March 29 - Wawan and the Talking Grease Ball Man

I heard from a little bird that Wawan (and perhaps others) are reading this blog from across the Atlantic. Hi you sneaky boy.

If I had my way, I would post one great picture of you here on the internet for all the world to see. But I don't have the photo. So I'll just have to describe the moment:

It's summer 2003 and all of Marco's friends from engineering school are together in Lebanon for a friend's wedding. The groom organizes a guided hiking tour for us in the lovely mountains of inner Lebanon, which finishes at a rustic country restaurant.

We (about 25 people) all sit down at a huge dining table. Servers load the table from edge to edge with plates of hummus, tabouli, pickles, eggplant, cheeses, pita bread, raw spiced meat, lamb kebabs, tomatoes, olives.......the list of food goes on and on. We eat voraciously until one funny dish comes out. It's a big, baseball-sized ball of falafel. Some people take a bite and discover it is hollow inside except for a well of liquid grease. Kinda disgusting. It's like drinking a deep fry pan.

Most people just put down this grease ball and move on to other foods. But Wawan (and this is why we all love Wawan) picks up the ball and cracks it open. The crack looks like a big smile, so he dabs on two dots of hummus for eyes. Then he begins a puppet show with the grease ball man. He talks and waves the grease ball man around at everyone until we're all laughing and getting quite ridiculous. Then he squeezes it and it looks like grease ball man vomits up all his oily guts. We all roll over laughing like kids, pausing only for a second to wonder if we look completely disrespectful, then just continuing to laugh anyway. Even the old one-armed man that was our hiking guide was laughing so hard he had tears in his eyes.

I hope someone out there still has this photo of Wawan and the grease ball man. Send it to me if you do.

(PS....j'aurais pu ecrire tous ca en francais, mais je veut vous donner un peu de repetition en anglais! Salut Wawan, Raphael et tous les autres a Paris. Vous me manque!)

April 6, 2006 -- I got the Picture!!

Here's something excellent......I opened my emails this morning and found pictures. Ask a wish and it shall be granted. Here is THE photo I was looking for, direct from Edouard and Celine in Paris (Vous etes trop fort!!) .

Here he is ............ Wawan and the Talking Grease Ball Man: