Teacher's Day Still Alive and Kicking - Just

Teacher’s Day – A Lebanese Tradition

I can still remember the first year I taught in Lebanon; I can especially remember my first Teacher’s Day. I suppose it was more memorable than others due to the fact that it came as such a surprise. After all, I’d been working hard at all kinds of things up until then and never had a whole day totally dedicated to my labours! Now, here I was with not only a day off from school, but a bag of loot to take home!

Before you get too excited, let me explain what I mean by a bag of loot. Back then, most of the presents I received, and I got quite a few that year as I taught English to 63 students, were from the local $1 shop. They were an eclectic variety of badly cast cherubs with lopsided smiles, mugs with various messages (all of which were very polite), and other such china gems. They served as faithful dust collectors in nooks and crannies around the house bringing back happy memories of smiling faces.

Robert, Sarin, and I
at the Teacher’s Day
party in Le Grey
(Left is me - right is Sarin. I'll leave you to guess where Robert is...)



Where I’m working at the moment they have decided that Teacher’s Day should not be celebrated with gifts to teachers. Boo hah I hear you cry! Well, that’s just what the majority of teachers cried, too! This year’s “celebrations” were rather muted to say the least. With no gifting frenzy featuring children struggling up to the 4th floor carrying overflowing bags, the whole day was quite an anti-climax. It appears that Teacher’s Day with no presents doesn’t only mean a lot less to the teachers, the children seem to have totally forgotten about it. Maybe the parent-bought presents were the only tangible reminder of the existence of this special day to honour their hard-working mentors.

It might be more ethical to have no Teacher’s Day gifts, but it sure has gone a long way to killing the day! Thank goodness for the party… Well, we had one this year, who knows about next!?

The Importance of Pets

Recently I’ve been contemplating the role that pets play, and have played, in my life.

I’ve always been surrounded by animals; that’s an easy thing when you grow up in England! It seems that everyone has either a dog or a cat, or both as was our case. I was also lucky enough to have three ponies that were my main focus of attention for many years and brought me so much pleasure. Toby, the naughty first pony, who had real character and was quite a “Jack the lad.” Next came Gemini, Gem to her friends. She was a real high-class lady; totally dedicated to me and an affectionate friend. Soon after Gem came to live with us she gave birth to a foal called April. We called her that because she was born on 1st April. A beautiful palomino foal born to an aristocratic chestnut mare. Those days are long gone and distant memories.

When I moved to Beirut in 1985, I was immediately struck by the lack of animal life. It was the middle of the Lebanese civil war (1975-1990) and I suppose it should have come as no surprise that there weren’t any birds flying around. The nightly shelling sessions took care of that. I think the part I wasn’t prepared for was the lack of interest that the majority of the Lebanese population have towards animals. Things have been changing slowly over the years I’ve lived here. I suppose that we could now say we are in the phase where people find animals “cute” and want to have one. Unfortunately, most of them don’t really understand the commitment ownership of an animal brings.
Thomas Having a Nap

We are lucky enough to have two beautiful cats that share our lives up in Mansourieh. You may have read my previous posts about Lady. Well, she finally lost her battle with cancer in February, 2008. It was a great loss for us as she had been part of our family for 16 years. Thomas was forlorn! We struggled with the idea of getting another cat for a while. In May, someone leaving Lebanon needed a new home for their cat. It was a female, and she was black – just like Lady. It seemed too perfect to be true, so we decided to give it a try and see if Thomas would accept a new friend. It took about a week for him to stop hissing at her! If you could just see them now, washing each other and playing hide and seek underneath the bed…

Thomas and Bella need a rest after the most recent battle in "Cat Wars!" Needless to say, neither of them ever ends up with any injuries - except, perhaps, to their pride!

So, back to my original point. Animals bring a great deal of happiness to my life. Just having Thomas and Bella (our new lady of the house) waiting at the door when we get in at night always brings a big smile to all our faces, however tiring or stressful the day has been. In fact, as I type this Thomas is snuggled up against me.

As Bella proudly models the quilt my mum made for Matthew showing different flags from around the world it makes me think - Pet lovers of the World unite! :)