Loving all the guest blogs !

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!! 

The truths

This Blog is about the week between January 29^th and February 5^th, which was actually not boring, we had Girls-Night, we painted the playing room in Deir e Salib, Houseparty and it was Letti’s last week in the Caravan-Apartment. This is what happened in Caravan’s life:

On Sunday the 29^th we where due to do general cleaning  after Mass and Caroline’s sister arrival the  night before so we extended our Caravan family for just a short while. The two Dutch girls made a really nice couple and the funny thing about it: they talk in the exact same way. On Monday, we had service in Deir L’Qamar where we painted mandalas with the girls. It was rather a quiet service because half of the Caravan - six people - were sick. Due to the fact that eleven people are living together in the smallest space we unfortunately all get sick at the same time. Next day, Tuesday, the essay for our politics-professor was due so some specialists that didn’t have time before had to wake up really early to finish their Essays before twelve noon. Wednesday and Thursday University was cancelled so Caravan used the time wisely and slept.

Coming closer to the weekend our life became more and more interesting. On Thursday the six Caravan-Girls left the apartment after service and went to Achrafieh ABC Mall with Amelie as driver. It was our last girl’s night with Letti. We had a very chilled dinner in Roadster. Unusual for us we talked about politics in Lebanon until we realized that our girl’s night is rather turning into a boy’s night so we quickly changed the topic to wedding dresses and baby names! So cliche for a girls night. After our amazingly filling dinner we went to the cinema to watch “Man on a Ledge” which was luckily not as crappy as the movie we watched on the first girl’s night. It was a very thrilling movie which all of you should see !. When we came back home we were happy to see Marie-Alice who had moved in to Caravan apartment that evening. Marie will join our Caravan family for a little over 2 weeks.

Next day was Friday, the week was nearly over, but we worked the entire day, from eight in the morning until six in the evening. Why? We had the painting in Deir el Salib.  Let me tell you, the playing room downstairs is not just a playing room anymore. It is now a Walt Disney adventure room. Caravan chose “comics” as topic for the playing room. The wall is covered now with Winnie the Pooh, his friends Piglet , Tigger , Eeyore , Donald Duck, Goofy, the Teletubbies, Dumbo, and in order to leave some personalities of our Caravan on the wall you can find a Lucky Luke, Flounder (in the aquarium above the windows), Max & Moritz and Mafalda. After ten hours of working, the room AND Caravan had changed a lot, especially Amelie’s Jeans looked really artistic afterwards. And also some others of us didn’t really have the ambition to keep their clothes clean. For this painting we especially have to say thank you to Letti who organized most of it and helped a lot with her painting skills and artistic knowledge. With the help of Marie and Machteld (Caroline’s Sister) we were thirteen people, which made it possible to finish the painting in one day.

After painting the entire day we came back to the apartment and started preparing for our house party. The motto was “What I always wanted to be”. We had a Lenin, a Revolutionist, a Gangster/Rapper, an Artist,  SpongeBob, James Bond and his Bond Girl, two Hockey-Girls, a Gynecologist and his Secretary, a Surfer, a Gypsy, a Hooker, an Indian Princess, a Reporter, a Superman. Although Caravan was rather tired the party was successful and we had a lot of fun with our Lebanese friends.

The Saturday was therefore quite exhausting because we had to clean the entire apartment, again. And in the afternoon Letti and Luci came back from skiing completely sunburned. But as Caravan usually says in an uncomfortable situation: “It’s fine, it is a good experience'' - we are not allowed to show you the pictures of Letti until she is fully recovered so prepare for those pictures in the coming days !

Anyway we wish you a blessed Tuesday and we look forward to showing you more pictures soon .

Caravan xx

Lots and Lots of pictures

I will not tell you how long it has taken to load these pictures so you all better enjoy our snapshot of life in Lebanon

Another week in our lives

So far behind but let us catch up on one of the weeks !

What an amazing week we have had in service!

