My little ones,
Choose the kite you like,
take it to one of the hills,
and fly it.
And sing with Fairuz:
Fly, oh kite, fly
Oh paper and string
Rise high above faraway rooftops,
on the gentle breeze.
This is a letter left at a supermarket, written and signed by Hanna Farah, one of the last remaining kite makers in Lebanon.
"No one visits my shop anymore," he tells me with a wistful smile, sitting alone in his book-crammed shop, surrounded by colorful kites. "I made all these by hand," he says, pointing to them with pride in his craftsmanship.
Hanna was born in 1938 in the southern town of Marjayoun, but his Hourani accent reveals his roots in Houran, southern Syria.