This was partly our fleeting, collective fear when we met the participants yesterday... but I will explain this "dash of cold water" later!

Ready for today's recipe? Here goes:

We started the day swiftly by organizing our stuff at home and getting things prepared for the community centres we will be working in, that is, Chtoura and Majdal Anjar. Once the laptops were sorted, we left the house with anxiety-filled minds, and proceeded with the short drive to Chtoura. I will mostly be working there, so cannot really say much about Majdal Anwar if not through what the others recount once we group again in the evening.

Oven settings:

We learnt that the electricity source in Chtoura is rigged in such a way that the power cuts at least four times a day at a regular occurrence. (Just think for a moment what your reaction would be if this happens at home...every, single day.)

Yesterday we experienced first-hand one of the main preoccupations of voluntary work, that is: of being flexible to the needs of the 'receiving' end. (Receiving is somewhat misleading  as I believe, it accounts for us too - the volunteers - we too receive, probably far more than anything we think we might be giving). Our plan for yesterday's first meeting with the participants was to list the computer programs, including Microsoft Office, which we planned to give tuition of. It turned out, however, that almost all participants have studied at tertiary level...meaning that they had sufficient knowledge on the basic skills in computing. So much for our plan...

Spices for a tastier dish: -

Honestly, I felt refreshingly alive meeting the youths who are giving their time to Keen International. Some are keen to become trainees for the organisation and others came to learn something new. Nada's answer..."let them come, let them learn, leave them free... there will be some who I will never meet again, there will be two or three that will stay!"

In fact after bouncing off some ideas with Nada, we came up with a plan and structure of how to make the best of the next nine days. Here agara's aims were highlighted as we focused on making the project sustainable by adapting the participant's requests into a suitable training program for the trainees who will then take the projects in their hands.

A peculiar situation actually happened yesterday evening... Nada and her family might have underestimated our impact on their home resources! First, our hosts realised tha, over our two-day stay so far, we had already consumed double the amount of potable water that they generally consume in a week! Then we also reached the Wi-Fi limit and ended up with no internet for the rest of the evening. (Which explains why today's post is a tad late...we're lucky we managed to upload it at all!)

But on the bright side. Without any internet distractions, we all got fired up in a very insightful debate on religions, human values and God. Love and human values are the main shared  pillars that both Islam and Christianity are built upon. At some point during the day, I remember stating that I'm really feeling comfortable building relationships with Muslims and that women wearing a 'hijab' now actually feels like a rather common thing. It is only a matter of being exposed to it...

Anyhow, I lost count of the grams and portions of each ingredients. But perhaps it is better this way. It is after all, a matter of trial and error, of playing it by the ear, or the taste...and proceed to address the needs accordingly.

We'll be back tomorrow!

Adrian Cassar and Paul Asciak