Lebanon

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Moses was born in a very poor family in the town of Dier al-Qamar in Mount Lebanon. In spite of their poverty, his father sent him to the town school. When Moses became an adolescent, he fell in love with a girl in his class. However, she rejected him and said: “I want to get married to a person who has a palace not to a poor fellow like you”.
That school had one teacher who was very tough. He would drink and treat the students roughly. One day that teacher asked the students to draw a bird standing on a tree branch; everyone did what the teacher said, except Moses. He decided to draw a beautiful castle that he had dreamed of the night before.
As the professor was checking on the student’s drawings, he saw Moses’ and promptly ridiculed him saying, “You are only a looser and a dreamer.” He took Moses’ drawing and tore it to many pieces. Moses was deeply hurt. He finished his school and left town, determined not to come back until he would be able to build a castle, the one he had been dreaming of since he was mocked. For many years, Moses worked hard and saved money until he was able to afford the price of land in the “Deir al-Qamar” area. There Moses built his beautiful castle, he built it all by himself, and by his hand he designed every piece of it. Moses was very proud of his castle, and he wanted to take his teacher to see the real castle whose drawing he had smashed years earlier. When Moses went to his teacher’s house, he saw an old sad women sitting on the porch outside and wearing black. Moses saluted her and asked about the teacher, but he was disappointed because his teacher had died a few weeks before his arrival. He wanted to show him his castle so he could learn never to mock a child or his dream again because you never know, dreams might come true.
Today Moses and his castle are the main attraction in the town of “Deir al-Qamar.” Thousands of tourists visit the castle every year.
This is a true story from Lebanon which is taught to children in schools.
Do you have a good dream? Do not let anybody steal your dream. If you believe in yourself, then you should work hard to achieve your dream, ‘the desire of your heart.’

The Seven Flagstones Game or Finish Game

To play the Seven Flagstones Game, we need two teams with a tennis ball and seven flagstones. The purpose of the game is that one team builds the seven flagstones above each other.

1- The number of the players should be even so we could have equal team members

2- After dividing the players in two teams we must decide which team will be the one who will build the flagstones. Doing that is like shooting penalty in a soccer game. After building the flagstones like a tower on the ground we draw a line far about two meters from the flagstone tower, this line is where the player must stand with the tennis ball to hit the seven flagstones. To decide which team will be
the one who builds the flagstones one player of each team stands behind the line. The first player from team A throw the ball on the flagstone tower, if he hits it team A will be the one with the purpose of building the flagstone tower again, team B have the purpose of preventing team A from building the tower.

3- When team A hits the tower they have to run far from members of team B. while doing that members of team B can't run to pursue team A, they have to throw the tennis ball and they can't run while holding it (the tennis ball).

4- Team B will try to hit members from team A, When a member of Team B hit a member from team A that member will lose and go out of the game, in that way team A will become weaker but at the same time while team B pursue team A, members of team A will try to build the flagstone tower.

5- If team A succeeded to build the flagstone tower they shout FINISH, in that way team A will be the winner. If team B succeeded in hitting all the members of team A without letting them build the tower team B will be the winner.

Meat Tarts LAHM BI 'AJEEN Authentic Lebanese Recipe:

Pastry:
5 cups bread flour
1 1/2 cups water
2 1/4 cups oil (or other shortening)

Filling:
2 cups lamb meat, finely chopped
1/2 cup onions, finely chopped
1cup tomatoes finely chopped
Salt and pepper

Prepare pastry by sifting flour with salt. Add melted and cooled oil. Stir in the water. Knead until smooth, adding more water if necessary to make dough easy to handle. Let stand an hour covered with a damp cloth. Divide pastry into portions the size of an egg. Pat each with the hands, or roll out on a board until round and pastry-thin. Mix filling ingredients well together. Place a spoonful of filling on each pastry. Bake in hot oven until meat is browned and pastry is crisp. Serve hot.

Lebanese tarbush (fez)

1- Black Hard paper: width: 58cm - high: 7 cm
2- Red Soft paper: width: 58cm – high: 24cm

1-Glue the black paper

2-Stick the red paper on the glue of the black paper.

3- Fold the papers as a circle and attached it with the stapler

4- Gather all the heads of the red paper and attached them all together.

5- You will have a traditional Lebanese tarbush (fez)

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