Good morning from the middle east!

Eight volunteers, on our first day together!

Well.... I must admit: yesterday morning I was quite anxious to start this experience with a bunch of people who I barely knew... but 24 hrs hours later I can confirm that the group of volunteers consists of a couple of crazy characters that transformed those otherwise endless hours of waiting into a few mere minutes. Following us on this blog for the next few days you might also end up smiling at (and with!) some of these characters!

 

Wait I haven't yet started for today...if you’re in a hurry jump to the last paragraph to meet Nada, our host…if not, here goes:

Yesterday we had to wait at Istanbul airport for a good 6 hours until our next connection to Beirut, Lebanon. There, we found the best environment for some team building.... simple when you have some food and a couple of drinks right? We managed to find a Wi-Fi spot where we simply updated our agara peers in Malta who are eagerly waiting to find out what we’ve been up to. Here we shared a number of experiences and anecdotes and as the clock ticked away, and the laughter filled the hours, I felt excited once again for the coming two weeks. 

I would say that fear and excitement of the unknown was shared among us all, hopping from one mind to the other especially when it dawned on us that the places we will be visiting are anything but paradise...the refugee crisis and the civil war we hear so much about in the news, is right next door, raging, in the neighbouring country of Syria.

Landed…. luggages collected… waving hands and…

There she was, Nada our host together with her husband Wakie, and her two young boys Taha and Habib. I was personally surprised with the energy and enthusiasm by which they all greeted us. Late at night on the transport to their residence, she managed to give us the necessary information and mentioned a list of people who are keen (Keen International...pun intended, of course!) to meet us within the next few days. Basically she is excited as much as we are to help her make this project of a computer lab in her community centre a reality!

 

And finally….

Yes, understandably by 2.00am this morning we were all incredibly tired, but still we were not yet done talking with all the family about Malta, languages and all the things that we have to do in just two weeks! Despite the time… Nada decided to share some thoughts with three of us whilst trying to close the day. I’ll leave you with this thought and a snippet of that conversation:

 

“Life seems to be going on and nothing else is happening. Maybe we got used to it?”

“I took this initiative because I felt I had to start myself!” - Nada el Mais

 

Adrian Cassar