“Globalization at its Best”

… Which was immediately followed by an invitation to eat. Not wanting to be refuse a personal invitation, I quickly made myself a small plate and devoured its contents so that I could continue shooting. The food was delicious, but I was busy sliding around in the mud attempting to take pictures of the crowd without being in the way of the festivities. When people come together, food is such a powerful tool. Everyone loosens up a bit, dropping the ceremonial formalities, and talks as friends. It was quite a spectacle. Caterers maneuvering through the crowd with enormous platters, a little boy running to a store to grab a crate of after lunch yogurt drinks, a local gentleman joins me in the mud to sneak a quick cigarette. A couple of the fellas around my age take pictures with Burak and I, and we exchange Facebook information with them, the young woman speaks English well and she speaks to me in a way that I feel I have made friends here in this little village somewhere in Lebanon. My militarily fast eating had gone unnoticed by one stocky local gentleman. He points to the food and I attempt to explain that I had already eaten. He insisted that I eat more putting his hands out to signify a bigger belly and filling his cheeks with air. Not wanting to be rude I began to serve my self which he immediately took over, piling food on to my flimsy paper plate. He offered me a chair and I went to work on the food. By the time I finished I had developed the same belly that he showed me with his hands, my stomach stretching with the expansion of the rice. I went back to shooting, but was quickly discovered by the same gentleman. After which he brought me in the back to offer me more food which had been removed from the table. At which point I copied his earlier gesture to signify that his mission was complete at which he smiled genuinely and released me from my gastronomic obligations. Sweets came as always, and I was forcibly given some of those as well, but I had an excuse to move inside because Luca was interviewing a soccer team he wanted to sponsor which I had to shoot pictures of. They were a motley crew, like something out of a Fellini movie. Next we interviewed a local youngin who wasn’t the least bit shy, and spoke directly and with purpose. At some point, I was talking with Joumana and some of the local fellas about my being American and how that effected my appreciation of soccer, Burak being told the ladies would find a wife for him, my fast rise to popularity amongst our hosts. At some point she began to reflect on the success of the project and the event which she described as “Globalization at its best”. As I looked around it struck me that it could not have been put any better. Here we all were in person from all over the world, representing different organizations, and following different religions all working together for the common good, all eating together as friends around the same table. Not bad for my first trip to the Middle East.

By Teo J. Babini