Spanish French Inglés Inglês

Episode 89: Reconstruire le travail d'une vie (Rebuilding a Life's Work) - Revisited

By Duolingo on Tue 21 Mar 2023

In honor of Women’s History Month, we’re revisiting a story by Maya Husseini, a stained-glass artist who spent her career rebuilding churches in her hometown of Beirut. But after a devastating warehouse explosion in August 2020, she was faced with a question: could she help rebuild Beirut? Stick around until the end to hear what Maya has been up to since this episode first aired.

How to Listen

Listen free on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Transcript

Ngofeen: Bonjour dear listeners! In many countries around the world, March is Women’s History Month. To mark the occasion, the Duolingo French Podcast is revisiting some of our favorite stories from women trailblazers across the francophone world. Today, we’ll hear an episode from August 2021. It takes us to Lebanon, where we meet a stained-glass artist named Maya Husseini.

Over the course of her 30-year career, Maya made a name for herself in Beirut. You could see her stained-glass windows in many of the city’s churches. But in 2020, a warehouse explosion devastated Beirut… and Maya was faced with a question: could she help rebuild her city? Keep listening to find out. And stay tuned at the end for an update from Maya. Now, onto the episode.

Ngofeen: On August 3rd, 2020, Maya Husseini was sitting in her sister’s breezy garden, surrounded by cypresses and roses. It was a hot summer day, and Maya had escaped the scorching heat of her hometown of Beirut to celebrate a special occasion: her 60th birthday.

Maya: Ma mère et ma sœur vivent dans les montagnes, à 15 kilomètres de Beyrouth. Ce jour-là, ma sœur avait organisé une surprise pour mon anniversaire. C’était une très belle journée. Quand je pensais à ma vie, j’étais satisfaite. J’avais eu une belle carrière.

Ngofeen: Maya was a stained-glass artisan, un maître verrier. In fact, she was the most renowned stained-glass artisan in Lebanon. She had spent her career creating stained-glass windows, des vitraux, for more than 30 of Beirut’s churches.

Maya: Je suis maître verrier. J’ai fait les vitraux de la majorité des églises de Beyrouth. Grâce à mon travail artistique, j’ai contribué à construire ma ville de Beyrouth et son héritage. Après 30 ans de travail, je finissais un dernier projet et je me préparais à prendre ma retraite.

Ngofeen: Maya thought she’d soon retire, prendre sa retraite. But the next day, on August 4th, at six in the afternoon, she heard an explosion… Then a second explosion. It sounded like loud thunder. At first, she didn’t understand what it was, but then she started receiving calls and messages from friends, family, and clients. And what she heard changed everything.

Maya: Mes amis m’ont expliqué qu’il y avait eu une explosion très violente dans le port de Beyrouth et que toute la ville était détruite. En quelques secondes, j’ai compris que tous mes vitraux, 30 ans de travail, avaient disparu.

Ngofeen: Bienvenue and welcome to the Duolingo French Podcast. I’m Ngofeen Mputubwele. Every episode, we bring you fascinating true stories to help you improve your French listening and gain new perspectives on the world.

The storyteller will be using intermediate French, and I’ll be chiming in for context in English. If you miss something, you can always skip back and listen again. We also offer full transcripts at podcast.duolingo.com.

Ngofeen: When Maya was a child in the 1960s, Lebanon was a country full of hope. It had been independent from colonial France for 20 years, and its capital, Beirut, was a cosmopolitan city with many religious and ethnic communities living peacefully together. Maya grew up in a Maronite Christian family and they often went to church together.

Maya: Quand j’étais enfant, j’adorais aller à la cathédrale Saint-Louis de Beyrouth avec mon père, ma mère et mes quatre sœurs. J’étais fascinée par sa structure en pierre et ses grandes arches. Après, on allait boire une limonade dans le centre de Beyrouth. J’adorais ces moments en famille.

Ngofeen: Maya’s father was an architect who specialized in building churches. Since she’d always loved to draw, her father hoped she’d follow in his footsteps and eventually take over his business. But Maya had other dreams. What she wanted was to become a painter.

Maya: Je voulais faire une école d’art. Alors avec mon père, on a trouvé un accord : il m’a autorisée à aller en école d’art, mais je devais apprendre à faire des vitraux. Selon mon père, il y avait beaucoup de travail et on pourrait travailler ensemble, lui et moi.

Ngofeen: So Maya went to art school and studied how to make stained glass. And right away, she loved it. It was a lot like painting.

Maya: Avant, j’aimais peindre des personnages, des scènes au marché ou dans les villages. Alors, c’était parfait, parce que sur les vitraux, on fait beaucoup de scènes de la Bible. J’ai adoré la couleur et la lumière qui donnaient vie à ces personnages.

