Christmas in the Homes (13th, 17th, 18th) and the Children’s Camp (14-16th)

In our last weekend before the Christmas Holidays 5 of the Caravan members took part in a camp for 6-12 year olds organised by the Lebanese Youth of the Order.  There were 23 children at the camp, boys and girls, one group from a centre of the Order in the North who were Christian and another group from a Centre in the South who were Muslim.  We had 26 volunteers including us, as well as four social workers who had come with the children.
The camp was really great fun, but completely exhausting – do children ever rest?  As soon as the children arrived they were divided into teams.  Each team had 3-4 children and 2 volunteers, and as their first activity had to come up with a team name, dance... which gave us amazing teams such as Dinosaurs (with our very own Callum), 4 Fun (with Paul), Lions, Red Lions and Bluewings.  The afternoon started the activities proper. On the first day there was a walk to the Dam, a huge game of dodgeball, tag, at least 2 games whose names I don’t know (sorry), dinner and we finished off watching Home Alone.  The next day started with some sports, then a pillow fight, a kermes outside with football, 10 pin bowling, ping pong, apple bobbing and cotton candy made by the camp’s masul Daniel.  After lunch Santa Claus came with his bell and ‘Ho, Ho, Ho’ giving presents to the girls and boys, after which they sadly had to leave.
We all had great fun with the kids, and some of us even assisted on conversations between some of the Christian and Muslim girls where they were discussing the differences between them!  It was an amazing experience, very different from our other camps with the disabled and I think that I can speak for all of us when I say that we would happily do one again!


We also did our Christmas parties in each of the homes this week.  Our first Christmas party was in Antelias, with Maxime as Father Christmas.  Everyone wore Christmas hats, we handed out sweets and sang Christmas carols on each floor, giving us a full 1.5h of singing, which was great fun but completely destroyed our voices.
Our next Christmas party was the following Monday in Deir el Qamar, which was also very good fun. For the first time we had Lebanese friends with us to DEQ, thank you Windy and Pia!  After an amazing Christmas lunch, which included a Buche de Noel and Candles to take home, we went around the home singing in all the rooms for the first hour, with Julius as our Father Christmas.  After that we attended the Nativity play and Christmas concert done by the girls, which was very entertaining even if none of us understood the dialogue!
Our final Christmas party was in Deir el Salib on Tuesday, and again we had Father Christmas, interpreted by Paul this time.  We played Christmas songs on the speakers and danced with the boys for the full time, making it yet again a very different type of Christmas party!

On Wednesday morning those of us still in Lebanon (Charlotte, Paul, Callum and Maxime) went to the first ever Nativity Play done by the boys of the 5th floor in DES (our floor).  It was without a doubt the shortest Nativity play that I have ever seen (8 minutes) and among the most entertaining!  After the play we had some liqueur with the sisters including the mother superior – alcohol at 9am with nuns is not an experience that I expect to repeat soon! Over the following days we wrapped all of the clothes for the boys and girls which we had received at our fundraiser or bought with the funds from the fundraiser, and on Saturday morning Charlotte, Paul and Michel, driven by Fawsi, took the clothes to all 3 of the homes – thanks a lot guys!
 
By Maxime

St. Barbara’s Week (3/12/12-9/12/12)

This week we celebrated St. Barbara’s Day in the homes, which is the Lebanese version of Halloween. We all spent our Sunday night being creative and making some pretty scary masks…I think Julius definitely won the prize for the most frightening mask! So we arrived in Deir el Qamar on Monday with almost all of the girls (100+) waiting for us in the courtyard. They were all given masks to wear and were ready to party! It was a long 1-½ hours with a LOT of dancing! We sang songs, ate sweats, played games, it was all very good fun. On Monday night the physiotherapist in Deir el Salib invited us to a Karaoke fundraising event in a restaurant. We were taught how to dance the Dabke (the traditional Lebanese dance) and were forced to sing some songs. We felt slightly out of place since we were the only ones to sing anything in English and all eyes were on us when we sang… we felt like we were famous…or not…

On Tuesday we went to Deir el Salib and were greeted by some very funny looking boys dressed as girls for St. Barbara’s Day.  Some of the boys (Ghattas, Ayman, Charbel, Nounou, Joseph, Toni, and Georges etc.) were dressed Chabrouh style with all clothes you can find on. The boys were all overjoyed to be able to dress up, listen to loud music and sing and dance with the caretakers, Sr, Manal and us. On Thursday we went to Antelias and had a party for the boys there as well. It wasn’t much different to our usual days in Antelias, consisting of singing, dancing and playing games.

On the weekend some of us went up to Sourat to Dr. Issa’s house and enjoyed a nice weekend in the mountains away from all the cars and the noise of Beirut.

By Aglaë