Radiolab - Lebanon, USA

Episode Date: August 21, 2020

This is a story of a road trip. After a particularly traumatic Valentine's Day, Fadi Boukaram was surfing google maps and noticed that there was a town called Lebanon... in Oregon. Being Lebanese himself, he wondered, how many Lebanons exist in the US? The answer: 47. Thus began his journey to visit them all and find an America he'd never expected, and the homeland he'd been searching for all along. This episode was made in collaboration with Kerning Cultures, a podcast that tells stories from the Middle East and North Africa.  The original "Lebanon USA" story was reported by Alex Atack with editorial support from Bella Ibrahim, Dana Ballout, Zeina Dowidar, and Hebah Fisher. Original sound design by Alex Atack.  The new update of the story was produced and reported by Shima Oliaee.  We had original music by Thomas Koner and Jad Atoui. Be sure to check out Kerning Cultures at their website www.kerningcultures.com, instagram @kerningcultures, or twitter @kerningcultures. You can read more about Fadi’s trips and see his photographs at lebanonusa.com or on his Instagram at @lebanonusa. Support Radiolab today at Radiolab.org/donate.  Editor's Note: In an earlier version of this episode, we inaccurately described a grain elevator. We have updated the audio to reflect the correction. --- If you would like to donate to Beirut at this time, we have links here (from NYT): The Lebanese Red Cross dispatches every ambulance from North Lebanon, Bekaa, and South Lebanon to Beirut to treat the wounded and help in search-and-rescue operations. You can make a contribution here.  The United Nations’ World Food Program provides food to people displaced or made homeless after the blast. Lebanon imports nearly 85% of its food, and the port of Beirut, the epicenter of the explosion, played a central role in that supply chain. With the port now severely damaged, food prices are likely to be beyond the reach of many. You can donate here. The NGO Humanity and Inclusion has 100 workers in Lebanon, including physical therapists, psychologists and social workers. They are focusing on post-surgical therapy in Beirut following the explosion. You can make a contribution here. International Medical Corps is deploying medical units and will provide mental health care to those affected in Lebanon. The humanitarian aid organization also provides health services to Syrian refugees in Lebanon, and vulnerable Lebanese. You can donate here. Islamic Relief, which specializes in food aid and emergency response, is helping to put a supply chain in place for emergency aid in Beirut. You can donate here. Save the Children have launched a Lebanon’s children relief fund, to which you can donate here. UNICEF, the United Nations agency specializing in aid to children, is providing medical and vaccine supplies in Beirut, and supplying drinking water to rescue workers at the Beirut port. Its on-the-ground team is also counseling children traumatized by the blast. You can donate here. Impact Lebanon, a nonprofit organization, has set up a crowdfunding campaign to help organizations on the ground, and is helping to share information about people still missing after the explosion. The group had raised over $3 million as of Wednesday and donated the first $100,000 to the Lebanese Red Cross. The health care organization Project HOPE is bringing medical supplies and protective gear to Beirut and assisting the authorities on the ground. A donation page is available here. Over 300,000 people in Beirut were displaced from their homes by the explosion. Baytna Baytak, a charity that provided free housing to health care workers during the coronavirus pandemic, is now raising funds with Impact Lebanon to shelter those who have been displaced. For those in Beirut, here is a list of urgent blood needs. Several social media accounts have also been set up to help locate victims.  

Wait, you're listening to Radio Lab from WNYC. reading for today is coming from Psalm 92 from verse 12, the righteous shell flourish like a palm tree, he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. I have a brother called Jard by the way. No way. And and and he's a stand-up بطلع الشخصة اللي حالي بلو مبحيتك جبولت أرى أكثر من جادة بلوة لا يجب أن وهيه مرحباً مميدياً وهيه مرحباً مميدياً ماذا تريد؟ جاد بكرة

مميدياً حسنا يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب His handle on all these social media was always been, oh my god, because it's all my god, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, get it. This is Radio Lab, I'm Chad Abumarad. We start this episode just for kicks with two jads, but really it's about 47 Lebanon's. Lebanon of course, Lebanon the country, has been in the news a lot recently. In the most heartbreaking way. On its Tuesday night an enormous explosion blasts through bay routes, who may think disaster rumbled everywhere.

