I had been in Lebanon for less than a day when someone said to me, “You’ll have to choose a team, you know.  Everyone’s going to ask you about it.”  This was absolutely true, as it turned out.  I had arrived in mid-June for five months of living and working in a Palestinian refugee camp, [...]

by Julie Davidson
Summer 2009 Volunteer
In the morning when we wake up early for teaching it is one of the most peaceful times in the camp. The heat is bearable and it is quiet. From my window I can see that even the cats are still sleeping, basking in the early morning sun from the corrugated [...]

By: Elizabeth Cooper
Summer 2009 Volunteer
“This past summer, I worked for the Women’s Humanitarian Organization (WHO) in Bourj and the Children and Youth Centre (CYC) in Shatila.  These organizations promote fun, informal activities for large groups of children.  The result is rather chaotic, energy filled sessions of running, screaming, and having fun.  Always interesting and productive, my time [...]

By: Michelle Turner
Wavel Camp
Nour walks through the door to the home Amélie and I have just rented for the Wavel volunteers, mop, broom and dustpan in hand.
A couple of 10-year-old boys from the neighbourhood stand in the doorway asking us what team Amélie and I support in the worldcup. Italia? Brasil? Allemania?
The apartment is bare. [...]

By: Gus Constantinou
You knew something out of the ordinary was occurring by the quartet of young boys posing as musicians milling about the street below. Three of the boys were holding durbakehs (Arabic drums) and one was cradling what looked to me to be bagpipes. The musicians’ hair was carefully slicked back, their jeans carefully [...]

By: Carolina Vergara Lamarre
Bourj el Barajneh
Amidst the chaos that are my classes, full of energetic students who already told me they love ‘Miss Carolina’ as of the first period of class, and the discouraging and depressing reality of the camp, I try and find a balance between overwhelming feelings of happiness at the hospitality and [...]

By: Mohan Mishra
Bourj el Barajneh
We have just finished our fourth week of teaching here in Bourj el Barajneh, a Palestinian refugee camp near Beirut, Lebanon. I continue to be amazed at the people here and how friendly and welcoming they have been to all of us volunteers. You can hardly walk down the street without [...]

By: Mina Chung
Wavel
I’m in Wavel camp which is in the Bekaa valley, just outside of the city of Baalbek. Mountains surround us, and there is an easiness and breathing space here that is nonexistent in the congested camps in Beirut. Wavel was a former army base for French soldiers during the French colonial regime so [...]

By: Lindsey Marchessault
Bourj el Barajneh
It was very difficult for me to choose the subject for this report back to Canada from Bourj el Barajneh. So many things have happened since I have been here and there have been innumerable “defining moments” of the summer so far. To try to describe the entire experience and how [...]

By: Amal El Masri
Bourj el-Barajneh
“Teacher! Teacher!” Hiba pulls at my shirt while Mohammad clutches at my elbow while Omar pinches my cheek while Sahar, Rayan and Ahmad hug me from behind. “We want to plaayyyyy!” They demand in unison. Its fourteen minutes into class and already my nine-year olds have mutinied. “Get into two rows!” [...]