27th week over, another 16 to go! how time flies. „mish ma3‘oul“!
This week was rather relaxing. We did not have University because all Universities are on Semester break. We used the time to sleep in, go on trips and adventures and to listen to a talk.
Paul Saghbini, the hospitaller of the Lebanese Order of Malta, gave us a talk on Thursday. He came to tell us about the History of the Order of Malta in Lebanon and as requested, modern History of Lebanon. After listening to the on one hand really interesting and on the other hand very confusing explanation of Lebanon‘s History I had to immediately think of what Professor Messara once told us: „if you think you understood the complexity of Lebanon‘s history and politics, it must have been wrongly explained to you.“ Nevertheless, as we are all highly interested in this matter we can honestly say that Paul‘s explanation helped us a lot to understand Lebanon between 1975-1990. I want to take the chance to say a THANK YOU to Paul to offer himself up to give us the talk and to answer any questions we had and to wipe out unclearness.
Friday we had planned on going skiing or snowboarding in Faraya since we didn‘t have service (exchange with saturday). But the weather didn‘t want to fulfill us this dream. Thus we made us a chilled day at home. 3 of our boys though, Maxi, Lucas and Matthieu, decided to so something MANLY and walk up to the cross on Mzaar‘s peak. Soon, they realized that they were too late for Mzaar, but that they could still hike up to the cross where the big Hollywood, pardon, FARAYA sign is and sleep there in the chapel. Equipped with sleeping bags, several layers of warm clothes, waterproof boots and a ton of motivation they went into the car and Lucas turned on the motor. Or tried to. „tatatattataaa“ - silence- „tatattatatattaaaa“ - again silence - „tatatt ata tatata“. Nothing. The car would not move. Surprise boys, no gas! Extremely frustrated and almost exploding from anger Maxi and Matthieu had to get out of the car and push it up the drive way and on the main road during rush hour. In my opinion a mission that is already quite manly. Considering the traffic on Beirut‘s road on a Friday afternoon... Fortunately we have a gas station just down the road so that Lucas could just roll into it. But wait, this is not the end of story. As the five reasonably and logically thinking women knew, the three brave men would not make it up to the summit. Convinced and probably also encouraged by female demotivation the men ensured us, that they would sleep in the chapel and return early in the morning on Saturday to be able to attend the Mass in Deir el Salib. Suzanne, messaging with her mom, made a bet with her at what time the boys ummmm men would be back.
7 pm, surprise, who‘s back? MatLuMax! They told the rest of the Caravan what they already knew: it got darker and darker, became cold and too windy so that they had to return to the foot of the mountain. Good try to man up though!
On Saturday, Deir el Salib held the National Day of the Sick. With the Lebanese Youth‘s help we could manage to bring 25 boys from St. Dominique up to the church of the nuns. We were extremely happy to bring some of our boys who are mostly in bed up, like Karim, Little John and Rani. Everybody got a cross on their forehead and even the nervous boys maintained still and solemn on their seats until Holy Mass was ended.And let us not forget how proud Suzie was when Totee behaved amazingly well right up until a slight melt down at communion when he was allowed to leave the church - what a typical 6 year old ! :-)
Uh, and a quick weather update while Europe is freezing: Sunshine, 18° plus!! On Sunday we moved our Sofa on the balcony and read, listened to music and talked there for hours.Lucas and Suzanne went on a cultural and spiritual retreat around Beirut , we heard it was very productive and a stop at the Jasmine Room really topped their evening ! CARAVAN ROCKS!!
This week was rather relaxing. We did not have University because all Universities are on Semester break. We used the time to sleep in, go on trips and adventures and to listen to a talk.
Paul Saghbini, the hospitaller of the Lebanese Order of Malta, gave us a talk on Thursday. He came to tell us about the History of the Order of Malta in Lebanon and as requested, modern History of Lebanon. After listening to the on one hand really interesting and on the other hand very confusing explanation of Lebanon‘s History I had to immediately think of what Professor Messara once told us: „if you think you understood the complexity of Lebanon‘s history and politics, it must have been wrongly explained to you.“ Nevertheless, as we are all highly interested in this matter we can honestly say that Paul‘s explanation helped us a lot to understand Lebanon between 1975-1990. I want to take the chance to say a THANK YOU to Paul to offer himself up to give us the talk and to answer any questions we had and to wipe out unclearness.
Friday we had planned on going skiing or snowboarding in Faraya since we didn‘t have service (exchange with saturday). But the weather didn‘t want to fulfill us this dream. Thus we made us a chilled day at home. 3 of our boys though, Maxi, Lucas and Matthieu, decided to so something MANLY and walk up to the cross on Mzaar‘s peak. Soon, they realized that they were too late for Mzaar, but that they could still hike up to the cross where the big Hollywood, pardon, FARAYA sign is and sleep there in the chapel. Equipped with sleeping bags, several layers of warm clothes, waterproof boots and a ton of motivation they went into the car and Lucas turned on the motor. Or tried to. „tatatattataaa“ - silence- „tatattatatattaaaa“ - again silence - „tatatt ata tatata“. Nothing. The car would not move. Surprise boys, no gas! Extremely frustrated and almost exploding from anger Maxi and Matthieu had to get out of the car and push it up the drive way and on the main road during rush hour. In my opinion a mission that is already quite manly. Considering the traffic on Beirut‘s road on a Friday afternoon... Fortunately we have a gas station just down the road so that Lucas could just roll into it. But wait, this is not the end of story. As the five reasonably and logically thinking women knew, the three brave men would not make it up to the summit. Convinced and probably also encouraged by female demotivation the men ensured us, that they would sleep in the chapel and return early in the morning on Saturday to be able to attend the Mass in Deir el Salib. Suzanne, messaging with her mom, made a bet with her at what time the boys ummmm men would be back.
7 pm, surprise, who‘s back? MatLuMax! They told the rest of the Caravan what they already knew: it got darker and darker, became cold and too windy so that they had to return to the foot of the mountain. Good try to man up though!
On Saturday, Deir el Salib held the National Day of the Sick. With the Lebanese Youth‘s help we could manage to bring 25 boys from St. Dominique up to the church of the nuns. We were extremely happy to bring some of our boys who are mostly in bed up, like Karim, Little John and Rani. Everybody got a cross on their forehead and even the nervous boys maintained still and solemn on their seats until Holy Mass was ended.And let us not forget how proud Suzie was when Totee behaved amazingly well right up until a slight melt down at communion when he was allowed to leave the church - what a typical 6 year old ! :-)
Uh, and a quick weather update while Europe is freezing: Sunshine, 18° plus!! On Sunday we moved our Sofa on the balcony and read, listened to music and talked there for hours.Lucas and Suzanne went on a cultural and spiritual retreat around Beirut , we heard it was very productive and a stop at the Jasmine Room really topped their evening ! CARAVAN ROCKS!!
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