Ngofeen: When Maya started university in 1980, Beirut was no longer the peaceful city of her childhood. The country had entered into a civil war, divided into military groups and militias, some backed by neighboring countries, that fought one another in the streets. To keep students safe, Maya’s university adapted its schedule to frequent bombings, les bombardements.

Maya: Pendant mes cinq années d’études, Beyrouth était en guerre. En général, avant midi, il n’y avait pas de bombardements. Alors, on allait à l’université le matin. Et en début d’après-midi, on rentrait à la maison pour éviter les attaques. Certains jours, on ne pouvait pas du tout aller en cours… Mais j’ai continué mes études jusqu’au bout. Quand j’ai eu mon diplôme en 1985, c’était encore la guerre.

Ngofeen: After she graduated in 1985, Maya trained in a world-renowned stained-glass workshop in France. There, she honed her skills: How to draw the perfect picture on cardboard, du carton, and create a template to cut the glass pieces. And how to shape and weld the lead metal rods, des barres de plomb, that hold everything together in a stained-glass window, un vitrail.

Maya: Pour faire un vitrail, d’abord, on dessine la scène sur du carton. On dessine les formes de chaque morceau de verre. On choisit leur couleur, puis on découpe le carton. Ensuite, on utilise ces morceaux de carton pour couper chaque pièce de verre à la bonne taille. Enfin, tous les morceaux doivent tenir ensemble. Pour ça, on utilise des barres de plomb pour connecter et attacher les morceaux de verre. J’aimais beaucoup faire tout ça.

Ngofeen: After she finished, Maya got married and with her husband, they traveled and worked abroad for a few years. Then in 1990, the war in Lebanon finally came to an end. Maya was pregnant with their first child and she was eager to come home to her family, to settle down, and launch her own career.

Maya: J’avais envie de rentrer chez moi, à Beyrouth. Je m’y sentais bien et je voulais que mes enfants grandissent là-bas. Je voulais retrouver ma famille, créer mon atelier et commencer ma carrière.

Ngofeen: Maya set up her workshop, son atelier, under her father’s architecture office. His dream of a father-daughter team came true and together they specialized in Christian churches: He would build new churches or rebuild churches destroyed in the war and Maya would make the stained-glass windows. That’s how Maya got her first commission in Beirut: the church of Saint Joseph.

Maya: L’église de Saint-Joseph se trouvait dans un quartier de Beyrouth qui avait été beaucoup détruit pendant la guerre. Je suis allée voir l’église. Il y avait eu des rénovations, mais il n’y avait pas de vitraux. Les fenêtres étaient simples. Ce n’était pas très beau !

Ngofeen: Maya started brainstorming ideas with the priests who were commissioning the work. They wanted a scene from the Bible that featured the church’s namesake: Saint Joseph, Mary’s husband.

Maya: Les vitraux racontent des histoires religieuses. Alors, avec les prêtres de l’église Saint-Joseph, on a beaucoup réfléchi pour choisir la bonne scène. Et ensemble, on a choisi la scène où Joseph, Marie et Jésus partent vers l’Égypte.

Ngofeen: Once Maya finished the work, she walked through the newly rebuilt church. The light was shining through the bright colored glass depiction of Saint Joseph. Staring at the colorful patches of light, she realized something.

Maya: C'était mon premier gros projet. Mon travail, ce n’était pas seulement de créer des vitraux. C’était aussi de participer à la reconstruction de ma ville. Je voulais vraiment continuer ce travail.

Ngofeen: Maya looked for more contracts. Her father helped, but it was sometimes hard to get older church leaders to trust her, a young woman and the only one in her field.

Maya: Faire des vitraux, c’est un travail manuel qui demande de la force physique. Alors, j'ai dû montrer à mes clients que j’en étais capable. Au début, ils ne me faisaient pas confiance.

Ngofeen: Over time, Maya gained her clients’ trust. She liked that her work was useful and fit with Beirut’s history. Lebanon is an Arab country with a strong Christian tradition dating back to the Roman Empire… But the windows Maya recreated and renovated came from the 19th century, when French Catholic missionaries had come to Lebanon.

Maya: L’art des vitraux est récent à Beyrouth. Cela date de la fin du XIXe siècle, quand des missionnaires catholiques français sont arrivés à Beyrouth. Dans les années 1990, après la guerre, on a dû reconstruire le pays. Il n’y avait plus rien. Il fallait reconstruire et restaurer les bâtiments, mais c’était aussi l’occasion de créer des choses nouvelles. Avec mon expertise, j’ai voulu donner à Beyrouth une nouvelle vie et un nouvel héritage.

Ngofeen: Working on the windows, Maya felt she was contributing to rebuilding her city and creating something new. One church at a time, Maya created an architectural and artistic legacy for her hometown. By the time she was 45 years old, in 2005, she and her team had renovated the windows of over 20 churches and had received international prizes recognizing her work. But her big break came nine years later, in 2014.

