Another Camp is over... the last one for this period of Caravan!

Camp 1 review will follow :-) But we had a great kick-off!

In the meetings we had held before we were afraid, that due to the small group of volunteers motivation and volume would become an issue. But Dubai and Caravan proofed us wrong! We had blasts during all the day, shouted „Trullalas“ in the morning, during the day until the very end just before night prayer. Our strict rule, that whoever does not participate in the cheers has to do his own, brought us some nice solo‘s from our Lebanese friends... BTW: thank you so much Rani, Dani, Hady, Jimmy, Ray and Joy, for spontaneously coming up to ChabrouH and staying longer than planned! You helped us out in the kitchen, in the shower, feeding, singing, dancing and especially translating. Also thank you for the fabulous concert you gave the boys, they were extremely happy (as everybody could tell!)!!

Also many thanks to our Dubai Friends, who did an AMAZING job in the Camp! When I look back at me at the age of 15-17, I did not have that strength and perseverance to stick to one boy 13 hours a day. Caravan is extremely impressed by the work that you did, and we hope to see you in our apartment when we come back to visit within the next few years! :)

A big „thank you“ to Patrick Jabre as well, who was in ChabrouH during the entire camp, took care of Elias and did all our shopping. I think we never had such a vast variety of treats during a Camp, and we really appreciated all the sweets we and the boys were given.

We are Caravan

Between the camps !

In between our two Easter camps in Chabrouh, we’ve had the chance of enjoying a few vacation days in Beirut. We came down from the camp on the 14^th, and took the afternoon to rest a bit. But astonishingly, some of us we still motivated to go out in the night. So they did, showing great strength and determination after this exhausting week in Chabrouh. Only Stéphane, Carole and Matthieu stayed home to play endless Risk games.

On the next day, the Risk players went to Batrun, while the others finally had to surrender to their beds. We met all together in the evening for a very nice barbecue at Hadi’s place, 5 minutes away from our house. Hadi’s flat is quite amazing, I have to say, with an awesome view on Downtown. No need to describe the evening, I guess: every Lebanese party starts with arak and ends up with guitars. Stéphane and Carole had to leave us during this night. We enjoyed their presence a lot and hope they had a good time here in Lebanon with us.

On the 16^th, some of us stayed home to write their essays, while other left to Kaslik to do some shopping. Mafi, Amelie, Maxi and Matthieu plundered all the shops and came back with heavy bags and light wallets. The most important event of the day, however, remains the 5 hours team meeting we’ve had from 7h30 to 00h30. We talked about the camp, giving feedback ad providing ideas for the following camp. (Even) more motivation was what came out the most in our feedback, which we all loudly agreed to improve. Then we discussed all the issues of a normal team meeting, meaning organisation of the week etc… The last topic, which took a heck of a load of time, was normal feedback. We were all released when that endless meeting finally stopped.

On the 17^th, some of us stayed again at home to write all of these papers for university, while Johanna, Marie, Josepha and Matthieu went to in the Shouf region for some site seeing. They stopped by Deir El Quamar, then Beiteddine, then the beach and finally came back home after watching the sunset in Corniche. We went out almost all together that night. We met at Barometer for some arak and dabké. Cosy night that was, but for the Austrian guests, Luci and Matthieu who decided to go for a bath in the sea.

On the 18^th, the main event of the day was the visit of the Jeita Grotto by Caroline, Suzi, Maxi, Matthieu and Luci. They all loved the site, which is quite impressive indeed!

The 19^th was the last day for Marie and Josepha, Johanna’s friends from Austria. So we decided to go party (like almost every evening of the week, but this time we had a good excuse). We had a very nice evening in Hamra which ended up in the lower apartment. We said goodbye to our guests and wished them a safe flight home. It was a great pleasure to have them with us not only for the camp but also during this time of vacation! We enjoyed their presence and hope they liked their stay among us. Another important event of the 19^th was, of course, the arrival of our German doctor, Dr. Hans Peter Müller, whom we thank from the bottom of our hearts to make the journey from GHANA (!) to take care of the boys and us in the camp.

The 20^th was the day of the great news. Amelie got accepted in PPE in Bolzano, and Yan in the TU München. Suz, Maxi and Daniel kindly took care of inviting the doctor to visit Byblos. The others finished their essays or this blog.  

