As Books in Motion partially functions in partnership with Maison du Livre, the Maison extended an invitation to anyone from our production interested in working at their own children's writing workshop at a camp in the mountains of Hermel, a region at the very northern tip of the country. The workshop was composed of a select few children from various regions throughout Lebanon, who had demonstrated a particular interest or talent in creative writing as assessed by their local librarians. A Books in Motion colleague, Anas Al-Salah, and I were indeed interested. Accordingly, we brainstormed potential activities to engage in with the children, bought the necessary supplies, and arrived at the camp on Thursday ready to participate. In total, close to 30 children (from 9-15 years of age) attended, 5 from each of the 6 regions participating.


The first day we arrived too late to commence the arts and crafts activities we had planned, so we just played some outdoor games with the kids. After dinner we gathered around a campfire and each group of children performed a skit, either representing their hometown, or just telling the group a bit about themselves (see videos). Friday we were able to introduce our activity; the creation of bookmarks, which we felt was particularly suited to the theme of the workshop. The alternative (either for those who did not want to complete bookmarks or for those having finished creating a bookmark and wishing to create something else) was to make pictures of the sea. This way, the children could hold up their own pictures at the time during the play 'What is the color of the Sea' where we normally distribute our own versions of these pictures to metaphorically illustrate the photos of the sea taken by one of the characters in the play. As some of the children were from regions where our play had already debuted, there was a resounding enthusiasm, both to create these pictures, and also to create depictions of our other play, 'The Slippers of Tanbouri'.


The rest of the troupe made the long drive to Hermel two days later for their Saturday evening performance, stopping for a traditional regional meal along the way (see photos). One notable innovation in our second play, 'Tanbouri' occurred when Tanbouri decided to run away from the character of a young girl attacked by his shoes and hide in the audience for her to seek him out. Raouf also called on the author of 'Tanbouri' to participate in the play at one point. Further, there happened to be a young girl in a wheelchair in the audience, which made for a particularly touching interactive performance when she was called up at one point during 'What Is The Color of the Sea?' as well. After the show, she approached the actress, Lama, which plays the role of Hasmig, a girl in a wheelchair to tell her how moved she was by her particularly realistic portrayal of a handicapped person. This really warmed our hearts as the characters in our play were specifically modeled to represent a diverse demographic.


While dining by the river post show, the actors came to the consensus that despite the lack of electricity (particular common in more remote ares of the country, like Hermel, although a frequent, albeit short lived occurrence -usually only a few minutes- throughout the country today; a long term result of of the civil and subsequent war(s)) the show was one of the best so far, energy abounding from both the actors and the crowd. Having stayed two nights at the mountain camp in Hermel, Anas and I welcomed the opportunity to join the rest of the actors at an eco lodge in Quaiche (a self sustaining town 30 minutes from Hermel) for the third and last night in the region.