This is the Middle East and this is my Canada… 35 years later

Bambi’s last day in Lebanon was June 16, 2025.

She made it home safely on June 17, 2025.

Two symbolic dates for her:

June 16th of 1990 was her last day residing in the Middle East. On that day, her family returned in a rush, from Cyprus to Beirut, to pack a few items during one of the civil war’s most intense rounds of violence.

While saying good-bye to her loved ones hiding in the shelters, she imagined the following in her mind: had her life been a book, it would be made of two volumes, one in Lebanon and the other in the far-away peaceful Canada. She was 17 years old at the time.

On the 17th of June 1990, two flights took her family, from Larnaka airport in Cyprus to Mirabel airport in Québec. From there, they drove to Montreal where she spent the first 15 years in what is called “La belle province” of Canada. That was 35 years ago.

In the end her life was not made of two volumes, but rather of four. Indeed, she lived in Beirut in addition to three Canadian provinces: Québec, Ontario, and New Brunswick (in addition to some time spent escaping civil war in Germany, Egypt, and Cyprus, etc.).

Of note, she lived the first 17 years of her life in her birth country, Lebanon, and the last 17 years (starting year18 now) in her most recent adoptive and charming maritime province of New Brunswick.

One thing is sure, Canada has changed a lot over the past 35 years. Same for her birth country. Tragically, what remained constant is the unsafety in the Middle East.

However, today, the level of absurdity of violence has reached exponential levels in the entire region. Countries hating each other. Tribes fearing each other. Kidnapping, ethnic cleansing, massacres, shelling, drones in the skies, missiles between rival countries, and other nations struggling to remain neutral while being in the middle of the fire. Some people fear a third world war. Others estimate that the insanity will not last long.

When it comes to Lebanon, this tiny yet resilient country keeps going from one crisis to the next and from one war to the other. In as much as Bambi is relieved to know that her loved ones there are safe and sound, she worries about them. Today more than ever. Yet, selfishly, she is grateful for Canada for the safe heaven, for all the opportunities, both in her personal and professional lives.

For all the reasons mentioned above, she will end this post by saying: may God/G-d/Allah/No Gods watch over the Middle East, and especially over Lebanon. As for you Canada, thank you… Bambi is proud of calling you home for 35 years now!