 

Jordan Trip

As you might have read before on this blog, some of us had planned to go to Jordan during the Christmas break, only it didn’t work out because of multiple reasons… So Matthieu proposed to go during the Easter break, but then again, most of the team couldn’t or wouldn’t come. Just a few days before the break, Amelie and Caroline decided to join Matthieu on an adventure of 5 days through Jordan. As he had already been there, Matthieu organised the trip and served as guide.

So we three left on the same day as Moritz, and flew to Amman. We were quite scared as the steward announced a local temperature of 5°C. A bad joke obviously; we fried during our entire trip! After passing through immigration and getting cool stamps on our passports, we rented a car at the airport and began our journey on the great Hashemite Kingdom. We drove West to Madaba, where we were completely immerged in a different Middle East than the one we are now used to and saw quite impressive mosaics. We quickly drove further West to the Dead Sea. Now that was some proper self-spoiling. We landed in a four star “spa” hotel, with our own bungalow as a room, 3 or 4 pools, a great view and a lot of awesomeness. So we spent a bit more than a day there, going to the sea, floating for a while, then putting mud all over ourselves, and resting a bit in the sun to rest of all these previous efforts and to work on our tan a bit…

We left the Dead Sea fully relaxed and drove South the next day on the Kings’ Road. So the afternoon was mainly spent looking at amazing landscapes and wadis along that road. We lost our track right before sunset, which seemed to bother no one but Matthieu. The girls were more into playing with the kids than finding our way before the night fell… We fortunately found our way after a while and made it safely through the desert to Petra.

It would be pointless to describe the awesomeness of the hotel we stayed in, as we would only appear spoiled (again!). We woke up early in the next morning to start a day that will probably stay in our minds for a very long time. Petra is a world wonder, no wonder why. Seriously though, it is proper amazing. Matthieu did the guide during the whole day and obviously enjoyed his explanations more than the girls who seemed a bit more concerned by taking pictures of themselves while posing or jumping or whatever. We hiked the whole day from temple to tomb, from cistern to monastery or sacrificial place. Quite impressive, the whole thing! And then happened something unexpected, to say the least. We were coming down from the mountain as two Bedouins proposed to take us on the top of a temple to watch sunset. We accepted and enjoyed some appetizers on the top of this huge temple, our feet almost hanging in the empty, watching sunset over Petra. Cool. Very cool! But that was only the beginning of our adventure. The Bedouins invited us to share diner at their cave in the middle of nowhere. We also accepted and were off to a memorable evening. Matthieu first had to run next to the donkeys while the girls and the Bedouins were on them until we made it to the Bedouin village. There, we first enjoyed tea at their family home before setting off to the desert again. We arrived on a sort of a cave which was more of a platform on a rock in the right middle of the desert. There, we lit fire and they started to cook an absolutely delicious diner and boiled tea. We ate with nothing above us but the Milky Way. We talked quite a lot and learned a lot from them. These guys were completely free. It inspired us a lot and instigated reflexions in our minds concerning our own life and conception of happiness and freedom. Then they brought us back to our hotel and wished us good night. As we laid in bed, we thought to ourselves that this night had just come out of a dream… It did, in a way.

On the next day, we left Petra and drove South again direction Aqaba. Amazing landscapes again, but the temperature was rising by the minute. When we came to Aqaba, we were just about toasting. So we dropped our stuff at the hotel and left to the beach. The Red Sea wasn’t so warm, unfortunately, so we decided not to spend too much time bathing but rather to go for a drink. And so we did! But after one or two cocktails, it was about midnight already and we somehow felt like a little bath again. So back we went and bathed under the stars in the Red Sea… Don’t be jealous, maybe you’ll do it one day, too.

We woke up early on the next morning, and drove North to Wadi Rum. Vast, echoing and Godlike were the terms used in the tour guide to describe this area in the desert. We spent our morning walking in this desert, chasing the camels and drawing words in the sand. And then it was already time to go back to Amman. 350km of highway through the desert. That might look cool, and indeed it is, but it’s also quite long, especially since that highway is just about straight… Completely straight. We eventually made it to the airport and back to Beirut safely.

It was an wonderful trip. We three enjoyed it so much, the words are missing me. The atmosphere was funny and relaxed between us and everything went perfect in this dreamlike journey. Coming back to Beirut felt like waking up.