Buildings blasted open. The Red Cross has put out an urgent appeal for blood donors. My family comes from Lebanon and to B-Lebanese is, I don't know, being a constant state of vertigo where you never know when the floor is going to drop out from under you. Lebanon has a history of conflict and a bombings at the scale of this is like nothing else. As we are watching this latest horror unfold, we happen to be simultaneously working on a story about Lebanon. A very different story that, in its own way, kind of explores that feeling of dislocation. And it actually wasn't our story to begin with.

A year ago, I was listening to this wonderful podcast. I'm Hibba Fisher, and you're listening to Kurning Cultures. I'm Kurning Cultures. Radio documentaries from the Middle East. And her story called Lebanon USA. In 2005, a Lebanese man, a man who runs the podcast, and asked her if we could air it too. She very graciously said yes.

And the main character of the story. My name is Fadi Bukaram. Is the guy with the brother named Jet. And I'm a photographer. And you also work in finance, right? Yeah, I do US tax law. Okay. It's a growth industry.

Yeah, but I'm on the good side, not the bad side. So I help the IRS cats, people who don't pay their taxes. Oh, right on. Right on. Now, Fadi's story, the one I heard on Cunning Cultures, the one that we're going to quote from now, deals with a road trip. A road trip that, frankly, I've been wanting to do my whole life, but have never gotten

around to, but that he actually did. And it began for him on an ordinary day in Beirut, about 15 years ago, with an incident that eerily mirrors recent news. I was in my office. So you were working. I was working. It was in the Ain Lim Reiss area by the beach. This is downtown Beirut.

You know, so yeah, so it was there. Even though it took like half a second, that whole thing, but in my mind, it always plays in slow motion. He says he was sitting in his office third floor of a building, just typing away at his computer, third floor of a building, just typing away at his computer, when all of a sudden. The electricity went off and then you started feeling the earth, like the floor rattling, and then I found myself just thrown off my chair and just landed on the other

side of the office. And then when I got there, it's like I remember it's kind of like, oh crap, there's glass on my face. And I remember seeing like feeling that blood is dripping on my neck. And I'm thinking, oh my god, please let it not be my head. And the only reason I was thinking that is that I hate going to the doctor to get sutured. So when I felt like, oh thank god, it was only my ear that was slit, not my head. So that's the kind of thing you think. I felt like, oh, thank God, it was only my ear that was slit, not my head. So that's the kind of thing you think. So. Before the bomb went off, were you looking out the window and seeing the,

I don't even know what was happening outside. His car was just passing. That's it. This was February 14th, 2005, when the former Prime Minister of Lebanon, Rafi, Hariri was assassinated. His car had been driving a few blocks away from Fattie's office. So it wasn't? No, you didn't even know.

No, no, no, had no idea. No, no, his car was passing. Apparently there was a hotel where some guy was standing with like a remote thing. They were waiting for him to pass through the spot and then boom, and then, you know. Oh, oh my gosh. And so that was the moment for you where you thought,

I need, I need a change. Yes where you thought, I need a change. Yes, I needed a break. Fadi had basically grown up during the Lebanese Civil War, which lasted 15 years, destroyed the country many times over. So when I applied to the university, I didn't even care what I was applying for. So I applied for a masters in math, a masters in French literature. Like these are the things that didn't require any standardized tests because there was no time. So because I needed to get out as soon as possible.

So because they, the assassination happened on Valentine's Day. So remember that, 2005. By March, I had applied. By August, I was accepted. September, I was out. Wow. So you really were just like hitting the eject button basically. Yeah. So Fadi moved to San Francisco, goes to school studying first math and then business. A few years past that memory of Valentine's Day 2005 sort of hovers over him.

And one day he finally decides to stare at it. This is really the sort of Genesis moment. He decides to think like, what exactly happened that day? So he heads to Google and starts doing some searches. I was looking for the exact spot where the prime minister was assassinated because Street View was new, relatively speaking. So I'm talking 2007, 2006. So I just wanted to see how the area looked from above and where my office was and all that. And I was typing Lebanon and it said Oregon. Oh, that's what I completed. It all completed Lebanon, Oregon. Yeah, that must have been weird. My first idea is like, why the hell would they have, would they call their place? I just thought it was funny.

