Greetings from the balcony of our new apartment, it is a cool 20 something degrees at 2am. Welcome to the blog of Caravan 2011/2012. We are currently a team of 10 but will become 11 in early December. We remember Matthieu often and eagerly await his arrival to Naccache and to the project. Let us see who is who! First up is Suzanne Dillon, our team leader – Our Irish queens of the organisation. She produces her diary for note taking at every opportunity; in fact we hear that Suzanne often dreams of her diary. Then there’s Lucas our public relations maestro – Lucas learnt while on preparation camp the essence of been the P.R man . He is one of our German boys and is really getting to grips with thank you speeches in English under the watchful eyes of the native speakers. Following swiftly from Lucas, is Johanna. Johanna was the kitchen mom for our final camp with the boys in Chabrouh , she is also our Austrian girl and promises us some really great Austrian beer. Alongside Johanna, we have our singing sensation and at times violinist Amelie who was another of our kitchen whizzes in Chabrouh . Those girls sure know how to cook. We are all eagerly awaiting for some delicious gourmet . Our 5th team member is our keen cook kitchen in Naccache, Daniel. His dishes have proven a real hit with the Carvanistas , in fact we went from eating little to arguing over the last tomato . Next up is our Northern Irish lass Leticia, Lettie is our messiest caravanista , while unpacking from Chabrouh many items of clothing where returned to Lettie, indeed while in Chabrouh many of us emptied Lettie’s clothing from our suitcase to put our clothing in . She is our artist and we await some portraits of the Caravanistas in the coming weeks for the blog – Lettie reminds us that we need to sit still for these portraits so it may take some time. Swiftly following Lettie , is our guitarist Maxi . Max is our Bavarian / Octoberfest guy . Maxi is a huge 2 metres tall, although we are certain that he is a mere 1.99 metres. Moritz , our money man saves more money at the shopping than any other Carvanista. He has banned snacks, sweets and chocolate in the hope that we can save money. So far this led to caravan trying to serve ice cream to Michel Yanni that was at least a year old and was widely speculated at been two years old – luckily only 3 of the caravanistas tasted it before a decision was made to bin it . Quickly moving on from this, we have Caroline from the Netherlands. Caroline is the picture master. If our blog is lacking pictures it is a sure sign that Caroline is on strike from been overworked. Last but not least is the little one of the group Maffi . Maffi is not our early morning girl. From Germany, Maffi’s mother Elizabeth became our kitchen mom for a week of our boys camp in Chabrouh . Maffi celebrated her 18th birthday while on camp with two cakes cooked by Letti and Suzanne . Two cakes later and 40 eggs used, and a barely distinguishable cake was presented. As of yet the team name remains a surprise – even to the team!!! . We hope that our work in progress bears some fruit. Although many suggestions have been offered, they have proven unproductive as of yet.
For those of you reading this, we are the first team to undertake this project for a 10 month period . We are currently on week 7 of the project. After 2 weeks in Houlhausen, where we received very apt lectures on The Holy Spirit, The Holy Sacraments , The Bible , Virgin Mary , The Middle East and Lebanon , First aid and an Introduction to the service of the sick and the disabled . I will try and catch you up on the 2 weeks of preparation camp. The lectures on the Middle East and Lebanon proved insightful for the caravan; there was interesting observations about Lebanon in the bible – also the symbolism of the cedar tree in the bible. A favourite aspect of this lecture was the taboos (do’s and don’ts) of Lebanon . Severin was just what we needed in preparation camp to build the dynamic; he really helped us achieve a positive start to our team. There was much joy and excitement when Suzanne and Moritz performed their play, they chose hunting, and climbing out of bushes, which were filled with nettles. Moritz, as the largest bunny rabbit in Germany and Suzanne as the hunter brought sequels of laughter to the whole team. Some of the team were not aware of the history of the Order of Malta. It was a really fascinating insight from founding to current days. We learnt about the history and structure of the Lebanese project, not just caravan but also the many other projects .
Chabrouh – Where the favoured topic of conversation between the Caravanistas was diarrhoea and vomiting . A rather rampant bug on the first day of the third camp saw 10 volunteers standing to care for our guests. Anyone that visits Chabrouh and In particular the centre run by the Maltesers knows about the amazing setting , the immense feeling of fresh air which differs so much from Beirut and the atmosphere that hangs in the air of Chabrouh. The boys and girls that we are caring for, with a wide variety of physical and mental handicaps, always enjoy their time up there. It is important to state that we also worked with many people that had mental health difficulties. It would be impossible for Caravan to explain or put a value on the camps. It is obvious to us on a conscious level that these camps are hugely beneficial for our guests and also for the many volunteers both European and Lebanese that share some time with these guests. The weeks that we spent with our guests where briefly broken with trips throughout Lebanon. It is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful countries in the world. With trips to Balbeek , Statue of our lady in Maghdoucheh which gave us an opportunity to view Syria and Israel while remaining in the Lebanese country . Also a trip to Pierre and friends was welcomed by the whole team as was a special visit with Lady Yvonne Chochran . We had further trips to the ATCL and sunrise mass at the cross (certain members of our team had a sleep in but it was a truly remarkable experience for those that made it up to the cross). Trips to Beiteddine and the Holy Valley again proved spectacular, the walk, the views and indeed the sense of group further secured our opinion that Lebanon is an amazing country. As For BO18, the nightclub that we had our final party at, well it was described as wee , tiny , small , petit. There was also a query as to where the dance floor was- never mind a dance floor, tables and chairs where built for a reason.
We have been incredibly busy since our arrival in Naccache. We heard that we had previously shared our apartment with a four legged friend so under the guidance of an astute and incredibly clean team, we scrubbed from floor to ceiling. After mass in the Philippine church and our first shopping, we tackled each room with oomph. It did dawn on us that we should not extend our very first dinner invitation on the same night we tear the whole apartment asunder but we’re young, we have the energy to do everything!! The first shopping trip proved disastrous, without a working fridge the team came up with a plan of not buying fridge food. It was a good plan but there was a communication lapse and some cheese was bought – our thanks as always to Michel for taking our cheese home with him .
On August 29th, We received the news in Chabrouh that Farid Shams El Dine passed away. We learnt of many descriptions of Farid namely that he was the gentleman of Deir El Salib . May Farid rest in peace. We offer our prayers and thoughts to all those who knew Farid.
Busy week ahead – well if resting , going to the beach , a village festival , a concert and maybe a nightclub is considered busy then we are so hectic! We hope to blog as often as we can with pictures, pictures and more pictures of our various adventures. We will also keep you updated on the comings and goings in the hospitals of Deir El Salib, Deir El Qamar and Antelias as often as we can.