Busy as always with service – we are back to our beauty sessions in DEQ – hand care was key this week – warm water, soap, massage, moisturiser, nail polish and of course ktiir helou! Tuesday saw us celebrate Johanna birthday in Deir El Salib, Jo accepted the offer to celebrate / share her birthday with one of the boys – some songs, a lovely cake and Caravan dancing = a great celebration. That evening we visited a restaurant in the mountains for open Lebanese food and open arak in Bickfaya. The setting, good friends, positive atmosphere and Lebanese music made the night a success. Wednesday saw us back in Deir El Salib with Juan Alejandro Magaz.Juan is in Lebanon organising a very interesting conference that I will tell you about later  . He has been to Chabrouh many times and knows the boys very well. We were delighted to bring Juan back to the boys in Deir El Salib; it was a very pleasant afternoon indeed. On Thursday, we had Antellias. Again a music round is always the opening with some of our favourite songs. We then did a photo session – the boys absolutely loved it ( bar one or two – Suzy and the caretaker had to coax one boy with a cigarette and better still when he realised that two photos were taken he needed a second cigarette  ) . The boys’ laughter and smiles filled the air and many came back repeatedly for their photos, they really enjoyed looking at themselves on the camera. We can’t wait to print the pictures  so the boys can look at themselves further.  We cannot express our thanks and gratitude enough to the sisters, the caretakers and the boys and girls for allowing us play a part in their lives – we appreciate you!

We are also attending university, this week we had four mornings, one was our final lecture on Politics and modern history in Lebanon, and we then spent three mornings learning about Christianity. We feel blessed to be allowed attend university although the challenge of rising at 7am every morning is difficult.

On Thursday night, we where  lucky to be invited out with one of our dear CARAVAN friends Sheik Walid. As always Sheik Walid insight and conversation truly keeps us all fascinated. The different topics are of such interest to us all and we enjoy spending time with Sheik Walid immensely. Sheik Walid also invited the Hospitaller Paul to be with us, the insights we received from Paul about the history of some of the community projects was powerful and thought provoking. – In taking something from Paul, I was reminded of a quote about overcoming adversity ‘Do not fear the winds of adversity. Remember: A kite rises against the wind rather than with it.’ Many of the projects where developed during a time of turmoil and we can see that hard work, dedication and a will for change that made these projects the success they are today.

As some of you heard, a certain team leader (cough cough no names) is on the verge of freaking out due to the discovery of Cyril the cockroach and Rodney the rat. This is the one millionth time they have taken residence in Naccache, unfortunately our house is clean and we have had poison laid long term and yet they take refuge. The same person is real grumpy right now about the lack of refrigerator – as you know from a previous blog the fridge is an ongoing issue for us and the balcony is just not sufficiently cold enough to keep the food fresh. Poor Michel is working tirelessly but fridge men are not into working as hard as Michel !

Saturday saw some of the team skiing and others chilling in the apartment or venturing to Jel El Dib for coffee. In the evening Louis Cardahi had invited us for dinner in his place in Byblos – Lucas and Moritz went as some of the team where exhausted or indeed suffering with a minor cold . We thank Louis for his hospitality to Caravan and we all look forward to the next party. 

Another update about the conference we attended and many other cool and unique events will follow shortly . For now Good night our readers

Christmas Blog

A little bit late but here it is, the blog about how Caravan spent Christmas this year. Okay guys, I have to make a warning in advance: this blog is basically just about food. This is easy to explain. Caravan means student-life, which means having cheap food. But Christmas means having really nice food, even for students. So we used this time as an excuse to not think about money anymore but just eating. And we had really nice food, in German we would say: “Dieses Jahr haben wir es uns so richtig gegeben.” So if you don’t want to become jealous do not continue reading:

After becoming fewer and fewer there were only 8 Caravanistas left in the apartment in the last week before Christmas. Although we had a lot to do with wrapping gifts, baking cookies and doing the Christmas-Concerts in the homes ( you can read about this in the other blogs), we started celebrating the Holy Feast on the 21^st of December. In the evening , Caravan went out for an amazing team-meal to Sake Sushi Bar in Ashrafieh. Thanks to the EU, that this was possible! We had a lot of fun while having really good food together. The atmosphere was very relaxed. Afterwards we drove home, 8 people crammed in our s****y old Audi. This was the night in which Lucas left us and flew home for Christmas.

