Some very random pictures from August 6th to date

As the internet is marginally quicker in Ireland than Lebanon . Let us share some pictures with you! :-)

Guess what ? Another guest blogger :-)

This Friday evening we had our late but very nice welcoming dinner in our apartment for Matthieu since we were so busy during the week. So we all enjoyed original swiss rösti made with Lebanese potatoes by our German Caravanista Maxi, while we had a nice talk in English about the Middle East Conflict and drank some Ksara (Lebanese Wine). Enough intercultural dialogue for this evening.

On the next day we went to a Service of the Lebanese Youth for little children from families which are supported by the Order of Malta. We were invited to this kind of service by Lelia El Khazen (the president of the youth). It took place in an indoor playground for children in a big mall.  After a little fight with plastic balls in the climbing contraption of the play area , we played “Stop-Dance” with the children, baked little Zatar cookies and coloured pictures of Christmas stockings with them. Besides the children enjoyed their lunch at the place and we as Caravan started a singing round with different Christmas songs like “Jingle Bells”, “We wish you a merry Christmas” and “Feliz Navidad” to create a perfect Christmas spirit before Father Christmas arrived to give them their presents. So they got little dolls or toy cars and some sweets as presents. All children really loved this excursion, where they had the possibility just to enjoy these moments without thinking of any problems their families may have. Also for us as the Caravan it was a good experience to do another kind of service then in the homes of our disabled friends and the many smiles of the children were really worth it.

At our first day of service this week we went as usual by bus to Deir El Quamar and started our service and the singing round this time without the support of a guitar (Maxi stayed sick in Naccache) but with our more loud than nice voices. Afterwards we played pot hitting with the girls, which they really enjoyed. Also because there were many sweets under the pot they won. As usual we had this kind of service with two small groups of about 20 girls. For the evening Maffi had prepared a very interesting discussion and presentation about how the crucifixion of Jesus is shown in art for our spiritual meeting with father Tom.

Tuesday: Also this morning we left quite early to attend our last course in university about Judaism with Ralf. Right or not?

Unfortunately we had to say good bye to Suzanne after University, who has to leave for personal family reasons to Ireland for a short while. We will hopefully see you soon, Suzie!! Wish you all the best for this time and can’t wait to have you back in our team soon.

After lunch in Deir El Salib we started our service with the boys for this week, went up with them to the garden, sang with them and paid attention to them, what they usually don’t get. Also some of us got to know the work of the Physiotherapist better and learned in this way, how to help some boys in the daily service with little activities. In the evening we had a lecture in our apartment from Marwan Sehnaoui, who is the president of the Order of Malta in Lebanon. So we got to know much more to know about the work of the Order in Lebanon and the stations of the Order, which are spread in whole Lebanon, also in the very south, which is mainly controlled by Hisbollah. After the lecture we continued with a talk about the role of Caravan in and for Lebanon while having dinner in a nice Italian restaurant. After all we all agreed, that Caravan should not only be a project for 10 months but also means responsibility for the boys in the future times.

This Wednesday we had our first lecture about inter religious dialogue and learned what the platform for such a dialogue is based on. The service this time in Deir El Salib in the afternoon with many team members missing (Maxi still sick, Lucas shopping for Christmas presents for the boys and Suzanne who just left us) was a bit different, what we latest noticed while the fed the boys. But as always we gave our best with the boys, brought them out of St. Dominique, sang, danced, spent time and showed them the love they need down in St. Dominique.

Our service in Antelias this week was composed of different games like passing balls, throwing balls in boxes, egg-and-spoon race, stop dance and as usual a singing round, which is often the most important part. The boys liked the games, also if you never can stick that close to the usual roles so that the egg-and-spoon race more turned out to be a throwing game with the fake eggs. But the most important thing is that they liked our service, what they really did.

After the service we had a discussion at Uni with Sunnit Muslims about prejudices in our religion and we are all looking forward to continue. It was a really interesting and personal talk. 

The briefest of brief photo update

Another guest blogger :-)

Pictures to follow !

This week we had a very busy schedule. I will try to give you a short overview.

On Saturday we went with the Lebanese youth to Deir el Salib, all dressed up and our faces covered, the boys in Deir el Salib were also dressed up, they really looked cute. Elias Raad (talking Elias), since he is always talking about the Abouna (priest), was dressed up as Abouna Yaacoub. He was so proud.

Afterwards some of us went to Sourat with Dr. Issa. It was the first time that the team was split. Amelie, Mafalda, Johanna and Maxi, Caroline stayed in the apartment. It felt so empty! Nevertheless, we had an amazing weekend and it was really good. Especially Sunday when we had a three hour breakfast from 12 until 3. Sunday our new team member arrived, Matthieu. He was supposed to arrive in the middle of the day but because of the bad weather in Germany he arrived in the middle of the night. The others decided to stay at Dr. Issa’s place one day longer. We collected Matthieu from the airport and we are all glad that he is finally here now.

Monday we went to Deir el Amar, did a make-up season with the girls and they all loved it! In the evening we had dinner with Sheikh Walid. Many thanks to him for his generosity to the Caravan. The food was really good so we ate a lot. :-)

On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we had University again which was very interesting, the topic was the history of the Jewish.

