ritakml

When Salim shared his sailboat building intentions with me, I knew he was serious. But I had no idea how difficult it would actually get. I saw him and the scouts sweat over that amazing sailboat. I saw how excited the boys were about the whole project and sat on the boat’s bench looking at the horizon, imagining how fast it would go. I also lived Salim’s restless days every time he faced an obstacle. One man’s dream became everybody’s baby for 6 months.

The first is always the most challenging. I believe the next one will barely take 2 months! I feel so proud when I see such an initiative. Something interesting and different going on in Lebanon!

The adventures of a boat is a post by Salim Zwein.

Here I am, a dreamer, as many people describe me. I had this old dream of building a sailboat. The idea kept trotting in my head till I met a friend of mine, Christophe Gebrane, another dreamer but who had the chance of going to Canada and learn sailing. With him, discussions turned around…well, sailing.

He has been planning to build a small sailboat. So we both got excited over the idea of constructing the boat here in Lebanon. Being also scouts (“Scout un jour, scout toujours!”) we decided to see if our fellow scouts would be interested in pitching in this project.

All things done, the group of Saint Rita Sin el Fil loved the idea and I took it on myself to get a sponsorship from SGBL.

Time for construction! It was supposed to be a simple method, called “stitch-and-glue” technique, used by amateur sailboat builders all over the world.

All we needed was some marine plywood (10mm or 12 mm thick), woven fiberglass, a hefty amount of specific epoxy glue called “west marine” and of course our drilling, cutting and hammering tools.

Sounds easy? Not that fast M. Bond! Finding the bloody raw material was more of a treasure hunt (without a pirate ship!). Going around the whole country to see who has got marine plywood with the right dimensions then running another round to find who has west system epoxy! (I had to call Canada’s West System to know that Bardawil was their local representative!)

When we got to the aluminum mast, I had to scan all the aluminum industry to find the factory with right profile. I got in contact with Alutex Zahlé. But since they don’t have it in their stock and they won’t make one just for us, I had to find something simpler, so I went looking for a tube…but no luck. Until, one day, an aluminum retailer gave me the number of a stock keeper at SIDEM who was supposed to be the guy for that so-called “weird” request.

I called the guy up and went to SIDEM. Naturally I asked for the tube at the management floor: to my surprise, they don’t have it! So I phone the stock keeper again to share my grief who said: “Lak no ya zalameh! Come down to the depot entrance, those idiots up there know nothing!”

Following his advice, I went down. There was a post on the door with a “No Entrance! Employees Only!” sign…Looks promising!

Finally, I met the guy who proposed to sell me the 2 tubes for $170 each. (For your info, the local retail price of Aluminum rods of the same size and weight is ± $70). It’s easy to guess that the man was selling me something from under his coat. After some bargaining, I took the tubes for $120 each. I was not happy but, I didn’t have much choice.

Then, came the turn of the woven fiberglass called “Harir”, by the local fishermen. Well, if the fishermen knew it, they were supposed to know where to buy it, right? Wrong! They didn’t! Actually, someone buys it for someone who buys it for someone etc…At last, I found a fishing boat builder in Batroun who bought them. On the phone, the builder tells me to get them from a place in Harissa (In fact, it was Roumieh, facing the prison…I wonder how could someone be more confused than that?) I reached the place (Nasr, was the name I guess) and they wouldn’t just sell me the number of sheets I needed. I had to buy a whole 45kg roll of woven fiberglass sheet (which was not exactly the thickness I was looking for but what the hell, right?)

As if that was not enough, the stainless steel material which was supposed to be “findable” at Kiryakos or any other provider seemed to be harder to find than I thought. And if I laid my hands on any part I needed it would be twice to 3 times its price in Canada which, by the way, imports it from Australia.

For the sails, I was lucky that Christophe had already sewed them in Canada. All I had to do was to purchase them from him.

The boat was done. It looked really good and we were all happy…and here, the registration adventure began.

First, I asked the port master in Dbayeh where we had the boat parked.

-          What should I do to register the boat?

-          Does it have a motor?

-          No it doesn’t. It is a small sailboat. Ma bte7rez motor.

-          Mmmm…well why don’t you fix a motor on it?

-          Well maybe next year, but I really don’t need it.

-          Tayyib, when you fix the motor, I will help you register it.

-          (Is this guy deaf or something?) Well, what if I wanted to register it now?

