What a day! And not just for me…

It was our first opportunity to kick off the project and work directly with the participants. The first few hours were spent planning the day’s session. We left as usual in the afternoon to Chtoura whilst the other team got ready for their pick-up to Majdal Anjar.

For the Chtoura participants ‘touch typing’ was the order of the day. This was a major success and well-received especially since we knew that everyone participating was, at some point or other, a university student. As touch-typing goes, this course helped the students type more accurately using all five fingers without having to look at the keyboard. Following this, a spontaneously perfect environment was created which resulted in music and dancing.

“This was a good day!” - Julian (agara volunteer)

“They really enjoyed the lesson and are very keen to learn. They all absorbed a lot!” - Dean (another agara volunteer)

In Majdal Anjar, we’ve got somewhat of a similar scenario...but not exactly. The age gap, in particular, was a challenge since it ranges between 12 to 30 years, within the same class.

Here's how we approached the problem:

“No! I think this is a problem and we need to fix it as a group! We came here in the name of agara and I believe we should work together!” - Matthew (agara volunteer). 

As a team we felt that we should come up with an idea of how to better tackle this age gap problem… and yes, this was discussed and achieved but will be proved in the coming days and we will update you accordingly. I know, I make you wait and wait, but here's what some of our volunteers had to say about all this:

 “Building people as people” - Matthew

“Yess! But you’ll get relieved if you see them learning something!” - Maria

“I was amazed how much students especially from their young age can absorb quickly… in a few hours they were learning photoshop!” - Jean

 Yesterday we embarked on a new experience. On our trip back, without any planning or expectations we ended up in a refugee camp made up of Syrian asylum seekers. I will let these few thoughts (by our volunteers) speak for themselves and… the video will clearly depict the emotions we felt:

“ This is my first experience with kids.” - Paul

“Haha! Matthew if you carry one on your shoulders you will be forced to do it for the rest!” - Maria

“It was the best end of the day!” - Stephanie

The videos posted in these blogs say is all: adventures, laughter and profound talks are a genuine reflection of the emotions that we are experiencing here in Lebanon. Personally these are of a great fulfilment since the group is, without a doubt, growing closer to each other, and this creates both an amazing experience in self-awareness and an efficient work environment.

Posting this article, I will head directly to a discussion between us volunteers in preparing a schedule of work for the coming days to set up a coherent program between both centers.

I will inform you soon with the updates… hoping always that internet connection remains available to us!

Adrian Cassar