The weather this week was really good so we used it to go out with boys of DES. We had our usual picnic with them: chips, chocolate and lemonade.

The service in Antelias was mostly about Christmas this week. We sang a lot of Christmas songs and surprisingly many of them knew even the English songs and blasted along with us.

On Tuesday we had dinner with Leila, the day after we had a concert rehearsal, on Thursday we had a talk from a Druze which is an honor because they don’t speak often about their religion. Unfortunately there was a miscommunication among us so that we missed half of the talk. It was a pity! But, as Caravan usually do, we asked a lot of questions in the aftermath and Ghassan Bou Diab was willing to agree to come to one of our spiritual meetings to tell us more about his faith. We are very excited to hear him once more in January!  

On Friday we had a nice Welcome dinner to welcome Matthieu in our midst. Maxi gave the meal a special touch by making swiss Rösti.

In the Netherlands it is a ritual that you give gifts and write a poem for Saint Nicolas, so the father of Caroline wrote a poem for the Caravan:  

The cedars of the Lebanon

Wave and wave,

Wave to our beloved Caroline,

Too Mafalda,Johanna, Amelie

Leticia, Moritz, Lucas, Daniel,

Maximilian, Matthieu, Suzanne

   -  Rise and shine -

and they enjoy the time they have

praying and working which each other

entertaining their guests in Deir al Salib

and we, proud parents and siblings,

look amazed to you there, sometimes sick,

nevertheless learning Arabic

and many other things

you all are strong and

orientated on your neighbour

we wish you an magnificent time

The mountains of the Lebanon

And the sheikhs and the heads of the tribes

Exult and exult

Exult at our beloved Caroline

 at Mafalda,Johanna, Amelie

Leticia, Moritz, Lucas, Daniel,

Maximilian, Matthieu, Suzanne

 God bless you!

Prayer of the Order Of Malta Ambulance Corps Ireland for helpers of the sick

Caravan invite you all to join us in our prayers for our boys and girls and also all volunteers 

that help the poor and the sick throughout the world .

Prayer of the Order Of Malta Ambulance Corps Ireland for helpers of the sick

Lord , you know that it is my duty to assist the sick , grant that I may serve them not only
with my hands but also

with my heart so that I may love them .

Lord, you had compassion in all human suffering . Make my spirit strong . Strengthen my
arms in caring for the sick , in dressing wounds , in comforting the weak and the dying .
Keep my soul sensitive to the sorrows of others . Let me always have a kind word and
manner and patience in watching .Lord, You created human nature composed of body
and soul . Make me respect both the one and the other .Teach me to console the
downcast spirit , caring  for the sick body . Lord, You said that the care shown to the
suffering is shown to You . Grant that I may see You in them and them in You ,

Lord , You promised that even a glass of water given in Your name would not go
unrewarded . Conserve the reward that You alone can give to this my work which I
want to accomplish with devotion and love.

And You Mary , consoler of the afflicted and health of the sick , be for me a wise
teacher and loving mother . 

Amen 

Another guest writer

Last Saturday CARAVAN went to Saida. Saida, located in the south of Lebanon, is mostly a Muslim city and famous for it´s “Souks” ( traditional markets). The old fishermen´s village is somehow the stereotype of an Arabic city. The streets were crowded, vegetable and fruit dealers in between cars and donkeys. Indeed, CARAVAN experienced an old fashion Muslim city with all it´s beauty the first time. The markets are basically subdivided in textile, food, jewellery and accessories. Some dealers are still trading the old way, exchanging twochickens for one carpet. Therefore you are seeing little boys running from one side of the market towards the other end of the city with the exchange goods. That fills the city with a certain movement and life. We also visited an old castle, set at the sea, founded by St. John during the crusades. By taking a group picture in front of the castle, did we allow our selves to put CARAVAN in St. Johns tradition. We conquered Saida a second time. Finally we got a tour through an old soap factory. The soap is hand made out of 100% pure olive oil. We felt guilty, since we had such a nice trip to Saida, without buying anything for our family and friends at home, who are suffering rainy days in the midst of autumn. That made us buy at least a piece of soap.

The following week was in the spirit of Christmas, hence why we decided to have a Christmas marathon for the sake of our children. Our Christmas donation, for the gifts of the girls and boys, has been spread out. The service in the homes started as always on Monday in Del El Quamar. Suzi had the amazing idea of making cookies with the girls. That was a great success and our friends ate their first Christmas cookies this year. We prepared the Christmas tree with the crib around it in Deir El Salib the day after.  The children have been as excited as never before. Everybody watched us enthusiastically putting the figures for the crib and nobody besides Ayman dared to touch the fragile Christmas tree. The spirit of Christmas finally arrived in the homes of our friends and CARAVAN is thankfully in it´s midst.

We have also been garnished the opportunity to return the favour and invite the Jabres for dinner in our apartment. Maxi, who was made in Italy, made magic in the kitchen thus we will found “CARVAN Delivery” soon.

Mathieu is supposed to arrive tonight. All of us are very excited and we hope that we are able to give him a very warm welcome.