I had no idea. It's like, why would there be a Lebanon outside my Lebanon. His next thought was, are there more than just this one in Oregon? So I found a database of all the names of towns in the US. I downloaded it and did some data mining or whatever you call. And then there was over 40 of those, like, geez. Like, he found 47 Lebanons in the United States. Lebanon, Oregon, Lebanon, Ohio, Lebanon, South Dakota, Lebanon, Kansas, Lebanon, Nebraska, Lebanon, Kentucky, Lebanon, Junction, Kentucky, Lebanon, New York,

New Lebanon, New York, Lebanon, Wapakia County, Wisconsin, Lebanon, Connecticut, Lebanon, Indiana, Lebanon, Tennessee. Okay, wait, Tennessee, I grew up next. Lebanon, Wapakia County was constant. Lebanon, Connecticut, Lebanon, Indiana, Lebanon, Tennessee. Okay, wait. Tennessee, I grew up next to Lebanon, Tennessee, or Lebanon, as they say. I always thought well, some Lebanese must have just settled there at some point and just decided to call the town that, but I know that's not true. Why are there so many American towns named Lebanon? Oh, Bible. One word, Bible. Yes, so for most of them, it would be,

you know, there were people who were expanding west. This is in the late 1800s, mostly. From East Expanding West, so they would cross areas that they thought were very green, and it would remind them of passages within the Bible, Old Testament. The righteous shall grow like a pountry, they will multiply like the Seaters of Lebanon.

So they would see trees and in their minds, it's like, oh, these are the Seaters of Lebanon, and they were called to place Lebanon. In any case, Fatty downloads this list. And when I downloaded all the names, I thought, well, that'd be a nice trip to do, someday when I retire. You know?

And it all kept into the back of my mind. So it's like, I'll do it someday. I'll do it someday. But then I came back to Lebanon, went to work, and then one time Christmas 2015, I was in Baghdad giving a workshop to the central bank of Iraq. What? And- Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, 2015.

Yes. Yes. The central bank, what were you talking to the bank of Baghdad in 2015 about? How to implement the US tax laws? Yes. Yes. Yes.

Apparently they needed to know that for some reason. That's not the point. The point is the day that I was going there, I had to be with Bodyguard who had AK-47s in an armored car. There was so many, what do you call that? Like roadblocks. And someone had tried to blow himself up

at the entrance of the bank. Oh. And again, again, this is kind of like, you get flashbacks. And it's like, oh, okay. So I guess maybe that's why they asked me to provide a proof of life before going to Iraq. Proof of life, by the way, is where you have to list every identifying mark on your body.

Just in case they have to recuperate the body. In case I get killed. After that, I came back, quit my job. I said, I wanna do this trip. Oh, it's like similar. Similar to the first trip. Oh, wow. Yeah.

I had no idea, but that actually answers one of my big questions I wanted to ask you, which is, why the f*** would you go to every leaven on in America? I mean, it's an amazing idea, but it's suddenly, I understand, I get it. You I mean, it's an amazing idea, but it's suddenly, I understand, I get it. You were looking, it's almost like, I mean, I'm gonna say a thing

and you can tell me if I'm bullshitting here. It's almost like you got, you left the country that made you and you were looking for it elsewhere. Is that stupid to say or is that, does that say? That is not stupid at all. It's very correct actually. It's just asking the question, what does it feel like you from this now called Lebanon? What do you what does it feel like you being from Lebanon, who does not know what war is, who does not know what a

bomb shelter is? Okay, that was all by way of introducing the story. Now I want to throw to the original piece that ran on Curning Cultures. Thank you again to Heba and the entire team over there. The story was produced by Alex Atec. He interviewed Fadi for this original story when Fadi was living in Beirut. They met at his apartment and we'll just pick up the story there. So I think that's enough. You need to go ahead and tell the reason, sir. Beirut, they met at his apartment, and we'll just pick up the story there. I did nothing today. Had breakfast, two monoshis.

So when Ferdy came up with the idea for this trip, his friends and his family were told as to whether or not it was even a good idea for him to do it. They weren't sure if they wanted him to give up his life and his work in Lebanon to spend months on the road driving around a country where he knew next to nobody. I had two sets of friends, like the Friends of the Finance World and the Friends of the Photography World. So the Friends of the Photography World was like, yeah, do it. The Friends of the Finance World and the Family and all that

thought that I pretty much lost my mind. But he planned his route anyway. Hello, my name is Fadi and I'm a photographer from Lebanon, the country in the Middle East. He's just him on his blog. I've flown all the way from Beirut to the United States to take a road trip to photograph and discover all the town, cities and villages called Lebanon and America. There's over 40 of them.

