On a few occasions while living in New York and when answering ‘Lebanon’ to the ‘where do you come from?’ question, I was hit with the following questions: “do you have a camel?”, or “how does it feel to live in the desert?”, and my favorite: “wow, I did not know that you were African!”.
Now, I had learned to accept the fact that a few Americans did not find it necessary to get acquainted with the rest of the world, but I was always feeling very strongly about passing on the fact that Lebanon has the most moderately wonderful weather with dozens of sub-climates, more water than any other country in the Middle East, has 12 rivers, and thousands of clear cascading waterfalls from snow capped mountains. It has been named since biblical times the most fertile and lush country in the region.
And I must point out that I only saw my first camel when I travelled out of the desert free Lebanon 🙂