Hello Hello, This week it is another Caravanista writing the blog. 'Since your English is not that bad I wanted to ask you, if you were willing to write this week‘s blog' , was our blogwriter‘s question one week ago. I felt extremely honored by this 'compliment' and couldn‘t refuse the offer!. Due to my poor English I unfortunately can‘t go that deep into detail of last week, but I will try my best.
Thursday, November 17th, 'Girls Night Out'! We all had enough of our boys, so we decided to spend a night out, girls only. After having once experienced how relaxing it is to go on a shopping trip by ourselves and not being disturbed by boys who just wanted to go home, we were looking forward to our trip to the ABC Mall Achrafieh. We decided to have dinner at 'Rodster' (arabic for Roadster ;) ) first. We squeezed together at one of the tables constructed for four. Due to our empty refrigerator we were able to fit. We ordered some Cocktails (of course the juicy ones! obligatory when it‘s only girls out!), and a whole lot of burgers. Burgers in a bun, by the way. One of us begged Suzanne to ask the waiter if their Mighty Chicken - which was shown in the Burger‘s category - came in a bun. The waiter‘s look was priceless and ostentatiously said 'typical blonde'.
After a while, Suzanne and Jo came up with the great idea to lure Letti with a money offer. The deal was as follows: she would have to press her face against the glass wall to make a weird face towards the people sitting directly next to the glass. Surprisingly they were not deterred by this action and even started communicating with us via messages displayed on their phones. We used the opportunity to show off our arabic skills and answered on a tissue pressed against the glass. When it came to the question what we‘re doing in Lebanon we told them that we are students in USJ and at the same time volunteers in Deir El Salib. First they didn‘t believe us, second they made fun of us and eventually they apruptly stopped the conversation. Sadly this was not the first time we had to experience such a reaction on our service. Some Lebanese are far from the idea to help the poorest and are convinced that they must help themselves. After the delicious dinner we went to see 'How does she do it' with Sarah Jessica Parker. We had honestly planned on watching 'The Rum Diary' with Johnny Depp, but unfortunately the ABC Cinema‘s internet page was not updated. Which meant that we ended up watching this Chick Flick- or better still , getting some good rest. The night ended in Tequila‘s second floor, on cozy bean bags, half asleep.
On Monday, November 21, we ran a marathon with our boys in Deir el Salib. We helped some of the boys to run, the winners were Ghattas- Superstar (he‘s still currently wearing the medal proudly around his neck) and Finger Charbel. At the prize giving, Tony also ran on stage to receive a prize and took it from Soeur Manal. The consequence was that Soeur Manal ignored Tony until he gave the price back to the righteous winner. As soon as the boy got back to St. Dominique though, Soeur Manal gave Tony his own special price. We were impressed by Soeur Manal‘s pedagogical skill. She is caring and raising the boys like a loving mother. So do the other caretakers; they speak about the boys in such an amazingly loving way, as if they were their own children. Every day in the services my respect for the work and sacrifices the caretakers are doing increases and grows. When I then hear people telling me that I am crazy because I am working in Deir el Salib I get extremely angry but then especially sad, because they don‘t (want to) know how fulfilling the work with our boys and girls is. They are stuck up in their lives and don‘t have a sense of how fulfilling it is to give love and receive even more back...
'Other men said they have seen angels; but I have seen thee and thou art enough.'- G. Moore
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