The route was to stop at all 47 Lebanon starting in Seattle, Washington, where he rented an old camper from a guy he met on the internet. This is the entrance of the RV from the side, where this would be where the living quarters are. What do you call it? It was like a it's a motor car. So there's a couch there. It had a and dinette table like a stove with forburners that had an oven the microwave a shower driver seat. There's where I'd be driving it and right on top is where the bed is. So you kind of plan it all. I have this like super romantic idea on my head.

Yes. Driving is beautiful. It's just beautiful. You know, driving on the road and the wide open space. It's just great. Did you have a soundtrack? I listened to classical music a lot. Did you make a soundtrack? I listened to classical music a lot. And to bluegrass country, Celtic. I don't know, it's a bit varied what I listen to. But I got to say that I didn't get to listen to a lot of that often. Because on large parts of the road, I did not have an internet connection. So I had to listen to my thoughts a lot instead of the radio. I couldn't even use Google Maps, or I had to use an actual paper map,

because that's the only thing I get. Fadi told Alex that those first two weeks, driving from Seattle to Lebanon, North Dakota, sleeping in Walmart parking lots, only really seeing people at gas stations if that. Totally upended his idea of America. Like, my idea of the US was New York, San Francisco, and whatever other towns, it was just three movies.

So I'd see town after town where all the stores are boarded up, you know, places are for sale, for closed houses. It was really, really sad. Like you find pockets within the US that are more third world than any third world country. His plan was quite simple. He wanted to just show up in each of these Lebanon's and take pictures of the landscapes and the people that he found along the way. This photo was taken on the road and it was one of the pictures. Some of the pictures are really cool by the way.

You see bails of hay at sunset, a guy in a black cowboy head asleep at a McDonald's. This photo, the reason why I like it is that, because it's like two American clichés and one. One, it's a cowboy, and two, he's an McDonald's. In another picture, you see a dead deer with its eyes open, hanging from a tree, strung up from its hind legs, and it's just in someone's yard. This photo, after posting it, I understood a lot about the division between rural America and urban America.

Very similar story to Lebanon the country, where you have Central Beirut, very glitzy, but then just a few miles away, people in the mountains living without electricity. In any case, his first stop, Lebanon, North Dakota, population of 100 people, Ish, streets were empty, unpaved. He spoke with a Norwegian farmer, took pictures of the cemetery. But I left on that same day because there was nothing. But Lebanon's South Dakota. Just four hours south.

Even though it's tiny, it has 26 people. But over there, I went to the library, and I did research about the town and all that. And it was the librarian who told me, go ask for hazel in the Long Branch saloon. This could be like a line out of a movie, seriously. So I went in and went to the Long Branch saloon. It's all wood on the inside.

You know, it looks like it was built a long, long time ago. It had a full table, it had a jukebox, and a lot of photographs behind the bar and all that. But it was not a tiny place, like 30, 40 people could easily fit in there. And Hazel is the bartender and she's in her 70s. And at the time I was hungry, so I thought, can I have something,

like can I order something to eat? And she said, well, I'll go to the back of the bar, open the freezer, bring me a frozen pizza, let me heat it for you. We called the Long Branch, but Hazel wasn't in that day, so we spoke to her colleague Linda instead. Lebed and bar, this is Linda. Hi, is this the Long Branch Saloon? Yes, this is Linda. Hi, is this the Longbrunch Saloon? Yes, it is. Hi, I'm calling it, I have a kind of unusual... Linda is one of three women who work at the Longbrunch Saloon in Lebanon, South Dakota.

It's a town of less than 50 people, so this is the only bar in town. And I called them up to ask if they remembered Ferdinand. Yeah, I remember him. I like that you're taken with him. When I called, it was around 9.30 in the morning for them. And she was just starting her day. But she had some time, so she started telling me more about Lebanon's South Dakota. Well, we're a very small town. There's only about 39 people that live here.

