A little update!

During our first month in Lebanon, we had arabic lessons three times a week. Our teacher, Abla, came three hours to our apartment to teach us lebanese, which is different to the classical arabic.

Besides the letters, grammar and vocabulary, she also taught us nice simple songs which we use now to amuse not only the boys but also every other lebanese...

thanks to Abla, we are now equipped with the simple basics which are very useful to make at least some policeman, taxi driver, supermarket worker and barkeeper think we speak lebanese....

Since we are not allowed to take pictures of Deir el Salib, we can't show you  how the area looks. This picture shows the view the boys have from the inside. Deir el Salib is mentioned as a psychiatric Hospital. There are five floors for the the people, each floor ranging in severity. We work in St Dominic which is on the -5 floor because the hospital is built on a hill. There is also a house for women, an administrative office building, a courtyard with a little garden and a chapel with a museum displaying the life of Abuna Yacoub who was the founder of the Sisters of the Cross who devote their lives to the poor, handicapped, retired priests and the elderly.

From tuesday to thursday, after university, we go directly to Deir Salib, have lunch and then spend the afternoon with our handicapped friends of St Dominic.

During the week-end of the 18th to 19th october we went hiking in the famous Holy Valley. This is a beautiful valley where monks used to live in hermitages as well as in small communities. During the time where christians were persecuted, they seeked refuge in the caves of the mountains. We saw amazing remains of frescos, magnificent landscape, tasty fruits and little streams of rivers coming down the mountain and bringing water to the fertile area.

We were a group of 15 who left Beirut on saturday morning by bus to embark on a 5 hour long hike, with a lunch break in local tavern. It was a hot and sunny day, the landscape was lush and green, and our guide who walked really fast, opened our eyes and senses to the enchanting atmosphere which was  such a place full of natural beauty and historical events.

We spent the night in St. Anthony, which is now the only inhabited monastery in the Holy Valley and dates from the 6th century. The church of St. Anthony, where we had a Maronite mass on sunday morning, is a natural grotto sculptured in the rocks. Afterwards we continued our hike through a autumn like slopes and arrived after six hours happy about all the beautiful impressions but really exhausted in our final destination.

Some of us went back home, others went to see the famous cedars of Lebanon in the very north of the country.