Squeezed between Snowstorms and the Easter Holiday

The inauguration of the hangar project was set for the 27th of April 2022 but there was so much to do before that date. We needed to connect central heating, water, electricity, telephones and LAN to the hangar and also hook it to the main sewage system.
Successive snowstorms of the long winter this year delayed our work. Heavy machinery can only work on firm ground. The land around the hangar was drenched with water from rain and melting snow. We would get a few days of sunshine raising our hopes for starting the work when another snowstorm would start.
Trainers of the JLSS electricity workshop with the third year Dual System students were working on the electric wiring and installations inside the hangar.
Trainers of the carpentry workshop with their students were making the blackboards and hanging them in addition to hanging the large TV screens in each new classroom. Wading through the mud to reach the new hangar was extremely annoying but they all pressed on with work.
The work we had to do was squeezed between successive snowstorms and the approaching Easter holiday just before the inauguration date.
Finally, after a few days of sunshine, Mr. Shadi Naim and his team succeeded in installing the central heating system and hooking it to the boiler room of the nearby Car Mechanics building. They also connected the hangar to the main water supply and the public sewage system.
Mr. Shadi Naim and his team safely moved the heavy machinery from the old carpentry workshop to the new one on the ground floor of the hangar.
Our electricity team of trainers and students connected the hangar to the main electricity grid. They also connected the cables for telephones and LAN and pushed on with the electric installations inside the hangar.
Mr. Mohammad al-Khodor and his team completed the partitions, tiling, and wall paneling of the classroom floor and the facilities of the ground floor.
The new classroom furniture was delivered on time by Fleifel Classroom Furniture Company.
The photocopier kindly donated by the alumni association in Lebanon was also delivered. We thank the alumni association in Lebanon for this donation.
Everything was beginning to look really nice, but the area outside needed a lot of work before the inauguration.
The Industrial Mechanics team of trainers and students started working on building the fence around the new extension of the school campus. It was a mammoth task that we thought will not be completed in time.
The plot of the hangar was bare land with no trees. We wanted to plant trees to bring this extension of the campus to harmony with the rest of the school campus.
We couldn't start planting trees before the fence was completed. Whatever is planted would be destroyed by the goats that daily graze every open green area with total disregard of herders to private property.
We only had a few days before the Easter holiday.
The old Schneller spirit had to be resurrected otherwise the work would not be completed in time for the inauguration. The only way to finish the fence was for the whole vocational department, trainers and students, to work on the fence.
Although many trainers and students were fasting for Lent or Ramadan, they all headed to the plot of the hangar dividing into many teams working on different parts of the fence at the same time. They took shifts in the heat of the sun relieving each other to get the job done.
Finally, after three days, the fence was completed, but hundreds of trees were ready for planting.
The plot is the shape of a triangle with the South side along the road to the farm, and the other two sides to the East and West. Cypress, pine, and cedars were planted on the East and West sides and the open areas, and red wild prune trees and yellow jasmines were planted on the South side along the road to the farm.
Class after class, from both the academic and vocational departments, assisted by staff of the Maintenance Department planted 250 Cypress trees, 50 pine trees (seed producing), 7 cedars, 25 red wild prune trees and 25 yellow jasmines.
Three cedar trees were kept for planting by our partners on the inauguration day.
In addition to that we also planted 70 original Lebanese olive trees (ABOU SHAWKEH) in other locations of the school.
We will continue the tree-planting program even after the inauguration until all the trees we have are planted. Every student and member of staff in JLSS will have planted at least one tree this year.
Our students not only learn to love and protect nature, this year each student will be proud that the JLSS campus has at least one tree she/he planted. They will know exactly where these trees are.
The maintenance department installed an irrigation system to guarantee that all trees will be watered adequately until they can survive on their own.
Sadly, some workers on our project, especially from one big contractor, had no sense of cleanliness. Although we removed a few truckloads of garbage from the area after some of the neighbors complained, there was still a lot of garbage around. Our trainers and vocational students organized a cleaning campaign around the area of the project removing all the garbage that was left behind.
Mr. Mohammad al-Khodor and his team will work on the concrete road and pavement over the Easter holiday. With that the project will be complete and ready for the inauguration on the 27th of April.
A big thank you to everyone who worked on this project. Every trainer, student, or member of staff can be proud of the wonderful achievement of this amazing group effort. We also thank all the contractors and engineers who worked on this project (Dalal Steel and Yehya Daher Engineering).
A huge thank you goes to the supporting body of JLSS, our German partners EVS/EMS, for being the main supporter of this project not only in financing the actual construction but also the purchase of the needed school furniture.
We also thank our Swiss partners SVS and American partners LBMS (Lutheran Board for Mission Support) who generously supported the needed school furniture and other aspects of the project.
These were not the only JLSS events during those challenging days. Ms. Josephine Mansour reached retirement at the end of March 2022. She had been working in JLSS since 1996. A special celebration was held on Thursday 7 April in Maria Schneller Hall to thank her for her long years of outstanding service. Attending was the whole Schneller team of trainers, teachers and members of staff from all departments. Rev. Haddad thanked her for her wonderful work with JLSS children emphasizing her refined, gentle, calm yet disciplined character. No wonder she is loved not only by her students but also her colleagues.
It was also the time of Easter and the fast of Ramadan. Classes and boarding homes were decorated nicely for both Easter and Ramadan.
The kitchen staff did every thing they could to support fasting students with the special meals of SUHUR and IFTAR.
We also needed to buy the chocolate eggs and Easter cakes to distribute to students after the Easter celebration of the boarding department. This was a challenging task this year as chocolate is now very expensive in Lebanon due to the enormous drop in the value of the Lebanese currency. This was not the only challenge. When we asked for samples of chocolate eggs and we tried them, we immediately realized the effect of the slow turnover on such items in Lebanon now. The chocolate did not taste good but was rather old. The only good chocolate we found was from the most famous Lebanese sweets-shop in Chtaura which was expensive. We still bought the needed chocolate eggs and Easter cakes for all our boarding students to make sure our celebration this year will not be lacking in any way.
On the last night before the Easter holiday the boarding department celebrated Easter in St. Michael's Church with a service of readings and Easter hymns which was held on Tuesday 12 April 2022 at 6:30 PM.
The special Easter dinner was postponed until after the service to be after breaking the fast. All students were able to enjoy this special dinner together.
We thank our kitchen staff for their wonderful work and this special dinner.
The Kindergarten had a special celebration the following day on Wednesday. Children had an egg-hunt around the kindergarten and a nice celebration of music, activities, and good food all prepared by the KG teachers.
School will resume after the Easter holiday Tuesday morning 26 April. The inauguration of the hangar project will be on the following day: Wednesday 27 April. It will include an organ and trumpet concert kindly performed by our dear friend Klaus Schulten accompanied by Britta Giesecke von Bergh on the trumpet. Both are travelling from Germany specially for this concert. The concert will be of trumpet music of the 17th century and organ music of the 18th century by J. S. Bach and W. A. Mozart.
We thank them both for their wonderful kindness and we certainly look forward to the concert.
A big thank you and a very happy Easter to everyone.