Why Connection is Everything

Sun breaking through the clouds over the Mediterranean while boys fish among the trash. Beirut, Lebanon 2018.

I leave for the Middle East soon and after 19 years, I still get butterflies in my stomach. I am looking forward to being back, particularly to be in Beirut. Even though it has repeatedly brought me frustration and trauma, Beirut is a second home for me. I expect the feeling of excitement as the plane slowly flies low along the coast of Lebanon, making its approach to the airport. The lights of the mountains glittering to the east brings me hope and trepidation. It looks so magical if one doesn’t know better. Hence the butterflies in the stomach, I’m holding all the good and bad of Beirut in tension.

This year, members of Beirut and Beyond’s board will join me a week into my visit. This is the first time I have ever brought a group of people to the Middle East. I have had volunteers and other board members join me over the years, but I have never planned a trip for a group before. I am delighted to have them join me, introduce them to our partners, and visit refugee camps. I am thrilled to connect them to the people and places of the region l love so deeply. The logistics of bringing five people will be challenging, but worth it. Why? Because connection is everything.

I think it’s important for our board members to meet our Palestinian partners face to face and witness the conditions of the camps. I also think it’s meaningful for our partners to meet and know the people supporting them. Relationships change humanitarian work because it isn’t a cause anymore. Because you know the intimate details of your friend’s life - the joys, hopes, and struggles of their unique experience. It becomes personal and  allyship should organically unfolds through love. 

Relationships also build an interdependence, which is why I base everything on them. It helps to balance out the power structure because I depend on Palestinian leadership and guidance on how best to work together. Beirut and Beyond serves as a bridge for others to join us in partnering and serving Palestinians. This includes board members, volunteers, and donors. We are all actively involved in a partnership to complete projects by and benefiting Palestinian refugees. We all play a part and are equally needed.

Over the course of 24 years of humanitarian work, I’ve found interconnectedness with everything and everyone in this world. Which for an American, is countercultural because our culture values independence. The realization of our interconnectedness brings compassion to others, regardless of one’s ethnicity, language, or culture. Injustice is personalized and affects me, either I fight for others freedom, or I am complicit in their oppression. As Fannie Lou Hamer said, “Nobody’s free until everyone’s free.” We really are bonded together.

The privilege I have is sharing what I know and connecting people to Palestinians. To invite others to join in their fight for freedom.

This is what the trip is about, sharing our connection.