Maya: 2014 a été une grande année pour ma carrière. On m’a demandé de faire les vitraux des 39 fenêtres de la cathédrale Saint-Louis, au centre de Beyrouth. C’était l’église où j’allais avec mes parents et mes sœurs quand j’étais enfant. On me faisait confiance pour rénover les vitraux et j’en étais très fière, et très touchée.

Ngofeen: The cathedral and its 39 windows took 2 years to make. Maya recreated different scenes from the bible: Jesus’s birth, the crucifixion, the resurrection… She used bold, bright-colored glass and classic lines.

Maya: Il y avait tellement de détails dans ces vitraux ! J’étais contente du résultat. Souvent, les gens pensent que ces vitraux sont très vieux et qu’ils sont du XIXe siècle, alors qu’en réalité, je les ai fabriqués entre 2014 et 2016. C’est un très beau compliment !

Ngofeen: After two years of hard work, Maya stood in the middle of the cathedral surrounded by her craft. The light filtered through the colorful windows she had created… She felt proud to have been part of the history of the cathedral, as a member of the Christian community, as a Beirut native, and as an artist.

Maya: Les vitraux de la cathédrale avaient été un énorme travail, mais c’était aussi un grand honneur et j’en étais très fière. Pour moi, c’était mon cadeau à Beyrouth, qui allait rester pendant des siècles ! Je n’imaginais pas ce qui allait se passer.

Ngofeen: When Maya celebrated her 60th birthday in the mountains near Beirut, she was happy with her life and her career. She’d raised a son and a daughter and she’d worked in over 30 churches, one cathedral, and a museum in Beirut. She was looking forward to finishing a big project in neighboring Jordan and retiring as an artist to teach apprentices, des apprentis.

Maya: Je voulais prendre ma retraite pour enseigner mon art et partager mon savoir-faire avec des apprentis. Alors, la fête d’anniversaire de mes 60 ans était aussi l’occasion de célébrer ma carrière et ma nouvelle vie.

Ngofeen: The next day was August 4th, 2020. At 6 p.m. Maya heard that thunderous blast.

Maya: J’ai entendu une explosion… Mais je ne savais pas ce qui avait explosé. Je n’ai pas pensé à Beyrouth. La maison de ma mère est dans la montagne, loin de la ville. Mais tout de suite, mon téléphone s’est mis à sonner.

Ngofeen: Maya soon heard that the blast had come from the harbor, where a warehouse containing more than 2,000 tons of chemical products had exploded. She was especially worried for her daughter and her son-in-law, whose family lived a couple of streets away.

Maya: Ma fille m’a appelée. Elle m’a dit que l’appartement de ses beaux-parents avait été complètement détruit par l’explosion. La grand-mère, la mère et le père de son mari étaient à l’hôpital. Ils avaient été blessés dans l’explosion.

Ngofeen: The next morning, Maya got into her car and drove to Beirut. When she entered the city, she noticed the roads were covered in glass shards. She went to visit her workshop.

Maya: Le matin après l’explosion, je suis allée rapidement à l’atelier. La porte avait été cassée par le choc de l’explosion. À l’intérieur, une partie de mon stock et certains vitraux du projet pour la Jordanie avaient aussi été touchés. Mais je me suis dit : « Ce n’est que du matériel. Le plus important c’est d’aller aider ma fille et mon beau-fils. »

Ngofeen: Next, she made her way to the harbor, where her son-in-law’s family lived and where the explosion had happened. There was a lot of damage, des dégâts. The apartment no longer had windows or walls. The floor was covered in debris and glass shards.

Maya: Ma fille, mon beau-fils et moi, on a vu qu’il y avait beaucoup de dégâts. On a commencé à retirer les débris pour pouvoir accéder à l’appartement. On cherchait surtout les objets de valeur et les documents importants.

Ngofeen: For five days, Maya focused on tending to her family and her friends. She went back and forth to the hospital, checking on everyone. She found out a friend of hers had died in the blast…

Maya: Le Liban, c’est un tout petit pays. Il y a eu 200 morts dans cette explosion, donc tout le monde connaît sûrement la famille d’une victime. Minute après minute, je comprenais un peu plus le niveau des dégâts, tout ce qui était détruit, tous ces gens qui étaient morts…

Ngofeen: That first week after the blast, Maya couldn’t think about her work. It was just too much to take in. There was too much destruction, too much death around her… But a week after the blast, Maya took a deep breath, took out her phone, and went through the messages and calls she had missed.

