Snow Storm 17 February 2012
Snow storms in Khirbet Qanafar are usually a
nightmare of chaos. The moment the first flakes start to fall bus
drivers and some parents start rushing to school demanding to
take the children home. Students and some employees start getting
restless demanding to be allowed to go home. Everything suddenly turns
into chaos right at the door of the administration. The decision to
close the school or not to close it is a very tough one! What do you do
with boarding and day students who are instantly ready to go home and
are no more interested in lessons. School buses half-loaded with
children from other schools start arriving to JLSS. Bus drivers become
very antagonistic demanding to also have the JLSS children instantly to
take home. Considering whether it is necessary to close school or even
having an organized school shut-down is never on the agenda! Snow flakes
down from the sky is trouble of extreme proportion! It is a no win
situation, and our efforts quickly change to an organized closing down
of the school.
Friday 17 February 2012 was a candidate for such a situation.
Fortunately; snow did not start falling in our region during the school
hours. We had a normal school day, and the following day, the whole
region was covered with beautiful snow. We were very grateful that this
snow storm had excellent timing that protected us from the usual
nightmare that accompanies snowfall.
Children
who regularly stay at JLSS for the weekend enjoyed a beautiful white
weekend with lots of snow fun. One boarding student, one educator, and
our volunteers who are usually away for the weekend were not able to go
to Beirut because the Dahr Al-Beidar road had closed.
Our kitchen staff are always ready to confront the snow and arrive to
duty on time to look after our children even if they have to walk to
school. This time was no exception. Our children and staff were very
well looked after.
Ms. Maria Bogner, Johannes Michel, and Roland Hausler prepared a sweet pastry (Berlina) on
Sunday for all the boarding children and staff who were staying at JLSS
for the weekend. The other volunteers helped educators Rabab and Darine
to look after the children and make sure they had a nice and fruitful
time.
The Sunday-school service was cancelled because it was snowing heavily
and our church, which was not heated, was too cold for children. It
would take three to four hours of running the central heating of the
church to start making a difference in temperature, and this is sadly a
major expense we no more can afford.
We are most grateful to our partners who support our school enabling us
to use central heating for a few hours during the day and night, in
spite of the very expensive diesel prices that continue to rise day
after day. This is a very rare exception in our region. Most of the
homes in our region that have central heating are no more able to run
them because they no more can afford to pay the expensive diesel prices.
Most homes use small diesel heaters to heat one room in the house where
people spend most of their time. Others cannot even afford to pay for
the diesel of such heaters. They rely on collected wood instead. Most
people in our region are living in desperate poverty. This year cheap
smuggled diesel from Syria was not available because of the turmoil
there. Even the Lebanese government subsidized diesel was not reaching
our region because some corrupt Lebanese politicians decided to use this
diesel to increase the Millions they have in their bank accounts. It is
unbelievable that Lebanese politicians are openly defending such
terrible evil using the justification that this has been the norm in
Lebanon. These politicians sadly call themselves Christian leaders!
We praise God for our partners who are enabling us to keep our classes
and boarding homes warm for three hours in the morning and for three
additional hours in the evening: a luxury most of the people in our
region cannot afford. Maybe this explains why some parents prefer to
keep their children in JLSS even during holidays and weekends!
We pray that God may rid Lebanon of its evil and corrupt politicians who
are so inhuman as to steal the government subsidized diesel that is
supposed to heat the homes of the desperately poor.
Snow continued falling on Sunday and school closed on Monday. Normal
classes resumed on Tuesday morning.
We are grateful for one snow storm passing without the usual headaches
associated with such events, and above all we praise God we are still
able to have warm classes and boarding homes for our children.