South of Lebanon

Last weekend we did a trip to the South of Lebanon, discovering a completely different country. First, we visited Tyrus, a city that dates back to Phoenician times and we had a look at the ruins there. Today, Tyrus with its Souks in the old town looks a lot more oriental than Beirut.

The rest of the weekend we spent in a Christian village close to the Israelian border, one out of three in the area that is otherwise inhabited by Shiites and mainly controlled by Hesbollah.

A local youth organization took care of us and the young people gave us very interesting insights in their daily life that is shaped by their position between Israel, Hesbollah and the UNIFIL.

The UN-troops are very present in the region, located there to maintain the fragile peace after the 2006 war and the respect of the border, but without a real competence.

The youth organization tries to stop the increasing Christian emigration from the region that is considered to be part of the Holy Land by supporting the families, developing new agricultural opportunities and other forms of income.

The trip opened our mind to the problems that Lebanon still faces, and to the completely different life conditions within this little country.

The road marks the border between Israel and Lebanon

UNIFIL soldiers from Indonesia ... who is the tourist now?

A crusader castle that was used as a Hesbollah base and then destroyed by Israel

on the way home - after an inspiring and exhausting weekend! :-)

Church Choir

Since the priest of our church had asked us to contribute a German song to mass, we sang "Groß sein lässt meine Seele den Herrn" last Sunday. The church is to 99% attended by little Philippino ladies (the 1% is us) who welcome us always very warmly in their midst.

For some reason they liked our singing and invited us not only to sing the last song with their choir but also to prepare another song by ourselves - next time in French!

Outing with the elderly

Another event organized by the Lebanese Youth Order in which we participated: an outing with elderly people from a day center in Beirut.

In the morning we drove to the church St. Rafqa (a Lebanese saint) with a big bus. Whoever thinks that elderly like to sleep on a one hour drive is terribly mistaken. We had a small bus party with clapping, singing and dancing.

Once we arrived at the church we took a small break to enjoy the quiet and holiness of the place and then had a mass. After the spiritual program we drove to Surat, a small village in the mountains. There we had a delicious lunch at Dr. Issa’s house. And after a wonderful day out we drove back home (this time sleeping J ).

Operation Big Blue

Last Sunday, Nayla, our professor about Islam at university, invited us to participate in a big event where many different youth groups join to clean up the Lebanese coast.

Of course we said yes and had a very funny day cleaning up a very dirty beach.

Sports at Jamhour

In order to shake off the daily stress, we have the opportunity to go to a school called “Jamhour” and use the sports facilities there. Just so there is no misunderstanding: This school has amazing sport facilities-it is not like any other school. It's a fitness center. Everything you could wish for is present.

Squash , table tennis, a fitness center, a swimming pool, basketball courts, tennis courts, a sauna, showers (where the water pressure is better than at our apartment) – whatever you can think of… Jamhour has it!!

Twice a week we take the chance to go there. Often we play a little team sports first, before separating to the different activities. It is always a lot of fun!!

While some are being active, others simply hang out in the cafeteria and eat a muffin. :-)

Holy Valley

On Saturday May 8 at 7 a.m. the Camels headed to the Holy Valley with Dr. Issa and other Lebanese friends.

The Holy Valley was founded by the Maronites to flee from persecution. The untouched landscape was breathtaking to all of us. We hiked on the steep slopes heading to one of the monasteries where we slept for the night. For dinner we were invited to a local family’s house, where the view stretched across the valley and into the Mediterranean Sea.

Sunday we attended a beautiful Maronite mass in Arabic, had our breakfast and headed out for the second day of hiking. We first stopped to see the only hermit in the valley and probably the only one in the world. Unfortunately we were unable to see him. We continued our journey down the valley and over a river. We visited the chapel of Saint Marina, it’s a quaint little chapel. We persisted with our journey until the end, where we rested under a tree and had our lunch before getting back onto the bus. On the way back to Beirut we stopped for a celebratory ice cream, which was a great end to our weekend.