Maya: J’avais pris quelques jours de repos pour supporter le choc. Maintenant, je devais accepter la vérité. J’ai écouté les messages et regardé les photos qu’on m’avait envoyées. Alors, j’ai compris que 30 ans de ma vie professionnelle avaient disparu.

Ngofeen: Once the initial shock set in, Maya decided it was time to take action. She wasn’t one to sit back in despair. So she decided to visit each of the churches she had worked on over the years, in order to take in the extent of the damage.

Maya: Quand je suis arrivée à la cathédrale Saint-Louis, je suis allée au milieu de l’église. Il n’y avait plus rien. J’ai pris ma tête dans mes mains et j’ai commencé à pleurer.

Ngofeen: Of the 39 windows Maya had created for the cathedral, only three were left standing. The rest of the windows had been blown out, and the pews were knocked upside down and strewn across the church. In the Saint Joseph church, where she had done her very first work in Beirut thirty years before, she saw only one thing: wreckage.

Maya: Il n’y avait plus rien. Je devais tout recommencer. Cette semaine-là, je suis allée dans toutes les églises, au musée d’art moderne, chez des clients privés… À chaque fois que je recevais un appel et que je visitais un bâtiment, je pleurais. C’était une partie de moi qui mourrait.

Ngofeen: Maya went back to her workshop. She started clearing things out. She looked through her archives, for drawings she had done 30 years before for the Saint Joseph windows. She hoped that she could recreate them… Then she sat down and took a deep breath: retiring, she now knew, was out of the question.

Maya: Tout de suite, je me suis dit : « Il faut tout reconstruire. » Je ne pouvais pas laisser Beyrouth comme ça. Ma conscience ne me le permettait pas.

Ngofeen: So Maya got back to work.

Maya: Après la guerre, j’ai aidé à reconstruire les églises de Beyrouth. Je pensais avoir fini mon travail et avoir laissé derrière moi, une ville belle et vivante. Mais après les événements horribles de ce 4 août 2020, j’ai dû tout recommencer. J’étais une artiste originaire de Beyrouth, alors j’avais le devoir d’aider à reconstruire la ville.

Ngofeen: Maya felt a duty to help rebuild Beirut…again. But this time around, she’d need more help. And she figured: If she couldn’t retire, she could still teach and transmit her know-how. So she hired apprentices.

Maya: Avant l’explosion, je voulais enseigner et transmettre mon expertise et ma passion pour les vitraux. Finalement, j’allais le faire quand même, avec l’aide des apprentis. J’allais leur transmettre tout ce que je savais, et ensemble, on allait reconstruire les églises de Beyrouth.

Ngofeen: Today, a year after the explosion, Maya is getting the work done, one window at a time. She has hired five apprentices. Together, they try to secure funding for each church, bringing old designs back to life, and creating new ones.

Maya: Ça va prendre quatre ou cinq ans, mais je n’ai pas le droit d’arrêter. Si j’arrête, qui va faire ce travail, qui va refaire les vitraux des églises ? Alors, mes apprentis et moi, nous avons une mission. Ensemble, nous allons reconstruire Beyrouth !

Ngofeen: Maya Husseini is a stained-glass artist living in Beirut, Lebanon. This is where our original episode ends, but… We recently caught up with Maya via email and learned that she made progress on her restoration work in Beirut.

One of the buildings she worked on was the Sursock Museum. It's a beautiful white mansion, with red and yellow stained glass windows. The museum is located less than half a mile from the site of the August 2020 explosion and every single window was damaged by the blast. It took months for Maya and her team to rebuild, but they finally brought the colorful stained glass back to life. Our transcript includes a link to a before and after video of the building’s stunning transformation.

This story was produced by Adélie Pojzman-Pontay. It was adapted by Adonde Media’s Martine Chaussard. We'd love to know what you thought of this episode! You can write us an email at podcast@duolingo.com and call and leave us a voicemail or audio message on WhatsApp, at +1-703-953-93-69. Don’t forget to say your name and where you are from! If you liked this story, please share it! You can find the audio and a transcript of each episode at podcast.duolingo.com. You can also follow us on Apple Podcasts or on your favorite listening app, so you never miss an episode. With over 500 million users, Duolingo is the world's leading language learning platform, and the most downloaded education app in the world. Duolingo believes in making education free, fun, and available to everyone. Download the app today, or find out more at duolingo.com. The Duolingo French Podcast is produced by Duolingo and Adonde Media. I’m your host, Ngofeen Mputubwele, à la prochaine !

Credits

This episode was produced by Duolingo and Adonde Media.

Narrator & Protagonist: Maya Husseini
Producer: Adélie Pojzman-Pontay
Managing Editor: Natacha Ruck
Mixing & Sound Design: Samia Bouzid
Mastering Engineer: Laurent Apffel & David De Luca
Production Manager: Román Frontini
Executive Producer/Editor: Martina Castro