New delights for the boys and girls

[Habitual apologies for another poor show on updating the blog, and thanks to the commentator below who has, rightly of course, accused the blog of ‘dormant’ behaviour. Dormant blog means hectic programme, so we hope we may prevail once again upon the reader’s forgivingness]

Tonnes to tell from Beyrouth: first and foremost, we record, mirabile dictu, the welcome news that Simon (Reiners, who took prime position in blog 1) has booked his flights and is rejoining us at the end of November, following the medical all-clear. The Levantine Coast has received these tidings with delight, rejoices wildly and waits with baited breath for the Caravan fellowship to be reunited.

All driving lessons are now completed and certified by Chamoun, who took tireless pleasure in the teaching (even if his students (Mareike, Ann-Sophie and Antonius) were more lukewarm at 8 in the morning); there’s barely a centre-metre of Beirut (and its vicinity) which they have not covered with the Chamoun School of Driving. Put positively, the car is a vintage (at a pinch “antique”), dove grey specimen of Audi which works. Conversely, bits of it are falling off/disintegrating, passengers are accommodated unglamorously on seats which feel as though you are about to fall through them... and the car now smells of soy sauce due to an unforeseeable domestic accident (thanks due to Ann-Sophie). The car has opened up a wide range of personal liberties, e.g. shopping and collecting rancid paper packages from McDonalds. Marwan, Finger-Charbel and Rashed (some of our boys from Saint Dominique) even had the distinct pleasure of hopping aboard the Audi for a “road-trip” around Deir el Salib, with Mareike/Ann-Sophie at the wheel. I need hardly describe the elation which resulted from this almighty adventure.

In fact, innovations of various kinds have been taking place in the homes where we work. At Deir el Qamar we have honed our programme to take account of the large number of girls with whom we were working: now we take two groups (around 10 each), playing games (not just volleyball, but versions of cricket/baseball, ‘blind man’s bluff’ (can’t imagine what the translation for that is, German-speakers) and other activities which make more demands on their cognitive abilities), singing songs (familiar to all who attended Chabrough) and every week there is a birthday party to devote undivided attention to one girl in particular – this week’s renditions of ‘happy birthday’ were downright bad, but we’re working on it, and Antonius the wandering minstrel even supplies some musical backing on the guitar. The main advantage of this arrangement is of course that we can provide closer, one-on-one attention to the girls.

The birthday party idea has also made it to Deir el Salib where now once a week we take a group of boys out into the garden and celebrate a birthday (regardless of whether or not it is actually their birthday; the scenario more often than not is that the birth date of the boy is inconnu). Raed was the lucky chap this week (who is almost permanently bed-bound) and the provision of birthday cake and songs in the garden made him, needless to say, extremely happy.

On the other side of life: we went camping up in the mountains, almost contracted hypothermia from a near enough glacial river, ate Stockbrot and had an interesting chat with a man and his mule who were passing through. The setting was very beautiful and thanks as always go to Michel who organised it all so well and chose such a marvellous place; nine people, two small tents was, however, a squeezed ratio, particularly given the odd sleep-talking and some quite possessive sleeping habits.

Michel (along with Dr Issa) also organised our latest adventure to the Valley of the Saints (Qadisha) which really was a treat: an enormous valley with on average one monastery every hundred metres; the place is dominated by a kind of holiness which is difficult to describe hors du contexte. We were fortunate enough to walk most of its length and stay in a monastery for Saturday night and even sup with a shepherd whose family (dressed rather incongruously in addidas sports gear and label clothing) prepared and served the most fantastic supper. The drive out of the valley was extraordinary, giving us the chance to look back over what we had walked and to observe this secluded, quiet part of Lebanon which was in olden days a place of refuge for Christians in trouble, the evidence of which still exists so powerfully in the form of caved monasteries and hermitages (one hermit in particular, a Colombian (don’t ask), was not/is never in a socio-interactive mood and seemed more than a little dismayed to see 10 hikers traipsing through his little piece of land; his “yes, welcome” sounded tired and ironic).

The weekend before, most of us went, as a result of Dr Issa’s continual generosity, to Sourat where the doctor has a ‘country residence’. He hosted us magnificently and the visit also gave rise to a lemonade tasting which was apparently top class. A bit of monastery-visiting the next day, mass in the evening at St Joseph’s Church and then Halloween was acknowledged in Gemese with a few tipples and some disgusting (if appropriate) face graffiti (which didn’t quite make it off everyone’s face by Aabla-time the next morning).

Hala Ghoryab very sweetly invited us round for a beachside party at her pad near Damour, just south of Beirut. Perfect sunset, wonderful setting amidst the banana trees, food excellent and, for some, the sea was forgiving enough to allow swimming. So kind, many thanks.

Another point of (dubious) local interest was my birthday last week (if you’ll forgive me for breaking my very ill kept authorial anonymity) which resulted - *completely* without my knowledge – in a surprise party. I am very grateful to be able to use this blog as an opportunity to thank all those who came (and especially of course my Caravanista comrades who organised it). I think I almost suffered a heart-attack when greeted by all those familiar Lebanese/German/Irish faces last Friday and it was a perfect, if unexpected, way to smooth the aging process as I begrudgingly slip into life as a 23 year old. Thank you very much.

That’s about it for this time, except to mention that we have now started at the Université St Joseph and have already had a series of lectures on Lebanese history, now comes the ‘religious bit’ starting with an already entertaining series with Ralph Sleiman (I particularly enjoy his use of ‘Sir’ and ‘Miss’ when answering questions). Nour (our history lecturer) took us on a historical tour of the ‘downtown’ area of Beirut which culminated in a fantastic ice cream session at Chocolat Milano and she also showed us the National Museum which was a joy.

Keep tuning in for more updates – I really must apologise once again for our dismal communications skills, but, in summary, all is going well, we are attempting different, more interesting activities with the boys and girls, our Lebanese friends remain exceedingly generous (this blog, due to constraints, does not even approach a full report of our evening-to-evening activities with our friends out here, on whom we are so dependant) and the weather is lovely. Over and out, for the time being.