Brandon, Jasmine, Bassam, and a caballero who ate at Café Jerusalem every bit as often as we did – Bassam does, after all, cook the only falafel in Viña worthy of eating five times a week.
Bassam and Jasmine share the same Lebanese father. Bassam is from Jerusalem; Jasmine from Viña. I learned more about Jerusalem and the Middle East during my time in Viña, than all my years of schooling combined. One afternoon, during siesta, when the police do not patrol the main street, we sat at Café Jerusalem’s sidewalk tables, visiting and soaking in the rays of summer sun. The tranquility was broken as two adolescents bolted down our side street after snatching a purse from the main drag. I jumped from the table to pursue until I realized I was not dressed for the endeavor. Bassam was furious – he’d seen it before. In Jerusalem he said, every person in the street would have descended on the thieves in a horde, blocking their escape until the police arrived. Not in Viña, he said, where the people just watch, and then complain about the police not doing their job.
I thought this an eloquent indictment of the state of humanity. What kind of world do we want to live in? What are we willing to do about it? How much of our power do we give away by passing the responsibility of our own wellbeing to inept "authorities" and "others", who, in truth, are less capable of caring for the world than a collectively determined community of neighbors who refuse to be held prisoner by a cowardly minority of neerdowells? Attempts had been made, on three separate occasions, to rob Bassam of Café Jerusualem’s change bank – he had fought them all off single handedly and apprehended the perpetrators twice. He would not have had to fight at all, he said, had he been in Jerusalem.
Our bittersweet goodbye to Café Jerusalem. Every week, Bassam and Jasmine would cook “special” Lebanese recipes off the menu for themselves and their amigos. On this, our final day, they prepared a feast. Jasmine is a jewel.
Brandon, Jasmine and Bassam. WE LOVE YOU GUYS!!!
And thus ended the chapter of Viña del Mar, Chile. Argentina, prepare yourself…