In 1860, in Lebanon there has been a wave of massacres that resulted in the immigration of many Lebanese people to other countries to look for safety.
Since then, the Lebanese people have been facing many wars and instable periods taking the pass of immigration.
One of those who immigrated to find fortune and happiness was a little boy called Shukri and it is his story I am going to tell you today.

I- His childhood and the first immigration

1) Shukri was born in a small village called Abaydat. His father died when he was three and he was the only son of the family. His mother raised him modestly and struggled to get him to be educated at the church of the village by a priest. 2) When Shukri was sixteen, he fell in love with a young girl of the village. He was madly in love with her and asked her marry him. But destiny was otherwise. A very rich immigrant from the village that made a fortune in Brazil came back that year and asked that girl for marriage. The parents seeing that he was in a great condition and that he could withstand to their daughters needs gave her hand to that man. Shukri was devastated. He hated the whole world and was revolted against the whole system. The story tells that he then decided to prove to the whole world that they were wrong and that he’ll be the most successful person of the village. He then, on a morning, walked down from the village to the coast and with only a few coins in his pocket, embarked in a boat to go to Ecuador where he had an uncle. 3) He arrived to Ecuador in the winter of 1889 and he was 17 years old then. He started working with his uncle in his shop and then started on his own a very risky business that was to transport fabrics from the coast side to the big cities crossing the mountains. At that time, the mountains of Ecuador where not crossed by travellers because of all the robbers and thieves