to the park entrance and started blowing on a whistle repeatedly. Time to go, the park was closing.