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Said al-Otruk was born in Acre in 1922; he now lives in the old Souk in Sidon where he owns a small electrical shop.
The life of a fisherman at this time was golden – which is why I wrote “The golden days” on this photograph. One never needed to go far from home – perhaps around 500 meters – the fish would be waiting for us, sardine and sfarneh, a snake-like fish. After an hour or so we’d come back ... God provided for us well. Some people say being a fisherman is hard, but for those who have the right equipment it isn’t – to fish sfarneh and sardine one needs special nets. My boat was number 9... In this shop I feel as if I’m confined - it’s a prison where I spend my days from seven in the morning until five in the evening, or later - selling electrical appliances is not my job, I’m a fisherman! Because my brother had learnt electricity in Acre and started a shop there, I learnt about the trade while I helped him with his accounts in the evenings, when I’d finished my work. Then when we came to Lebanon he started another shop so I helped him here also and then I ended up having my own store...
We used to spend the summers in Ramallah where many families from Jaffa owned homes – this picture was taken there in 1933, I think. My younger sister is on my lap and we are sitting with my father on the porch of the Audi Hotel – the house we rented was across from the hotel, so we’d walk through the garden and sit there in the evenings. My father liked to play cards there and smoke nargileh. A young man called Ito Beiruti took this picture – he was an amateur photographer from Jaffa. I remember, as a child, thinking how strange he seemed. One day – which I’ll never forget – we followed him through the streets in Jaffa near our house, singing some rhyme like “Ito afa ita…” and he chased us through the streets and gave us a big spanking when he caught us...
We visited the house a few years ago and the walls were as you see them here, though the building has been divided into a number of apartments. Next to us is a phonograph, which was unusual in those days – when my father went on business trips to Paris he’d bring us back records to listen to. In the last months before we left I remember that from time to time shots were fired at the houses in Jaffa from neighboring Tel Aviv. One evening my brother woke up and saw what he thought was a huge spider on the mirror. Then we saw a hole in the shutters where a bullet had gone through - later we found it on the floor in the corner of the room... Jamil Orabil was born in Haifa in 1925; he now lives in Wadi Zein in south Lebanon.
It was about this time that I got married – my wife was Jewish, it’s a funny story how I met her. Many of my friends were communist then and they were trying to make me one also so they’d hold meetings and invite lots of beautiful women to them – all Jewish, of course – to encourage people like me to attend, but I wasn’t tempted! Eventually, however I met my wife – who in fact was also Jewish – at the match factory that we both worked at. We fell in love and got married – that was before we came to Lebanon...
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Someone called Mahmoud Mamish took this picture of me on my boat in the old port of Acre – he was also from Acre, though he had three or four cinemas in Beirut. I remember the old days - days of freedom! Work at sea is freedom…whenever you need to you need money you can go out and catch some for yourself. 
When people started to flee from Acre in 1948, boats like mine were used to take people to the larger steamers that were waiting off shore. You see my boat here in this picture – you see the number 9? I am standing next to it – I’ve put a cross above my head so you can find me. There were three different steamers that you could choose from, with different flags. One went to the port of Hama in Syria, another to Alexandria in Egypt and the third went to Lebanon ... People left in such a hurry, leaving everything, taraku jamal bi ma hamal! [They left the camel with its load]. When I see these pictures I feel bitter.
This is the other picture I treasure of my younger brother and me at my grandfather’s house in Jaffa where we lived for some time. It was luxurious – the living room was thirteen meters long, and there was an inner courtyard with an enormous jasmine. I used to collect the buds and make garlands from them, like the ones you see people selling by the side of the road here. The layout and interior was designed by an Italian architect – I particularly loved the walls. They were pale blue, painted to look like marble, and the patterns you see behind us were a darker blue... 
This was taken in 1946 – my brother is standing next to the car he’d bought, with his wife and child. It was the latest model, the model of the year! We were in Hadara Karmel then, which was a mountain resort where people would go to escape the coastal heat during the summer months, or at the weekends. My brother loved to be fashionable and elegant – I want you to notice how well dressed he is...