Easter Camp in Chabrouh

In the week after Easter, we had the chance to have a small camp with ten boys from Deir es Salib in our house in the mountains. Together with some Lebanese friends we spent five exciting, exhausting - simply wonderful days up there.

A great and intense experience which showed us a whole new side of the boys and ourselves!

Shopping, cleaning, getting prepared for...

... the arrival of our guests!

Birthday Party, ...

... playing baseball, ...

... fashion show - vacation in Chabrouh is never boring!!

The table is set for Fancy Dinner: an old tradition from the summer camps.

Painting Camels!!

The Camels bring colours to your life!

That is our new motto since we have been allowed to paint two of the boys' rooms at Deir es Salib. Tiger, Piggy and Ramses the Turtle are their new companions now. It is hard to say who of the boys, the caretakers or us were the happiest... :-)

Colours are so joyful. An everlasting smiling sun is shining on Deir es Salib.

Some more blue, green and orange please, we have five more rooms to colour!!

Last preparations...

... and instructions from the chief painter...

... and the first brushstroke is done!

Palm Sunday procession at Deir es Salib

A candle, palme leaves, a boy and a Young Maltese: here is the winning team for Palm Sundays procession.

According to the tradition together with the families and the boys, the Youngsters of the Order of Malta gather to pray at Deir-Es-Salib. It is a beautiful moment.

The boys sang with all their heart, each of them using lyrics of his own. After this fervent cacophony we did the procession around Abou Yacoob’s chapel and then left the boys blessed and happy.

Marhaba!

Dear friends,

apologizing for the delay, we are very happy to finally introduce ourselves, the second team of the Caravan, the Camels 2010:

Viki, Julia, Tabea and Caroline from Germany, Stéphanie, Marie-Liane and Gonzague fromFrance, Stéphane from Switzerland, Pedro from Mexico and Alberto from the United States!

As you can see, we are quite an international family with various backgrounds, different experiences and situations which brought us here together. Most of us have already completed their studies, some have already worked, all of us are in the process of deciding what to do afterwards, and all this makes it ever more interesting to share these 6 months of Caravan.

We met in the beginning of January in an old monastery in Germany for three weeks of preparation, a very fulfilling time of getting to know each other and the project, learning about history and culture of Lebanon, religion and faith, and how to build a snowman in the case of our two Latinos…

From the snow-covered middle of German nowhere we were then thrown back into civilization, when we arrived at our new home for the next half year, amazing Beirut!!

Two of these months have already passed and we’re very happily settled in, enjoying the weekly routine of Arabic lessons, university classes and of course our visits in Deir es Salib, just as the previous Caravan. In difference to them we couldn’t start with a camp but nevertheless learned to love the handicapped boys and our time with them a lot! Everytime we get to know them a little bit better and it is already hard to imagine to having to leave them in a couple of months…

The weekends are used for fieldtrips, relaxing and activities with the Lebanese youth order. Reports about these will follow soon!

We felt and feel very heartly welcomed by everyone, the responsibles for the project, our friends from the youth order, the caretakers in Deir es Salib, our driver Shamoun who considers himself as our father/nanny, just to mention a few of them. Whomever we meet and tell about our stay, seem to be very interested in us and happy to have us here.

We are very thankful for the great opportunity to be here and all the experiences we can make, and so looking forward for the months to come!

Happy Easter to everyone!!!