walid – Wissam Charafeddine

It is Friday.

A couple from Netherlands shared our hostel room. They were friendly, liberal, and hated Trump. They talked about the economy, and the growth taking place in Netherlands. They spoke English with us, and it seems that English is the international language in Europe. They said that Holland was booming. They said that if you visited Holland, you should not only visit Amsterdam, for there are many beautiful cities and areas.

It dawned on me that we are now in the countdown for the final days in London. Worse than that, it is the count down for my time with Walid. I wanted to spend quality time with him during our last three days. I also wanted him to be comfortable, since he is really uneasy in a hostel. I wanted to have a private place where we can play Um Kalthoum at night, and sit and talk for hours while eating his wheat Loaves of Bread or his grapefruits. “Make sure not to peel the white parts”, he would tell me. Continue reading “London Trip: Day 6: Padington Hotel – Natural History Museum – Persian Dinner” →

Sleeping on the upper bed, I woke up Thursday morning while Walid is playing the creepy man prank on me, staring at me real closely. I missed his creepy man jokes. He used to stand behind the door of my office when we worked in 2004 in a cellphone shop, and watch me in a creepy way, and pretend that he is hiding when I see him. Sometimes it made me wonder if a psychological issue was really being manifested. Thankfully, it was just a prank all along.

Walid is 10 years older than me, but he has the wisdom of a 100 years old philosopher. He grew up in Beirut Golden time, in an ocean of intellectual waves, when Beirut was the Paris of the East. Then the intellectual waves became intellectual wars, and they in turn converted to real wars, and he lived the civil war in lebanon that started in 1975 day by day, the Israeli occupation that swept up to Beirut in 1982, till he left in the 90’s, and the civil war outlasted him till the year 1989, when it kind of ended with the Taif Accord, while the war with Israel continued till today. He studied music in California, and a bunch of other things. He is a professional guitarist, a well learned pianist, a great composer, and an accomplished poet in Arabic. He is a reference and an expert in the Arabic Language with all its branches, Arabic Music, Arabic poetry, and fluent in English and French. He also speaks Spanish, and some Russian and German. He is also an Islamic scholar, and few of his friends declared him as Mujtahid. Although it might have been a joke at certain times, but it really reflected his intellectual capability to infer the jurisprudence he needed for his daily life.

Walid is also a radio producer, video producer, a TV host, a columnist, a chinese cuisine chef, a donut baker, an educator, and school administrator. Continue reading “London Trip: Day 5: Trafalgar Square – National Gallery – Big Ben” →