-          It will cost you like $800, bass kermelkoun el keshefeh mna3melkoun se3er: $600

-          Mmm, OK I will get back to you as soon as I get the money (As in: NEVER!!)

I decided to ask elsewhere. Some people told me to go to Nefaa while others advised me to go to Saida! In the end, after some idle time, I stumbled on a sweet guy who was refurbishing a beautiful Cat (a double hulled boat).Yes, a Lebanese. After going through the works we had done on our boats, Bashir (Bashir Omed, that’s his name) in his early 60s asked me if I got a permission to build.

Now that came as a shockwave. Permission? No one told me about that!!!

Sweet Bashir (Thanks a lot bro) informed me that I should meet Gaby Nasr, Jounieh’s harbor captain and inquire: He would help me fix my little problem.

So I woke up on Monday morning and headed to Jounieh. He was quite helpful. It seems that since the boat was built in Sin el Fil I had to go to see Maroun Khoury, Beirut’s port Captain.

I jumped back in the car and drove all the way to Beirut harbor. I asked the employees there where I could find him but no one knew who the guy was! The freaking port captain!

Some clerk noticed me and indicated the 3^rd block 4^th floor.

I followed the directions and looked for Maroun Khoury’s office. Out of nowhere, a man, Mohammad El Mounla, suddenly shows up:  “You want to register your boat, right?” I laid my case. He listened and said:  “Wala yhemmak, I take care of all that..[…]”
I replied: “Ok great man (finally someone who actually did something), what would all that cost? “
He answered: “$200 w kell shi bi koun jehiz. Don’t worry! Just pass by Wednesday.”

I was so happy that I found someone who could do the job and for much less than $600. Wednesday, I went back thinking that I could still negotiate a better price, but I didn’t find Mohammad. I bumped into captain Maroun Khoury, who, surprised about my issue, sent me to Starco building to get the approval from Amer Bayda, the manager of the sea sailing (Mila7a ba7riyeh…as if there was some other sort of sailing!)

After some investigation (Got used to that) I found Amer. He was locking himself in his office at the 4^th floor of block A Starco. (Yeah! I am being Very explicit: If any of you guys is thinking of building a boat, go knock on that man’s door. Knock hard!)

After examining my case and giving me a headache explaining that the boat building expenses were a sponsorship by SGBL (“Aaah a hiba” (donation) he said…and wondered again: “So who paid for the boat? …Was I talking to myself?) Amer sends me back to captain Maroun!

This time I was given the price of LBP 100.000 for registration ($66) and another 100.000 LL penalty fees because we didn’t take the mysterious permission before we started building (Hell! Who would have told us?).

Basically, the $800 shrank to a mere $66. (If I had taken the famous super secret permission)

Quite a perilous trip, huh!!!

Yeah, I’m late…I know. I’m sorry. But better late than never

I got to participate in the job fairs on 12 (LAU) & 13, 14 (AUB) of May 2010. (Like I do every year ) Below is a list of all the participating companies in alphabetical order:

