Today in Beirut…

Today, while rockets were raining on northern Lebanon, I was busy in Beirut volunteering at St. Jude’s. The two toddlers with whom I spent the afternoon and early evening were both very ill–one of the girls lives in a Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut, and the other is a Syrian refugee. Though tired from their chemo, they still found the energy to color drawings of Dora the Explorer, play “fish” games on the computer, and piece together legos.

Before I went to St. Jude’s this afternoon, I was looking for a quote for my morning blog post about Istanbul–and came across this:

To be a real dervish is to lift up those who have fallen,
to wipe the tears of the suffering,
to caress the friendless and the orphaned.

— Shaykh Muzaffer Ozak el-Jerrahi

As my bald toddler friends and I played today in the playroom at St. Jude’s, I kept thinking of those words–and wishing I could do more to help. Every time my shift comes to an end, I’m always sad to leave–and to know that my playmates can’t. If I had the time, I’d volunteer there every day…

To make a donation online to support the treatment of the children at St. Jude’s in Beirut, please click here.