Since we had no Uni this week because of our vacation , our Tuesday began with the first service in Deir el Salib this week, where some of us Caravanistas went with the boys to the garden, to the playing room or just entertained the boys down in St. Dominique by playing games or playing with the guitar for them. It was again great fun for all the boys as well as for us to spend the afteThis week we started our service as usual in Deir el Quamar and this time as well with the friendly support of some of our Lebanese friends. In the service we visited our disabled friends again in their different rooms, sang with them, danced, played the Bseine- Khalib Game and afterwards went with most of the girls for a little walk outside, where we picked some flowers with them. We ended our service again with the singing round. At the spiritual meeting we had this day an interesting talk with Father Thom about bad spirits and their influence. On Monday evening we had a visitor in our apartment: a good friend of Mathieu’s sister, who is working for the UN in Lebanon and who could tell us more about the work of the UN in the region and their mission in Lebanon. It was a very interesting talk for us and we appreciated her presence very much.

Wednesday morning we left our apartment in Naccache quite early to drive with our bus to Faraya. Not for skiing, as you might think but for preparing Chabrouh for the Caravancamp starting at the 10^th of April. So preparing and cleaning the kitchen, carrying mattresses, decorating the rooms with pictures, checking the storages, etc. were our tasks on this day.

Also at our service in Antelias we had again the great support of our Lebanese friends. This week we had again service in the 2^nd floor, where we made a long singing and dancing round, played Bowling, stop dance, and the Bseine- Khalib game with the boys. All in all we were able to make more different activities because of the bigger number of volunteers in the service, which caused obviously more fun, entertainment and attention for all the boys. At Thursday evening we invited our Lebanese friends to our apartment to celebrate the last evening together with Moritz, since he had to leave us to start his studies in Germany. So we had a nice last evening together with our friends in the apartment, where Moritz also donated Pizza for all of us. Later on some of us still went out to continue partying in Moritz favorite nightclub BO18.

Friday we had our last Caravan service in Deir el Saliib before our vacation and the two Camps we are organizing in Chabrouh. So we all used this last possibility for a while to spend a really good time with our Boys from St. Dominique and gave our best to make them feel happy and loved by spending our afternoon with them. We just will continue the service in the homes at the first of May because of our two camps and the week of Easter vacation.

Friday evening we Caravanistas had a nice last dinner, which Lucas and Moritz prepared as cooks in our kitchen (very delicious Spaghetti Bolognese), before we brought him on early Saturday morning to the airport. There we said goodbye to him in our way by singing some songs for him in the airport. We are all sad to lose one more of our friends before June and wish Moritz all the best for his studies and his plans for the future. Anyway we all will see each other again.

Caroline, Amelie and Matthieu also left on this morning for their trip to Jordan. We’re sure you have to tell a lot about your trip in the next blog and can’t wait to see you back in Naccache.

On Saturday the little rest of us left to Deir el Saliib to bring the boys of St. Dominique with the support of the Lebanese youth to the “Palm Sunday” Mess. It was a great success to go with the all nice dressed boys this day to church. Also some of their parents and relatives came to attend Mess and to spend this time with them, which is always nice to see for us since we spend a lot of time with the boys. After the Mess we took part with them in the procession and afterwards brought them back to St. Dominique, where we helped the caretakers with feeding the boys. In the following days many of the boys go for Easter vacation home to their families and are very happy about it as we are for them. Some boys already told us weeks before that they leave to their families.

On Saturday Mafi also arrived back from Germany together with her brother Alfons in order to bring our empty apartment back to life since Lucas and Maxi also left on Sunday morning to a hiking trip in the mountains and the surrounding of Sourat. Also Daniels parents arrive on this Sunday to spend a week in Beirut. But we will be united again as a complete group shoi shoi this week. 

Week ending 25th March

Emancipation week

This week was a very fun week. Lucas pronounces when we had lunch in Deir el Quammar that this week is going to be emancipation week. He immediately gave the ‘good’ example to sit on the floor during lunch he explained: ‘woman has to sit under the table.

Lucas and Moritz where really motivated in this week: Girls could open the door and be the last ones who were coming in, the girls get NOT at first there food and if they want water they have to fill their class by themselves, also the girls had to carry heavy stuff. In the end the girls didn’t want emancipation anymore and the boys reach there point: to show the girls that the same rights mean the same duties.

The other part of the week looked quite normal; on Monday DEQ, again we went to the different floors, singing and of course THE Guitar was with us, with Maxi who was playing it. No spiritual meeting but a team gathering in the evening about the eastern camps and afterwards feedback round.

