Another week has flown by .

Apologies in advance for any spelling errors , a little thing called spell check is currently not working so it has left me a little alone this week :-) 

What a quiet week it has been for Caravan . Arabic classes have ended and with a week of mornings free prior to the start of university we have indulged in ‘sleep ins’ . The responsible of the project Valerie is still with us and we have been thoroughly enjoying having her in Naccache . The weekend was a quite affair seeing most of the team go to Louis for a Chabrouh and Lebanese youth volunteers dinner , followed by a trip to BO 18 for some of the team . Again like with most weekends , the team undertake many different activities . On Sunday some of the team departed for the mountains to go hiking – the weather made this impossible so they stayed indoors admiring the nature and views from the window . On Tuesday , we arrived home to a lovely feast cooked by Valerie , Michel , Yann , Eilo and Alain (ok in fairness it was predominantly cooked by the wonderful Michel )  – we really appreciate this gestures and it means a lot to the team . The downstairs apartment is also complete although their are a few little jobs to be completed before we can finally move in , we look forward to uploading pictures soon of the refurbishments .

Service this week -

Monday we went to Deir El Quammar , we suspect this will be our last Monday in the beautiful garden before the weather becomes too cold . A lovely afternoon was had translating activities from English to Arabic to enable the girls to partake . The bus trips to the garden proved to be one of the biggest sources of joy for the girls and we are always so grateful to Fossey our driver for dutifully driving up and down until each of the girls is in the park . Tuesday and Wednesday and Fridays are our Deir El Salib days , the downstairs garden albeit not as beautiful as the upstairs one proves to be joyful – the swings , the canopy and the seating area allow us to have picnics and to indulge in a spot of leaf collecting without been disturbed . It is great to take some of the little boys on the swings and hear the squeals of delight from them , indeed many of the older boys also squeal with delight at the prospect of swings and picnics . It always amazes us just how much fun and joy little things that we take for granted can bring to the lives of our boys . Service in Antelias is a challenge to the Caravanistas considering the size of the group and of course now most activities are indoor given the weather conditions . Some plans are underway by the caravan team to prepare a wide variety of fun and exciting activities and possible a Christmas nativity concert .

The weather is indeed getting chillier and we are really feeling it in the evenings now . We hope to have another day or two at the beach before the weather makes this difficult . Lettie has completed portrait 1 of 11 and I hope Caroline will shortly have the pictures of this portrait for the blog – until then all is well , we are all really enjoying our time in service and indeed in Naccache. 

On a final note , we have been told that Matthieu will arrive to Lebanon on the 4^th December . We are all so excited to finally have him as part of the team .