Believe in the Lebanese Way

Like many Lebanese at the time, my grandfather, Esper Karam, left Lebanon at the end of the 19th century and headed for Brazil to make his fortune. He established Esperadio Karam Trading and, by all accounts, he prospered – he was a senior freemason in the Sao Paulo lodge, learnt Portuguese and married a Swedish dressmaker. This is the Lebanese way. In 1915, he returned to Lebanon with his young family, only to be caught in the blockade of Beirut and the ensuing famine. In his village, people survived by eating radishes and grass. My grandmother took in starving children who would otherwise have died, cared for them and returned them to their families when better times came. This is the Lebanese way. Esper lost his company in Sao Paulo, but with the Lebanese pioneering spirit still thundering through his veins, he headed off to Mali, where, with his brother,