We have a bar called the Long Branch. And we also have a elevator in town the elevator she's talking about uh... isn't the kind of elevator you think you have she means a grain elevator uh... basically a grain storage facility we are known for the first-older swimming pool built in south Dakota was built in nineteen twenty six we're

kind of a quiet little town uh... fabia was here i know she says fabio here but she means faddy we told him to come in on a wins tonight we have dark league on wins tonight so there's usually about twenty four of us people around here could you describe what the uh... i mean if you were to stand up if you were to walk to the front door of the long branch now what what do you see But if you were to stand up, if you were to walk to the front door of the Long Branch,

now, what do you see? Well, I'm here all by myself right now. I usually have a couple guys that come in for coffee. I open up at 9 o'clock and put the coffee on and I haven't seen any cars go down the street this morning so far. It's been quiet in town. How many cars would you say go buy on an average day? On an average day? Oh well I don't know. Probably 10. I moved here in 72 but I lived in Gettysburg before that, and that was just 10 miles west

to here. And I raised my kids here in town. And back in 1972, there was about 134 people that lived here, but as the kids all grown up and my way to school and college and stuff, now it's just a group of old timers here. Of course I've worked in the bar here for about 43 years so I've gotten to know a lot of people from all the different towns around here. And we're kind of called a friendly, a little, we're friendly people meet. That's kind of our motto, we're friendly people make, and people have told us they enjoy coming to our little bar because of us. Because I know we're getting up in age, you know, like 75, 73, 71 years old, and I just had somebody here a month ago, and I said, what are they going to do with the lung wrench when you girls all quit working there. And I'm like, I don't know.

Because we've been here forever. You know? Is that kind of a common problem in your Lebanon that like young people move away to kind of bigger cities or towns? Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, on my street girls got out of high school.

I just basically told them, you better move to a bigger town because there's no opportunity here, you know, to make a career of anything. And so my kids did move to a bigger town. Does it kind of make you feel sad that so many young people are leaving? Well, yeah, it does. I would say in 50 years, we're not even going to be a little town anymore. I don't think. So back to that moment where Ferdinand sitting eating her frozen pizza across the bar from Hazel in Lebanon, South Dakota, the two were talking and then Ferdinand made this kind of amazing discovery. I sat in and I was talking to her and she said, what were you from and I sat from Lebanon and as I said, what were you from? And I said from Lebanon. And as I said, Lebanon, her eyes just lit up.

And she said, well, you got to get out of the bar now and go cross the street until you find a tree and you'll know what I'm talking about. Which I did. And that's where they had a huge sign that says Cedar of Lebanon gift from the country of Lebanon to Lebanon south Dakota. And there was a big tree next to it.

And it was not a Cedar tree. It was a juniper tree. This is where the story gets interesting. Thus begins a bit of a detective story. But first let me explain a little bit about what's going on here. Cedar trees are very easy to recognize. They are, I mean at least Lebanese people, they are the symbol of Lebanon. You see Cedar trees on the flag that is burning in protest right

now. They are on passports. But like everything in Lebanon, I mean this thing that is so much apart of the country is barely there anymore. For thousands of years, various empires would march into Lebanon and take the Seaters. The Romans used the Seaters to build their walls. The Sumerians and Babylonians and Egyptians would make coffins out of Seater trees, because they felt the wood would take them into the afterlife. As for the mystery of that specific Juniper tree in Lebanon, South Dakota that was posing as a cedar, here's what Fadi quickly discovered.

He had a lot of Lebanese in America starting in about 1880 and then moving through to the 1920s, he had like several hundred thousand Lebanese in America. And jumping forward a bit, 1955, in Lebanon the country you had a prime minister, Camille Chammoune, who was a Christian guy. I saw Lebanon as a real bridge between East and West. He heard about all of these Lebanon USA's, and he decided to reach out and invite seven mayors of the various Lebanon's of the U.S. to come to Lebanon the country and go on a tour.

They came, they spent two weeks here, seven of them. They visited the presidential mansion, the ancient ruins, they drove up the famous Kadeja Gorsh to see the cedars of God, the few that remain. And after two weeks, the first ladies, Al-Fashamroun, gave each of them a sapling of Lebanese cedar to take back to their own towns to plan them. Which brings us back to F own towns to plan them. Which brings us back to Faddi in 2016, standing in front of this juniper tree that was labeled as a cedar tree gift from the country of Lebanon in 1955.

And while he was standing in front of it, he, like, knew straight away that this was not a cedar of Lebanon. So he started researching where this mix-up came from. I had to do a lot of digging in the archives of the Daily Star and Nahad and L'Oriant Le Jouerre in Lebanon, all these newspapers. And then, even after I went to the US, I started going from library to library in these places, going through the microfish. One of those machines in libraries that, that like archives old newspapers as tiny slides. The person who was supposed to take care of the cedar trees

was a guy called Charles Harris from Lebanon, Nebraska. Who wasn't a town mayor himself actually? He was just a representative for the town of Lebanon, Nebraska. The mayor of Lebanon, Nebraska, was like an older guy. So he couldn't make the trip himself., the Braske. The mayor of Lebanon, the Braske, was like an older guy, so he couldn't make the trip himself. He sent a representative instead, who was Charles Harris,

and he was just 23 years old, like he was a young guy. He was 24, actually, but he was also an agronomy student, which is basically the study of plants and soil. So I suppose the rest of the town may have said, okay, we'll give these saplings to this guy. He'll do whatever he needs to do with them, to adapt them to the U.S. climber and we'll plant them back in the U.S. when it's done.