On Tuesday and Thursday we had uni I and our lecture was Fr. Tom, he talked about minorities in Lebanon what was very interesting. In uni on Thursday there was really loud commercial music outside, so after the lecture we went there; there was a DJ, cable line from the 5^th floor you could slide down, the best part was though the manoushe they made and it was for free, Caravan ate almost everything, it was delicious.

On Wednesday we had a spiritual meeting with Abouna Romanus, he came to our house and we talked about the way to the cross and that you have to trust in him because he leads you in the right way.

Afterwards we had our last team meal; Maffi was leaving to Germany this night and she will return this Saturday in the night and Moritz will already away to Germany for his university. We had a really good Lebanese meal it was so cozy.

Lexi and Marijke who just landed came to say hi to us. It was really nice to see other Caravan people again.

On Thursday we went to Antellias and we had a great support from Joy, Patrick, Lexi and Marijke. Thanks a lot guys. Because we had two Arabic speakers we could play top schlagen and we played Pool (Dutch ball) with some boys.

In the evening there was a Lebanese youth event. First a talk of Marwan about all the great work the Lebanese Order off Malta is doing. Than we had a really amazing dinner the best sandwiches you can’t imagine. The dessert was just awesome. Patrick Jabre: ‘I am going to ask if you can take the desserts with you home.’ In the end Moritz and Matthieu were walking with 3 bags full of cake.

On Friday we had a relaxing day with only DES.

This week was perfect for the boys off DES because after a long winter we could take them out to the garden again. Spring started in Lebanon. Every day we took them to the garden, gave them sweets and drinks. They were so happy to be outside.

Saturday we split the group: Lucas, Suzanne and Daniel went with Dr. Isaa to Batroun and walked there, went to the souks and later to Sourat to spend the night there.

Matthieu, Johanna and Caroline went skiing in Faraya. Afterwards Matthieu and Caroline went swimming in the sea.

Amalie, Maxi and Moritz stayed at home slept, chilled, wrote stuff for uni and got new gas bottles.

Maxi and Amelie went also to the sea and Maxi also swam in the sea.

In the night Amalie, Maxi, Moritz and Matthieu went to this great party (they came back with green shoes, pants, because some people put green paint all over the floor)

Johanna and Caroline had to stay home because there skin was really sunburned from skiing; they were real Banadoura’s.

The next day we all came together in Sourat (except Johanna who couldn’t come because her skin would get worse). After the mess in Sourat we went with Dr. Isaa to a really old monastery which was built in the rocks. It was an orthodox monastery so the girls had to where long skirts what was really fun.  We continued our trip; we walked next to a river. It was so beautiful; everybody agreed it looked like a fairytale. Some people where so crazy to swim in the fast streaming mountain river. In the end they had to walk with totally wet trousers and sopping socks.  

On our way we saw many animals, cows, 500 goats with 4 dogs and shepherds and a really big frog.

We had a nice lunch with wine next to the river we chilled and talked.

In the evening we had dinner with Dr. Isaa and then some of us returned to Beirut. It was an amazing week and an awesome weekend!

We really want to thanks Dr. Isaa for organizing this amazing weekend for us 

Week ending 18th March

So what happened last week. After coming fully relaxed and filled with a certain spirit from the spiritual meeting, we had Monday off to come back into the “normal world“. The girls used the free day to go shopping in the ABC Mall, the boys cleaned the apartment in the meanwhile.

On tuesday morning we went quite early at 8 up to Deir el Quamar. Before the service with the girls we visited Beit ed Dine. Lucas and Suzanne got slightly wet, because of some childish Caravanistas. In the home of the girls we had the possibility to visit them in their rooms. We saw loads of new girls. Most of them were just lying their beds and never have any input. So we came and proofed one more time, what an amazing choir we are. The girls really enjoyed this little change in their daily life!

Wednesday we had as usual service in Deir el Salib.

On thursday we had service in Antellias. It was a very musical service. The motto of the service was “Be Hippie“, so we sat all around Maxi, who was playing guitar and sang together songs of Bob Dylan and Co. The boys enjoyed our little Hippie-session a lot and were very comforted be the sweet voices of the Caravan.

On the weekend some of us decided to go with our Dr. Issa to Sourat. They went to beautiful  villages in the mountains and to the famous Tannourine waterfall.

PS Suzie wants to say Happy Mothers Day to all mothers in particular her own mother who reads this blog religiously !!