After we got over the fact that Lucas left us there were only seven people left in the house. Christmas Eve was moved to the 23^rd, because I (anonymous) insisted on having Christmas as a family, just us together in the apartment. Finally we had no concerts, no gift wrapping, no cookie making and no schedule any more and we were FREE. We decorated our home really nice. It was very cosy with our plastic Christmas-tree, our crib in a post-carton and our tacky candles in the shape of Christmas-trees. The  entire day, Maxi was standing in the kitchen to prepare the Chili con Carne. The result was great! After drinking a few glasses of wine some of us (Johanna and Matthieu) started to dance a waltz in the living room. But it was the night, when Daniel had to leave. So we had to say good bye again. Now only Amelie, Johanna, Caroline, Mafalda, Mattieu and Maxi were left.

On the 24^th Valerie arrived. The day was very chilled. In the afternoon we all skyped with our families. Then we gathered in the dining room in front of our Christmas tree and sang “Holy Night” together. Those who got packages from the parents opened them and Valerie brought us all a little present (a red cup with each of our names written on it). We agreed beforehand to not give each other something, so nobody would have the stress to get presents for 5 other people. After reading the Reading and the Gospel together we walked down to Dr. Issa and had a great Christmas dinner together. We didn’t expect European food but something new. But for our all’s pleasure we got a huge turkey with stuffing and some amazing sides. Celebrating Christmas with Dr. Issa, his mother and sister and especially with Valerie was really nice. At twelve o’clock we went to the midnight Mass, which was unfortunately in French so not all of us were able to understand. Luckily we had read the Gospel and Reading beforehand. After coming back home we all fell into our beds completely satisfied by our first Christmas that we didn’t spend with our families but with Caravan.

But it was not over yet. On the 25^th , the girls woke up quite early and prepared a great brunch. We had scrambled eggs, fruit salad, ham, cheese, Nutella and Speculoos etc. We were sitting for two hours at breakfast and enjoyed our luxurious brunch. I told you not to continue reading.

Here we have the end of the story: That very same afternoon we had to pack our stuff and leave to the Christmas camp. So our lazy-doing-nothing-but-eating-amazing-food-time had an abrupt end. 

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.

Christmas concerts

A belated happy New Year to you all . We wish you peace , love and happiness as we enter this New Year.

The boys with huge smile and sparks in their eyes, more than 200 wrapped gifts, ten musicians, 26 scouts, a lot Lebanese volunteers and Michel as Santa Claus. This scenery happened on the 17th of December in Saint Dominique.The CARAVAN threw its glorious and amazing Christmas-Event.
The preparation for this event started actually long time ago in November, when we did our fund raising-event in a Bar in Monot, to buy gifts for the boys and girls in the homes. This fund raising continued with an e-mail campaign, to raise as much money as possible to let Papa Noel arrive in the homes of our friends. After buying more than 400 gifts, CARAVAN where proving themselves as the perfect little helpers of Papa Noel and wrapped all of them.
But this was not the only preparation we had to made: the girls baked more than 2000 typical German Christmas cookies. These went on little plates together with a bottle of wine as a gift for the caretakers in the homes. Of course there were some leftovers, which were the source of many happy faces with in the CARAVAN.
In between backing cookies and wrapping gifts, we started to rehearsal Christmas songs, to play them at our Christmas events in the homes.
So on Saturday the !7th „Christmasweek“ started with our event in Saint Dominique. With the great support of the Champville Scouts, the Lebanese Youth of the Order of Malta, Michel, the caretakers and our musicians, the afternoon turned out to be a great success. The next day we were invited by Fabio and Nicola, our musician friend, to play some songs as a special guest at their Christmas concert in the Champville School. CARAVAN spread one more time the CARAVAN-spirit to more than a hundred people.
On Thursday the 22nd we had our Christmas event in the home in Antelias. We had the opportunity to play in a big concert hall in front of 200 hundred boys. Yann, as always on the sax, and Fabio, on the bass, supported us for this event, faithfully as always. Since we didn´t had someone to play the darbuka, the typical Arabic drum, Elias, one of the boys, just went up on the stage and played with us. Elias gave the rhythm, one of the caretakers grabbed a microphone and sang Arabic songs with the support of Yann playing the sax. So all in all a great concert, with a lot of fun for the boys and of course for us as well. At the end of the concert Santa Claus, this time Daniel, came and distributed the gifts to the boys.
Thanks to everybody who supported us so great, to bring Christmas to homes of our friends.