• aAstudio
• ABC
• Abela Technology Solutions
• Abudawood Group
• Academia Management Solutions International
• Acteos Liban
• Adduha High School
• Air Liquide
• Al-akhbar
• Al Baraka Bank
• Al Habtoor Leighton Group
• Al Jaber Energy Services
• Allianz SNA
• Almabani General Contractors
• Al Najah Private School
• Al Sayer Group
• American University Of Beirut Medical Center
• Amideast
• Arab Bank
• Arabian Construction Company
• Arope Insurance
• Arqaam Capital
• Arthur D. Little Middle East
• Averda
• AWI
• Azadea
• Baker Hughes
• Bank Audi – Audi Saradar Group
• BankMed
• Bank of Beirut
• Banque Libano-Francaise
• Banque Misr Liban
• Bayanat Airports Engineering & Supplies
• Beam International
• Beirut Orthodox Schools
• Bemco International
• Bestseller Retail
• Beton W.L.L.
• Bin Ham Electro Mechanical Est.
• Biomedic
• Blom Bank
• BMB
• BSynchro
• Butec
• Byblos Bank
• Capital Outsourcing
• Chemipaint
• Clifton Myers Entreprises
• Concorde Holding
• Condas International
• Consolidated Consultants
• Consolidated Contractors Company
• Construction Material Company
• CreditCard Services Company
• Crepaway
• Crowne Plaza Beirut
• Cyberia
• Dar Al Arkan
• Dar Al Handasah
• Davis Langdon
• Debbas
• Deloitte & Touche
• Edugates International
• Element^n
• Eli Lilly & Company
• Ernst & Young
• Expiditors International
• Fadel Partners
• Fidelity Assurance & Reinsurance
• Food & Drug Corporation
• Formatech
• Fransabank
• G. Tamer Holding
• Gabas Albilad Holding Company
• General Electric
• GlaxoSmithKline
• Greenpeace Mediterranean
• Gulf Bank
• Gulf Medical
• GulfTalent.com
• H&C Leo Burnett
• H&T
• Holiday Inn-Dunes
• HRsmart
• HSBC Bank Middle East
• IDM
• Indevco Group
• Information Technology Group
• Inkript
• International Committee of the Red Cross
• International Fairs and Promotions
• International Investment Holding
• International Medical Center
• IPSOS
• Isic
• Issa Holding
• IT Grammar
• Jomea.com
• Joseph B. Amatoury
• JWT Mena
• Jubaili Agrotec
• Kabab-ji
• Kettaneh Construction
• Khatib & Alami
• Khayat Group
• Kocache Entreprises
• KPMG
• L’Oreal
• Le Vendome Beirut
• Lebanese Canadian Bank
• Les Fils De Chafic Halwany
• Life Health Management
• Libanpost
• Lothan Youth Achievement Center
• Makassed General Hospital
• Malco Group
• Malia Group
• Man Entreprise
• Matta Et Associés
• Medgulf Group
• Medicals International
• Mega Prefab
• Middle East Airlines Airliban
• Middle East Business Solutions International
• Midmac Contracting Co
• Mindshare MENA
• Ministry of Finance – Bassel Fuleihan Institute of Finance
• Modern Arab Construction Company
• Morgan International
• Mzaar Lebanon
• Nasco Karaoglan
• National Bank of Kuwait
• Nesma & Partners Contracting Co.
• Nesma Trading Co.
• Nestlé
• Netways
• Nissan Gulf FZCO
• Nomura
• Noor International Holding
• North Assurance
• OC&C Strategy Consultants
• Olayan Financing Company
• Optimum Group
• Patchi
• PCE UPS Systems
• Petrofac International
• Pharma Marketing & Services
• Phoenicia Beirut
• PricewaterhouseCoopers
• Proservices
• Procter & Gamble
• PSLAB
• Retail Group
• Riviera Hotel
• Roland Berger Strategy Consultants
• Rotana Hotels
• Sabis Educational Services
• Safir Heliopolitan Hotel
• Sagesse High School
• Sanofi Aventis
• Saudi Brothers Commercial Company
• Saudi Oger
• Saudi Services For Electro Mechanic Works Company
• Schlumberger
• Setraco Nigeria
• SETS
• Sharjah American International School
• Silkor Laser Medical Center
• SISCOM
• S.M.L.C.
• Société Générale de Banque au Liban
• Société Nouvelle de la Banque de Syrie et du Liban
• Sodetel
• Sonya S. Business Etiquette
• Standard Chartered Bank
• Stemco
• Supply Network Solutions
• Systems Equipment Telecommunication Services
• Taba Chemipharm
• Tamer Group
• Teach For Lebanon
• Technical Supplies & Sevices Co.
• Tecman Industy
• The C.A.T. Group
• The Sultan Center
• Unilever
• United Group
• Value Partners Management Consulting
• Veolia Water Solutions and Technologies
• VTR Beirut
• Waha Capital
• White Mountain Technologies
• Zawya

Yes, yes, all of these 193 companies are recruiting!

First interaction! is a post written by  Chantal.

I have good news for you today, I bet Rita will be very pleased
I was at the dorms yesterday, when a friend of mine came and asked me why I cut my hair? I told her that it’s for donation to the Children Cancer Center. She directly went to her room and gave me her pony!! How cool is that!!

Fun(d) Raising tweetup & Kids with cancer initiative overview is a post written by Fun(d)Raising.

Fun(d) Raisers got to meet on a lovely tweetup at Noodles-ABC Ashrafieh and discuss different initiatives to help raising awareness about cancer and specially help unfortunate kids fighting that disease and hopefully win.

This initiative was kicked in by , you can read about it all on her blog. During our meeting Rita introduced her idea more in detail for the tweeps who didn’t know exactly the whole scope of the initiative and proceeded to summarizing what we thought would be a good action plan.
Then of course, suggestions and ideas started pouring in and hopefully all of them will be put into action as part of the initiative or as new ones.

