The ground drank his sweat each day as my father toiled on his farm.
Generation after generation, this land and humble home was passed on.
بيت عباس ابوشقرا
We had no electricity inside, instead we kept a dimmed lantern in the kitchen in case one of us needed the bathroom in the middle of the night.
In the bedroom we always turned off the second lantern.
We lived from the land all year round.
In the house I was with my 4 sisters and 2 brothers. There were 2 bedrooms, 1 living room, kitchen, dining room and large veranda.
Each morning my father would wake up at 4 am to milk our cow.
Someone in the village would pass by to buy the milk.
My father then rode his donkey to the farm he inherited from his father.
He planted vegetables. Each day he would look after them, water them, fertilize them.
He bought the fertilizer from the market.
With money he made from selling his produce.
He brought in vegetables to the market 3 times a week.
He would receive a paper with the quantity of vegetables brought in.10 x lettuce15 x tomato20 x cucumberHis vegetables were sent to Beirut to be sold in the city. At the end of each week, he was paid based on what was sold. The market seller would take 5-10% cut.
The land needed 2 people to break up the soil. My father could not afford help. So his neighbour would join him.
My father would visit his neghbour's land the next day to return the favour.
In the summer we planted vegetables and fruits,and stocked up our mouneh for the coming winter.
We bought all kind of pulses, and the rest of the mouneh was from our land.
Dehen was kept for the winter and used to cook fatayer and ya5ene. If they didn't have enough money for a sheep, they'd just buy dehen.
Money was also needed for coffee, sugar and salt. They bought a sheep and raised it for 3-4 months and killed it to make dehen.
Once a week we would knead the flour and take it to the baker.
After buying the wheat, a villager would grind it into flour before we took it home.
The baker would bake the bread and take some for himself instead of money. At the time I was about 12-13 years old.
We had no fridge, to keep the food fresh we stored them in a cool space in the house. That was the ground floor. We lived upstairs.
Downstairs we kept our mouneh/pantry,pine nuts, olives and lard were stored in clay pots/fa5ar.
We had animals in the shed. Once a month we'd kill the rooster as part of a feast.
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