Update: On Tuesday afternoon, President Joe Biden announced that Israel and Hezbollah have agreed to a ceasefire, which is expected to begin early Wednesday morning in Lebanon.
In the mountains near Beirut, Lebanon, there’s a city called Aley. The largest city in the district of the same name is about half the size of Kalamazoo.
It has an athletic center that offers a healthy release for children displaced for the last two months by fighting between Israel and Hezbollah at Lebanon's southern border. And I know the owners.
"Good morning, Omar."
I'm talking to Omar Akl. I’ve known him for over twenty years. We used to work together in the Detroit area.
Until recently, the Lebanese-born athlete and fitness trainer lived in Oakland County with his wife and three young children.
But in September, after more than two decades in Michigan, Akl moved back to his home city of Aley, near Beirut. He told me that he wanted to be closer to family and help run his brother’s business, The Game Sports Academy.
"Look who's here," Omar says as his older brother, Salim Akl steps into the frame on Omar's phone. Salim is the owner of the Academy, which he started in 2013.
Salim and I laugh as I try to exchange pleasantries in Arabic.
We talk outside the sports center. That’s because the music is loud inside. Omar explains that they turned it up so the children don’t hear the explosions in the distance.
“There is background like bombing, background, we can hear it. So, we put some music for them just to keep them away from that bombs (noise)," said Omar.
It’s Thursday, the day Salim opens the sports academy for a free day of fun for refugee families. I ask Salim why he started this free program. Since I only speak a little Arabic, Omar translates.
“Salim’s saying, since the war started, and the refugees started coming to our way, we try to give something, you know, to keep them going on. Like he said, it (the sports academy) is family oriented. We're trying to make people feel like it's still at home, so, we bring them here once a week.”
It’s been more than two months since Israel warned residents in southern Lebanon to evacuate as airstrikes against the armed wing of Hezbollah intensified.
Within 10 days of the first evacuation orders, Al Jazeera reported that 13,000 people had arrived in the region around Aley. Today there are thousands more, living with relatives, in schools or on the street.
They turn the music down inside and Omar walks me into the building, into a large play area with slides, swings, and climbing structures.
In a patio cafeteria next to the playground is clinical psychologist Dina Abdel Khalek. She paid for a bus, out of her own pocket, to bring 17 refugee children to the sports center. The children are sheltering with their families in a public elementary in the nearby village of Chanai.
Abdel Khalek takes Omar’s phone and sits on the floor. A little girl scrambled onto her lap. She asks the girl her name. It's Silva.
"How old are you Silva?" Abdel Khalek asked.
Silva holds up five little fingers. Some of the other children stop playing to gather around Abdel Khalek, when she calls over a boy to say hello.
“Come Ali — it's Ali Kawsarani," Abdel Khalek says, introducing him. She then asks him what village he came from and how old he is.
"From Sarafand... I’m 10 years old,” Ali says in English.
He goes on answering Abdel Khalek's questions. I learn that he evacuated to the mountains by taxi with his mother, two sisters and an aunt. But not his father. His father, Ali said, is in Africa.
He says he loves climbing the rock wall at The Game Sports Academy, which he rated a "10 out of 10."
Abdel Khalek said that when the children first arrived at the end of summer she used art therapy to help them process what had happened to them. She said in the beginning they used a lot of red in their drawings. And she explained that red expresses anger.
“You can see anger, you can see in the picture, you can see family, but divided because they didn't, they weren't all together.”
Abdel Khalek said they draw happier pictures now but the experience will haunt these children.
“They will live with the trauma. They will live with this. It is their memory. You cannot erase this.”
As Omar says goodbye to his young visitors, I ask him if he regrets the move.
“Is it a good timing to come to Lebanon?," Omar asks. "I say yes. Because look, I came to Lebanon for a reason. To teach my kids big lesson. Hey, in life, we face crisis, we deal with it. We face problems, we deal with it. We face issues, we communicate together, we talk with each other, we find solutions together.”
He adds, “Help if you can help. And if you can’t, pray. Do something."
The war has moved closer. After we talked, Omar told me that Israel warned that it would bomb the area. But so far, the open houses at the sports center are continuing.
