Many of you who followed last year’s adventure will know that Val and I volunteered to live and work in a secondary school in Johannesburg, writing a daily blog. We recorded our life there, thoughts on aspects of South Africa, and most particularly the progress of the project we were undertaking: a theatre production based upon African folk tales, Kwasuka Sukela (“Once upon a time” in Zulu.)  That blog and other pages are still up and available via the Kwasuka Sukela menu, but, excitingly, we are about to set off on another adventure, and hope to record our experiences in much the same way.

Looking for another theatre and travel opportunity, our good friend Sue – who has both knowledge and experience of the voluntary sector – put us in touch with Jusoor International, an organisation which works with Syrian refugee children in Lebanon.  We were slightly nervous when the initial application form mentioned opportunities for young adults to volunteer – we have many qualities, but youth is not among them – but elsewhere the indication was that what we had to offer was suitable.  So we applied, and were accepted, so we fly to Beirut on July 15th, to spend five weeks in Lebanon.