Ya Scandar! addition

Earlier this month we received a sweet memory of Scandar from Naseem Quraishi. We've now added that to the Ya Scandar! page. Anyone else with memories they'd like to add?

Or how about another picture of Scandar, or inside Scand's? Any of those out there?

Leila (Sawaya) Obeid

Frances (Hudson) Nehme-Pearson has been scanning her little heart out. She recently has been going through hundreds of old slides from her family's BHS days, buying a scanner specifically to preserve and share them. It's been a real joy to see them and soon we'll be adding them to a new photo album in the Scrapbook.

Among the pictures sent in, Frances sent a beautiful picture of Leila Sawaya (now Obeid) and wondered how Leila was now. Sarmad replied that she is rather famous in Lebanon as a beauty consultant. I did a little googling and found a reference to her book, Mamlakat Al Jamal. So, for fun, and especially for Frances, here's a couple of images she might enjoy found from this link (where the images can be viewed larger).

Congratulations and best success to Leila!

Pictures from Joe Assad

I was going through my old emails trying to sort them into some sort of logical order when I came across an email Joe sent me back in November 2006. He attached some beautiful pictures of Brummana that I thought I would share with you.

Anyone know who the pretty violinist is?

The view from Scands?

Do you really need a caption for this?

Now the second largest football pitch at BHS!

The famous, luxurious, 7 star Hotel Kanaan... and shop!

Having trouble with this? How about the entrance to the drive to the Primary School. Beirut in the background

View down to the Sick Bay and Rizkallah House, Dbayeh in the background

View up to the Library Block, MTB and the Science Block

The bottom of the drive to the Primary School
Anyone remember Yousef, the gardener, he must be over 80, with a guard

Yousef again. If you have any T-Shirts to spare he will gladly take them.

La Gargote, where Jean, the same head waiter from the 70's still works, and the same scratched vinyl record of Charles Aznavour from the 70's is played

The road leading to Roumieh part of Anwar Aswad's Ferrari wanabe can be seen at bottom left

The football pitch and Rizkallah House before it was refurbished

Little House, still being used for boarders

Somebody's house in Roumieh

Spectacular view of Beirut

A sample of Joe's artistic photography

Help Joe... who this is?

Driving Through Brummana

On Sunday Linda drove me through Brummana with my head stuck through the sun roof to take a video of the drive. This was in response to many people's request following an earlier posting of a similar drive which was done at night. (See the post by Debi in the bhs70s blog).

My apologies for the hazy distant shots, Lebanon is still suffering from the dust and sand blown over from Egypt and the Sahara Desert.

Your comments are welcome.

A. Herbert Dobbing

Doing a little Google casual searching for Brummana High School this morning I came across a couple links about 1948-1957 BHS headmaster Herbert Dobbing (1893-1970).

Joyce Spinks, daughter of Dobbing, wrote a brief recollection of her father and her family's experiences in Lebanon in a December 16, 2006 article A Local Quaker in Lebanon, for The Stream (a publication of the village of Ayton in England).

Ayton village is home to an old, but closed, Quaker school, Ayton School where Dobbing was a teacher 1921-1945 before taking the position at BHS. At an Ayton Old Scholars' site, there is a more in depth article on Dobbing's life, titled A Testimony to the Grace of God in the Life of A. Herbert Dobbing.

In addition, I looked in my copy of Quaker Service in the Middle East with a History of Brummana High School 1876-1975 by H. J. Turtle and found this interesting tidbit on page 100, "Incidentally, the Dobbings were the first Principals to go out to the Lebanon by air."

Dobbing also published a book titled, Cause for Concern: a Quaker's View of the Palestine Problem (1970).