But that didn't happen. This is where the dark part of the history comes in. Charles Harris did not go to Lebanon to Brasca after Beirut. He decided to go to Jerusalem first because it was close to Easter and he wanted to do a pilgrimage of the Holy Land and he got killed there. Charles Harris was killed by a Jordanian border guard. Now, the circumstances around his death are a little bit lost in time. But another New York Times article from 1955 says, quote,

Charles B. Harris of Lebanon, Nebraska, was killed today in the Jerusalem No Man's land by a Jordanian guards rifle shot. A Jordanian sentry shouted a warning, Mr. Harris apparently continued on his way, a shot from the guard killed him, end quote. But because he got killed there, the trees, someone needed to take care of end quote. But because he got killed there, the trees someone needed to take care of them, so they shipped them to Lebanon, Ohio instead. And the nursery in Lebanon, Ohio, they fumigated them to make sure they don't carry any pests

or like diseases that are going to infect other trees in the area. And as they fumigated them, six of the seven died, only once survived and they kept it. But what they did was, instead of telling the other towns that the trees died, they sent them different species of trees and told them that this was a cedar tree. But I didn't have the heart to tell them, by the way.

I mean, they were proud of it, you know? So, in any case, I went back to the bar and Hazel told me, you can come back in the evening because people could come in. You know, you'll see more people. So he went back that evening and played darts with some of the, with some of the friendly folks from Lebanon South Dakota and left in the morning for his next Lebanon. He continued this trip over the winter visiting 46 Lebanon's over the next four months,

and then it was time to come back home to Beirut, back home to reality. Long story short, after the first trip I came back to Lebanon, my Lebanon. When I was doing the trip, I had quit my day job to focus on photography. But then, you know, that kind of life isn't very sustainable financially speaking. So I was like, okay, maybe I should just take off my hat and go back to my old stuff. So yeah. So Fadi took a job teaching photojournalism. Wasn't really sure what he should be doing,

where he should be living, whether in Lebanon, the country or over in America, What he should be doing, where he should be living, whether in Lebanon the country or over in America, says he kind of felt a little... free floating. But after he'd been back a few months, he got this text message from somebody in Lebanon Nebraska. And suddenly the adventure took a whole new turn. That's after the break.

Science reporting on Radio Lab is supported in part by Science Sandbox, a Science Foundation initiative dedicated to engaging everyone with the process of science. This is Radio Lab, I'm Chad Ibu Murad, back to our story from producer Alex Atec and the podcast Curning Cultures. This is a story about a road trip from Lebanon the country to 47 Lebanon, USA's and then back when we left Fadi, he was in Beirut, not quite sure what to do with his life, when he gets a text message, several actually, from people he'd met in Lebanon, Nebraska. Lebanon, Nebraska, they didn't have a real cedar tree, they had a juniper tree,

but still they thought it was a cedar from Lebanon. And it was a big tree and they decorated it on Christmas because it was like by the town hall. And after I came back, a few months after I came back, people started sending me photos of the tree and it got hit by lightning and split in half. Oh my God. I was like, I feel like there's a curse to me or something.

So this is off to you, is this? After I visited, yeah. This tree had been there for like 60 years, 60 years. And then just shortly after you visited? Yeah, and it wasn't something like, you know, like it died. No, it had to be something like biblical. So people started saying you mess just like with the picture of the tree.

Yeah, asking if I could replace it though. So a plan started to formulate in the back of his mind. What if I can go back around America and repay all of these towns in some small way by gifting them real seeders of Lebanon? I knew that I couldn't take the seeders from Lebanon, because they were gonna be fumigated again. And that takes like two years.

