Clue: Karim in his blue shirt with the white collar
On this day, my cousin Georges, his son Karim and I went on a pretty long ride through several Lebanese landscapes including the Bekaa Valley, the town of Chtaura where Georges visited a client, and the village of Qernayel to drop in on one of his college friends in his magnificent villa surrounded by forests of Mediterranean pines. Somewhere in between we stopped for lunch at a typical Lebanese restaurant with stunning mountain views.
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Roll 33
Filename 910800-33-22-LEB-fs
This photograph contains what I would consider a concrete clue and could have well been a starting anchor point to the investigation, a banner announcing a local village festival on Saturday August 24. And although it does not give the year, a look at a 1991 calendar shows that August 24 does indeed fall on a Saturday, whereas in 1992, the 24th is a Monday.
Roll 33
Filename 910800-33-22-LEB-fs - detail
Saturday August 24 at Qasr As Snawbar (Palace of the Pines), in Bteghrine.
3eid Al Asmar (the Feast of the Dark Complected)
Roll 27
Filename 910800-27-28-LEB-fs
Karim in the back seat on the way to Chtaura.
Roll 28
Filename 910800-28-18-LEB-fs
Karim on a stopover in the town of Chtaura.
Roll 29
Filename 910800-29-35-LEB-fs
Karim once again in the back of the car, on the way to lunch.
Roll 26
Filename 910800-26-23-LEB-fs
Karim's hands, and Georges smoking over a relatively modest Lebanese Mezze, consisting of Ballilah, Hummus with fried lamb cubes, lamb tartare, farmer's cheese with fresh vegetables, and stuffed grape leaves. I did get food poisoning on the 1991 trip, and maybe even on the 1992 trip, but I am not certain whether it was at this restaurant or the one I went to with Tante Loulou and Ammo Robert, coming up on the next page. I must have taken this photograph with the Leica M6 and a 21 mm lens, due to the distortion on the edges, particularly of Georges' face.
Roll 30
Filename 910800-30-34-LEB-fs
Karim on the grounds of the home of one of Georges' old school friends, in the village of Qernayel.
Roll 31
Filename 910800-31-23-LEB-fs
In one of the yards of the sumptuous villa in Qernayel.
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