First of all here is more about Rita’s action plan and the different initiative from our meeting

Meeting with the Children Cancer Center in Lebanon (St Jude)
First, Rita went visiting cancer centers and associations to get in touch with them and to know what they actually need. She met with a lovely lady from the Children Cancer Center in Lebanon. She told us the story of St Jude, took us around the center for a tour and discussed with us how we could help. What they honestly and seriously need is money, I mean MONEY as in a lot a lot of money ( operating a cancer center that treats kids for free is not any cheap thing )

We honestly told her that raising that much is not within our scope, but since our community members are active social networking members, we agreed with her that we can help spread the word, awareness and link back to their online donation page. People who donate are kindly requested to add the keyword “Fund(d) Raising” as a comment on their donation. Hopefully then, we will be able to involve many people online inside and outside Lebanon and help spread the word.

During our tour in the center, we met a doctor who stressed that it would be lovely if we can donate wigs and how much difference it makes .

Meeting with Chance
Chance is an organization that also helps treating kids with cancer . We went to one of their meetings, they have a series of events they do to raise money. We can easily help promote those events and spread the word.

Tamanna
We got the word about Tamana from the twitter – Tamanna is actually a wish-list for kids critical illnesses from different centers/hospitals and from different backgrounds. The goal of Tamanna is to simply bring happiness and brighten up the days of a kid going through treatment by simply asking them to make a wish and then granting it .
The wish list includes stuff like get a ps2, have a computer, go on a shopping spree, travel, meet a celebrity…

We got very excited over Tamanna idea since it gives us an easy to do goal list. It is targeted, we can easily create positive change in someone’s life by donating simple objects that parents can’t afford anymore considering the costs of medical treatments.

Wigs or “Mitlik Mitleh”
With summer around the corner, many ladies are heading to hairdressers. Many of us have a long hair that becomes an annoyance in summer, hairdressers are happy to cut them, but most take those long strands to turn them into extensions for rent.

What we want to do is simply spread the word and encourage girls with long hair to cut theirs. It is painless and simply, hair grows back easily.

The price of a wig with medium length is 300 usd in average. With the the buzz we can get couple of wigs done and as some of the fun(d) raisers suggested, why not sell wigs in exchange of money and donate it ?

Fun(d) raising gaming event
As suggested by as suggested by dashkoun, it would be extra exciting and fun to host gaming events . girls and guys will battle , race , play till finger muscles cramp ( ok, maybe a bit less ) we can rent a place in hamra with a lovely atmosphere, gamers can play, others can enjoy entertainement on big TVs (a movie screening anyone? ) . we can use this event also as a get together .

Yummi cookup as suggested by and
Who can get enough from enjoying yummi crunchy stuff ?  obviously no one ! – specially stuff cooked with love are hard to resist. That is why joelle and ghassan will be collaboration to create what they promised us to be the yummiest fund raising event yet. And maybe as darine pointed out, if you guys are up to it – we could have a day out to enjoy the food in some cool location and discover a lebanese area.

That’s a lot of stuff, where to get started ?
Many girls are already cutting their hair, so priority has to go for the wig initiative. We will then create text, banners for you guys to put on your blogs and to link to online donation page. after that we all get together for a wrap up meeting and gaming session where we collect the strands and evaluate our progress and hoepuflly plan our next move in detail with joelle and ghassan.

How to proceed ?
You can spread the word using any tool u want, u can tweet about it , share of facebook, put a blog post to engage ur reader, use the oh-very-powerful lebanese word of mouth to let people know about the collecting wig initiative , we will be calling that “mitlik-mitleh”.
We will have a default text you can use on ur blog or share on twitter/faceook. but it would be cooler if you post about this from your own point of view. Also if you have any ideas on how we can create more buzz, let us know by leaving a comment here or on the forums.
If you are a blogger and want to add a banner to support a cancer center or re-direct to their donation page, please get in touch with us to explain all details to you and to send you all the images/links and how-to.

Hope we will hear back from you , this initiative can only work if we all collaborate on it !

I’ll leave you with some of the pictures from the event.

 

Making the move is a post written by Chantal.

After writing my post, on willing to make the move and cut my hair, I had a lot of feedback, some were supportive, some were against, but this didn’t stop me from cutting my hair in support to cancer patients.

On Friday May 7^th, there was a brainstorming #tweetup to come up with ideas to help fighting against cancer, and informed everyone that I will be cutting my hair the second day.