Instead, I found a nursery in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to keep with the, you know, with the biblical thing. So, Lebanese guy, Lebanese American guy, had brought the seeds from here, but had grown the saplings over there. Yeah, he actually reached out to me first. I was following his tour, but then he reached out to me. I was like, I know who you are. Okay, so I know the line isn't great here, but this is Bass Salmon, who runs a tree nursery in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. I work actually for Apple. That's my full-time job,

but I also operate a nursery called Trees of Joy, and I grow trees that are not very common to this part of the world. And as you might expect, he's also kind of an encyclopedia on Seedas of Lebanon. There's even a Seedas of Lebanon tree in the White House in Washington DC. No way. Yeah. How did that come to be there? That was in the 70s by Jimmy Carter. He planted that tree along with a group of Lebanese people in the late 70s. So when Ferdi reached out with this kind of strange

idea, he was down to help. Yeah, it's definitely not what it's not for the money that I wanted to be involved in, something like that. I adore the season of Queens, I love nature, and seeing something that started as a seed in my nursery. It's like a baby. And it's like having a baby that matures into a big man and goes to college and has a degree and something and have something like accomplished. So seeing a seed that started out in my greenhouse to be planted out in a city called Lebanon is really, really, really nice. And I should say we're not just talking about shipping off a few envelopes of seeds here, which is what I initially thought. So when you say post the tree, I mean what are you posting? Is it like a seed or is it like a mini, like what am I imagining here?

So it is a grown tree in a pot, which is oil and you know, physically grown and so the trees are still there. We're already about four years old. And so in the autumn of 2018, Ferdiplan, his second trip around the US two years after his second trip around the US, two years after his first trip.

This time, with the goal to replant eight Lebanese ciders in the towns that Charles Harris his saplings had never made it to. So wherever I go into any of these Lebanon's, he'd ship me the tree to the close post office, and that's where we planned him. And on this trip, he ended up again in Lebanon, South Dakota. This is the small town of under 50 people where he first discovered the mislabeled sedatries, but he couldn't plant an actual Lebanese cedar here.

For one simple reason is that the weather in Lebanon, South Dakota would not allow an actual cedar tree from Lebanon to live. But I did, it was one of my favorite places to go to, Lebanon, South Dakota. So I did go back on this trip. And I went there because it was close to my birthday, and I wanted to spend my birthday at the Long Branch Line.

I did not do that because my van broke down somewhere else, and I was a few days late. But as I got there, I went into the bar and Jan was there. Jan, by the way, is someone else who works at the Longbourer Absolune. And I just was wondering if she's going to remember me from two years ago. So the first thing she tells me, like, not hello, not anything, she said, where have you been? That was the first question. I was like, do you remember me? It's like, yeah,

I remember, you're supposed to be here a few days ago. It turns out his aunt, who lives in San Francisco, knew he'd roughly be spending his birthday 11 on South Dakota. So she called the bar, the Long Branch Saloon, to let them know and mail the tray of baccalaver to the Long Branch for all of them to eat. She said, you got to come back tonight.

So I came back tonight, and it was Jan and Jim, and they were playing, and they played for me you know yes yes this is Linda from the Long Branch Saloon again Yeah, he came in and we had a little party for him. This is Linda from the Long Branch Saloon again. Jim McRawicz played the guitar and can play the accordion. And so we had music and Fabio was taking pictures of him while they were playing. And we had a group picture with him with all the people in the bar that night. So after spending his birthday in Lebanon, South Dakota, he continued on his trip and one of his next stops was Lebanon, Missouri.

I will admit that I teared up a little bit when the mayor of Lebanon, Missouri, came and he presented to me with a proclamation of friendship between like an official one between their town and our country. So this is the proclamation that Mayor Jarred Carr of Lebanon, Missouri, signed on that day. The City of Lebanon and communities across America share a bond with the country of Lebanon, not only through name, but friendship. Americans have going social, cultural, and economic ties to the global community

as we seek to communicate with and understand our partners from different language and cultural backgrounds. And it was something, I mean, the words in it, there was just like, it was touching. Those thousands of miles may separate our countries, our communities are bonded in friendship and in historic connection, dating back to 1955. And the mayor actually designated an entire day to this.

September 20th in Lebanon, Missouri is now the day of friendship between the Republic of Lebanon and the town of Lebanon, Missouri. Over these four months, Ferdinand planted eight trees in eight different Lebanon's. And in some way that brings us full circle. I'm just curious, like, you started off your journey by leaving. Whatever it was you were looking for, do you feel like you found it? It just reminded me of a thing, which is when I was in Lebanon, Wisconsin, one of the Lebanon's in Wisconsin, because there's two.

