“I would go back”

Belonging and adaptation in the context of spatial and social changes

After the first house in Ras Al Nabaa sustained damage in the 1956 earthquake, Um Yumna and her two children moved to her relatives’ house in the Beqaa, for fear of the state of the house, while her husband stayed back in Beirut and searched diligently for another house. They returned at the end of the summer to the new house on the other side of the Mazraa main road, atop a hill in the Tarik Al Jadidah area between the municipal stadium and the Islamic orphanage (now Makassed Hospital). Um Yumna was not impressed with the new house, which she considered a temporary solution while she looked for another option, but that would never come to pass. Friendly and fraternal relationships soon developed among the neighbours, and Um Yumna is proud of her role in helping her neighbours with their problems, as “her word was respected” in the neighbourhood.

Originally published in Arabic on the Housing Monitor.