Derdghaya....

Derdghaya is the name of the village I come from. I t is in South Lebanon about 15 km east of Tyre. These days the village is no where near as full as most people live in Beirut or have emigrated around the world. There is around 800 registered voters on the electoral roll, though there could be more than twice that if all the emigrants had registered their children.

The village name is of the Syriac language like most village names through out Lebanon. It means a place of pure beauty and is written in Syriac as ܕܪܕܓܐܝܐ

Derdghaya was settled some time in the late 18th century by my Great great great grandfather Boulos Rizk......that's another blog by itself

Most of the villagers farm tobacco, olives, corn, lentils, worked as stone masons or a combination of both. The Church St Georges was built in 1911 so its century celebration was held in March this year. From what I understand there was only a small chapel before the Church was built.

There are around 6 prominent family names being Rizk, Khoury, Badawi, Zarka, Raad and Elia. These families are either related by blood or through marriage generations ago. So if you you from one of those families its likely we are are cousins. The story I was told was that if you married a girl from Derdghaya you had to be a brave strong man and had to move to the village. This is how the village grew.