Lebanon, Wau Pact, accounting, Wisconsin. So it had no people at all But I was gonna sleep for the night and I was trying to find a place to sleep because I was in a camp prevent So I was in an RV and I remember seeing there was a church parking lot, so I thought okay, I'll sleep there and Then the next morning when I woke up and I remember getting out and it was misty and you could smell the smell of common or right and for a lot of people the idea of common or it's not the very pleasant thing but for me it was just so good to smell that it triggered this whole memory thing from when I was

growing up because at one point during the Civil War, it was so messed up because we're in the bombshell turn all that, our neighbors who are from a village and the beca, called Tirbui. They said, okay, how about we go there, just spend some time there because it's not, there's not a lot of bombing there. I remember when we went there, it was just a village

and we were in the fields the whole day smelling cow manure the whole time. But for someone who had been cooped up in a bond shelter and now who's just running freely, it's just triggered this whole idea of cow manure being freedom. I remember when I walked out of that RV and I smelled that, it felt like, oh my God, it's like that moment was, well, it was a, it was a, I don't know, like powerful is a bit of an overused word, but it was a strong moment and enough of a strong moment for me that I slept in that same spot without moving for three days.

No kidding. Yeah, because it was like, it just transports you back to this good time. I didn't want to move. It was just a happy time. Let me out for a post script of the story. I mentioned that I grew up near Lebanon, Tennessee. My dad still lives there. That was one of the seven places where Fadi planted new trees. Well I happened to be visiting him this week and he and I, my kids, we drove up.

Dad, this way. And tried to find the little plaque in the cedar tree that Fadi had planted with the mayor and a whole ceremony. All right. I'm told it's in this playground. It was in a public park. Oh wait, here it is. Let me see.

Yeah, here it is. And we did find the little stone plaque. Lebanese cedar tree from the country of Lebanon. Cedris Lebanese, I guess that's the technical Lebanon. Cedris Lebeni is, I guess that's the technical term, Cedris Lebeni, Cedar of Lebanon, presented by Fadi Bukarim to the city of Lebanon in August 3rd, 2018. But next to the plaque, their kids playing, but there's no cedar tree.

And we're like, where's the tree? I noticed there's a guy in a green shirt who looked like the groundskeeper about 20 yards away. What, can you tell me what happened? Where'd the tree go to? It was a twig about that big. Okay. I'ma sure the kid ran back and forth.

Somebody ran it open. Oh, so they... They won the bush! There's a twig. Get that nothing on it. And someone stepped on it or something? Well, I'm sure they did. We came in one morning.

It was down. When did that happen? Oh, it happened. The third one month ago? I don't know. Yeah. That little tree right there wasn't going to never make it there. Wow.

Man. They ran over it, the kids ran over it, and then the kids were gone. That's not. My dad and I were like, well, that's just fitting. But then walking back to the car, he and I decided, you know what it also be fitting, we just replant the tree. I'm going to replace it.

Yeah. Yeah. We'll call Fadi, a guy from Pennsylvania. We'll have him send us a new tree. Yeah. Send it to you. I'll play with you. And you bring it over to him.

So we made a plan. And then I mean, it would cost you a lick, you know? To call Bass Salmon at the Bethlehem Nursery, arrange for him to send my dad a new cedar sapling and we're going to bring that back to Dave to replant. This piece was made in collaboration with Curning Cultures, a podcast that tells stories from the Middle East, North Africa, both Arabic and English.

Be sure to check them out because they are amazing at KurningCultures.com. Huge thanks to them. The original story was reported by Alex Atec with editorial support from Vela Ibrahim, Dana Balut, Zena Duidur, and Heba Fisher, original sound design by Alex Atec, the new update of the story was produced by Shim Oli-I and we had original music by Thomas Koner and Chad Atui. So now that makes three Jads! You can read more about Fatties Trips and Seas photographs at LebanonUSA.com or on his Instagram at LebanonUSA. And if you'd like to donate to Beirut at this difficult time, we've got a bunch of links on our website,

radiolab.org. Thank you for the sport, for listening. I'm Chad Abumrod. See you next time. Hi, I'm Jenny Devine, calling from Milan, Italy. Radio Lab is created by Chad Abumrod with Robert Krohwicz and produced by Soren Wheeler. Bill and Keep is our director of sound design. Soothe Leckenberg is our executive producer.

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