A Christmas Blogger

Winter Camp
So there we were on Christmas afternoon, still completely full of the opulent brunch we’d had in the morning, preparing our luggage for the winter camp in Chabrouh that would last for the following week. Everyone was running around because we’d been told that a storm was coming and the roads may become impassable.  We left the apartment in a hurry, leaving behind us wet laundry hanging all over the place. The non-Germans then discovered the pleasure of drinking beer in the bus. We eventually made it to Chabrouh and started decorating the whole place. Thanks to our two fairies Elena and Tatiana, the centre was soon transformed into Winter Wonderland.

The next morning, we were still finishing the last details of the decoration when suddenly people started shouting in the entire building: “They’re here! The girls are here!” We awaited 18 girls of Deir El Qamar. Everybody ran outside to greet them at the exit of the bus, singing for the first of many times our famous “Running over” and “Aramsamsam”. And so the camp began with loads of dancing, singing and laughing. It was as a whole a rather chilled, cosy camp . We have had beautiful weather almost all the way through but it was still pretty cold outside so most of the time was spent inside relaxing, cuddling or chatting with our guests. 

The first group activity consisted of a beauty session. Nail polish, mascara, powders, colours, all sorts of hydrating, soothing, skincare, refreshing, beauty lotions and many other stuff that we men tend to call torture devices. The girls ended up as lovely as mannequins. On the following day the girls had to get dressed up for theatrical representations of the nativity. Some girls were disguised as angels, others as shepherds, some had the hilarious role of the goats, and the rest of them played the stars. On the third day the Olympic Games took place. We were all divided into two teams, the red one and the pink one. The girls then revealed to us their amazing skills at playing basketball, bowling, running, and other tough disciplines.  They broke almost every world record and astonishingly everybody won !!. On the fourth day, we had the chance to have a special entertaining team visiting us. Believe it or not, Santa (the real one!) was among them. He then proceeded to give every girl gifts and hugs, and finally left accompanied by plentiful applause and Christmas songs. The entertaining team then gave the girls the opportunity to decorate the Christmas tree with stars they had cut and coloured by themselves. At the end of the day, the guests had the opportunity to receive the unction of the sick. The fifth day was partly spent at the Tavern where everybody enjoyed soft drinks in the sun on the terrace with a spectacular view of the snowy mountains. We came back to the centre to get dressed for the world famous fashion show. All the girls put on their most beautiful outfits , a half a ton of make-up and then walked graciously on an elevated red carpet through the crowd and towards a very cheerful jury. We crowned 18 new Misses Lebanon. In the evening we enjoyed a fancy dinner with shaded lights, mannerly waiters, three different dishes which were all ktiir tayeb (very tasty)! Special thanks to Michel who has done an amazing job in the kitchen not only for the fancy dinner but during the entire camp. On the morning of the sixth day, it was time for the girls to go back to Deir El Qamar. We helped them into the bus and sang the last of our usual songs, which the girls never grow tired of, unlike us.The following afternoon was spent cleaning the entire place up, which took us a long while. We then stayed a few more days to party for New Year’s Eve, but that’s another story.

The camp was very well organised under the leadership of newly appointed mas’oul Alain, with Maxi and Elio as team leaders. A chilled camp indeed, which doesn’t mean that waking up in the morning was easier than usual, as highlighted by the late appearances during morning prayer. Some of us were sick (Amelie, Maxi and Matthieu), too, making the camp a bit less cosy for them. We all appreciated the fact that this camp was a rather “small” one, with only 18 guests and around 30 volunteers.

It gave us the opportunity to really meet and talk to everybody. We’ve had the chance of having among us Tabea, Antonius, Yorck, Michael and Carlo. We’ve had a great load of fun with them not only in the camp but later on in Beirut, too.