Nikolas Geschwill Visit to
JLSS
Nikolas
Geschwill who is the great grandson of the founder of JLSS, Rev. Dr.
Hermann Schneller, visited JLSS on Thursday 11 April 2019. He was
accompanied by a five-member team of social workers from Caritasverband
- Germany. The team with Nikolas were visiting Caritas Lebanon and
staying in Jounieh.
Nikolas who is a drummer and Percussionist, wanted to visit the school
that his great grandfather founded. Caritas Lebanon kindly provided a
minibus for the group to transport them from Jounieh where they were
staying to Khirbet Qanafar.
They had visited Syrian refugee camps where Nikolas ran drum-circles for
refugee children.
The director welcomed the group and showed them around the school.
Nikolas and the group had lunch in JLSS, then ran a drum-circle for
students of Grades 5, 6, and 7.
It was a fantastic time for the students who experienced a drum-circle
for the first time. Nikolas did an excellent job. It
was amazing to watch how Nikolas managed around forty students with
drums and percussion instruments through the rhythms he initiated and
lead the children into, in spite of the great excitement and loud
noise they were making. Nikolas amazingly controlled the drumming of
children through rhythms, crescendos, and decrescendos.
The
children released their tension and anxiety through the drum-circle.
They later left greatly exhilarated and much more relaxed to the delight
of their teachers and educators who benefited enormously from the
calming exercise on the children in the following classes and especially
in boarding homes later in the evening.
It was very clear that JLSS must bring drum-circles to its program.
Nikolas promised to assist in the realization of this new goal in his
future visits.
Just before the group travelled back to Jounieh, they presented a gift
to the children of seven emergency lights that were placed in seven
boarding homes; a most suitable gift in a country that has the most
power-cuts without rival!
They also presented the director with a book
about Münsterland which is the region they come from, and a beautiful
Münster candle-glass-light.
We express our sincere gratitude to Nikolas and the Caritasverband team
for their wonderful visit.
We especially thank Nikolas for the drum circle he conducted with our
students.
We also thank Caritas - Lebanon for providing a minibus for the group to
travel to Schneller School.
We certainly look forward to future visits of Nikolas and hopefully
other members of the team.