Saturday noon, I met Rita and went together to the hairdresser. was supposed to come with us, but couldn’t make it due to personal reasons.

So we went to my hairdresser who’s really creative and already knows what suits me best:

Pierre Salloum
Jdeideh – Facing Mont Vert
03- 722 309

While waiting for my turn, I was choosing the haircut and taking Rita’s opinion. Rita was also informing Pierre about the cause and interacting with other clients who were really supportive

He had to braid my hair and cut it! I remember the last sentence I told him “Nothing too funky, please!”

It’s not like the first time I cut my hair short, but not that…short!!

It feels so light now nothing heavy to carry on your shoulders!

And everyone seems to love them

Hope all the girls who have long hair and don’t mind cutting them at least 10 – 15 cm, will consider doing the same!

For more pictures, you can check Rita’s post

I want to thank all the people who supported me all the way… specially Rita who was always checking if that’s really what I want to do, and if I’m really comfortable!!

Have a nice week everyone!!

Chantal did it! Saturday at noon, we went together to the hairdresser for the haircut. This was so exciting! Now that summer is near, I know that many ladies are considering cutting their hair short.

If you have more than 15cm length of hair to cut, donating your hair is pretty simple. All you need to do is to remind your hairdresser to braid them before the cut. (You can contact me or the Children Cancer Center in Lebanon or any other association you know.)

This act costs nothing, it’s painless and it can be done several times during a lifetime…hair grows! I hope it becomes a habit every time people with long hair decide to have a short haircut!

Talk to your surroundings about this possibility, you will notice that many were not aware and do not know that this could be done. Your hair can help people undergoing chemotherapy, trash it!

Should you have any concerns/questions, feel free to share/ask!

This braid is going to make a sick person feel better!

Two days ago, I heard pleasant news: Chantal informed me that she was going to cut her hair short and donate it to the Children Cancer Center in Lebanon.

This could sound trivial for some or the normal – without thinking – thing to do for some of you. But I invite you to think about it twice.

How many girls out there have you heard say: “My boyfriend would kill me if I cut 0.5cm of my hair.” ? How many girls remember to tell their hairdresser to braid their hair before cutting them (Keeping hem together in order to donate them.) How many kilos of – at least 20cm in length – hair go to waist everyday because of ignorance? How many girls keep their freshly cut braid at home wondering what to do with it?

I’m left wondering how short will Chantal dare to go. Will she regret it? We will find out this Saturday, 8^th May 2010!

Whether you are a man or a woman and you have long hair, think of all the good you can do by donating your hair to people who really need and can’t afford a wig, painlessly & without any effort besides your consent to help a sick person feel better about himself. (Never forget that hair grows back!)

If you already did it and don’t know what to do without your braid, let us know.
You can also inform the hairdresser about this initiative. He can lend a hand by collecting braids for donation.

No one is safe from cancer but everybody can help!

See you at the friendly Tweetup meeting!

• Get inspired from Sabryna’s story:

METLIK METLEH is a post written by Chantal.

I wanted to donate my hair to the cancer center since long time ago and even wrote a blog about how good the idea is in December. Donate your Hair.

Yet for several reasons, I did not do it. (Lack of guts, support, enthusiasm, my hair wasn’t long enough…)

A couple of weeks back, Rita Kamel got her head shaved and started an awareness campaign about cancer. So now that my hair grew longer, I’m determined on cutting my hair short and donating it to the Children Cancer Center.

So what do you say guys think? Shall I do it? Do you honestly support the idea?

Would love to have your opinions…with or against…other perspectives…

Now that the elections took place, you are invited to get involved in the action for the fight against cancer!

I got in contact with Tamanna association staff who shared the kids list of wishes a couple of weeks ago. The concept is simple: We need to raise funds and make true as many wishes as possible. (Special thanks to Mireille for the support she provided me with from day 1!)

All the ideas (From simple fund raising to event organizing to sponsorships to personal initiatives etc…) are welcome. Thank you for sending them by any means you feel comfortable with before/during the next Tweetup is inviting to in order to discuss their implementation. (Friday, May 7^th 2010 at Noodles in ABC Ashrafieh)

The question we ask the child is “If you could have one wish, what would it be?” After the child paints a clear picture of his wish, the Tamanna team sets out to create a magical experience, making every effort to involve the child’s family.

I am hoping that all the social media will participate in this project and make several kid’s wishes come true during the month of May, 2010.

Warm thanks in advance!