A walk around Beddawi

In the Beddawi refugee camp, just a few kilometers north of Tripoli, 20-something-thousand Palestinian exiles live within an area of around a single square kilometer. As far as Lebanon's camps go, this one is pretty relaxed, a far cry from the likes of Ain el Helweh. Conditions are hard, but easing; more and more of the 15,000 refugees from neighbouring the Nahr el Bared camp – whose presence doubled the population of Beddawi after the army razed their camp in 2007 – are now returning home. Population figures aside, the camp still suffers from the endemic maladies of Lebanon's Palestinian population; poor services, poor education and poor prospects for anything better anytime soon.

Tea with Fatah

Changes to the Fatah leadership inside Lebanon's camps has been causing something of a ruckus of late, so myself and reporter Josh Wood took a trip to Badawi camp north of Tripoli to find out more from his friendly Fatah contact. While waiting for him to arrive we shared tea and watched some fairly 'unique' chess being played. We ran out of time for a walk around the camp but should be back up there soon, this time with my umbrella for some proper portraits. Should be fun.