Tewfik Al-Far was my best friend at BHS. We were at BHS together for 7 years, and best friends for most of those years. We shared countless experiences and numerous significant moments in our adolescence and in our quest to grow older, and into mature adults. We formed our views of adulthood in an eternal age when, like every child at that age, we knew everything there is to know about the world, the universe, and even had words of wisdom with which to enlighten our parents and our teachers. 

It had been many years since I had seen Tewfik, so I wanted to meet him at the airport when he arrived on home ground. I knew he was arriving on the 8th of July, but didn’t know what flight he would be arriving on. I guessed he’d be arriving from Qatar, where he worked. We found out that there was a flight arriving from Qatar that day at 4:00 pm. Linda had kindly offered to take me to meet him. So, at around 3:00 pm, Debi, Sandra, and myself got in the car with Linda and went to the airport to pick Tewfik up.

We were to be very disappointed. We waited at the arrivals lounge for what felt like an eternity for Tewfik to appear, but there was no sign of him. Eventually we gave up, and made our way back to Brummana, dejected and demoralized.

Back at Brummana, my family and I moved out of our hotel and into the dorms where we were offered rooms to stay for the 3 days of the reunion. Linda and Debi helped us with our move. Then after having a pizza for dinner, still feeling very subdued, none of us could think of what to do next, so Linda offered to drive us back to the dorm to rest, and to consider what to do, if anything, for the rest of that night.

In the back of my mind I had the feeling that this day was going to end then and there. It was the eve of the reunion, and we were going to go our separate ways. With this frame of mind, Linda drove us through Brummana, past the school gates, and was heading towards the turn off leading to Roumieh. The traffic was heavy, and as we stopped and started, I gazed out of the window in the back of the car in a sort of a daze, not really concentrating on anything and not paying much attention to the world frantically passing by outside.

As we stopped in traffic outside Fox’s Bar, I looked again out of the car window, and stared, still in a daze, at someone casually waving at me and smiling. It is difficult to remember at what point I focused from looking past this person to looking directly at him, and at what point I actually recognized that person. His smile had transformed into a beaming laugh. By then all of us had spotted him, and Linda was already into a manoeuvre that was to bring the car into a screeching halt and parked. We couldn’t get out of the car quick enough to rush over and greet Tewfik. It turned out that he had travelled on a flight from Dubai, arriving a few minutes after we’d left the airport.

It’s strange how human emotions can change so quickly from gloominess to exultation. No sooner had I finished hugging Tewfik when a voice was heard from a distance calling towards us, and a happy-go-lucky figure with a distinctive moustache sauntered along the road towards us followed by two very similar looking characters looking like his bodyguards. We all recognized Thamer Arab instantly, and another session of hugging and kissing of cheeks started. Thamer introduced us to his brothers Tony and Joey, the twins known in our school days as Ahmed and Yousef respectively, and another greeting session started.

As we stood outside Fox’s talking, someone else came along and joined the company. Malek Mrowa lived in Beit Meri, and was no stranger to the reunions that had been taking place since 1991. He had heard that this year, many people from our days at BHS would be travelling from abroad to attend the reunion, and was overjoyed to see some of us had actually made it, and were on the street in Brummana hugging and kissing.

From that moment on there was a distinctive shift of mood. You could sense it in the air. There was so much to talk about. Everyone was talking to everyone else, it was difficult to talk and listen at the same time, yet it seemed that this was what everyone was doing. The talking soon made us thirsty, so, still talking, we went into the nearest bar we could find where we started getting reacquainted with each other as drinks flowed and we started exchanging and reminding each other of stories from those days 25 years ago.

There must have come a certain point in the evening for everyone where time out was taken to think of what was happening, to reflect on the significance of the moment. All of a sudden, this group of friends got together, exchanging news and stories, most not having seen each other for nearly 25 years, and all talking away with each other as if it was only yesterday when they were last together.

As the evening wore on, nostalgia set in. Someone suggested that we should continue the “sahra” at Scands’. So we all headed towards that little hideaway tucked almost unnoticed adjacent to the BHS boundaries.

There was a very strange sensation that I felt when we walked in. It’s true that the place had been totally refurbished and changed around, the only physical attribute that remained slightly as it was 25 years ago is the main entrance, (the one facing the main street, as opposed to the other main entrance most of us used in school days). But as we all sat down around a table, we felt that the atmosphere was still there. Of course we all missed many of the other friends that used to frequent that haunt. And how couldn’t you miss Scands.

It wasn’t long before songs from the 70s were being played, and as the memories started to flood back, it was impossible to keep track of time, not that anyone wanted to. We talked. We exchanged stories and reminded each other of events from those days at school. We sang and danced. Every so often the place was filled with laughter as someone remembered a story to share with the others of those events that happened all those years ago. To many of us present, this gathering was what we had been dreaming of for almost 25 years since leaving BHS, and no one was going to miss a single moment of it. We stayed till dawn, and eventually left with the promise that we would meet later that day. There would however be more of us then. More of our friends were due to join us from many corners of the world.

The next day was the first day of the ‘Convention’, reserved mostly for registration and gathering of information from Old Scholars attending. There was a Gala Dinner held that evening which was attended by approximately 400 Old Scholars. All of us who’d attended the ‘unofficial’ first night of the reunion attended, joined by more of us from the 70’s. Sammy Nagem had flown in from the USA to be with his family and attend the reunion. Sinan Noori had flown in from the UK. Amer Kurdi and his wife Myrna (also a BHS old scholar) had arrived from the UAE. Ali Zabarah had flown in from Saudi Arabia. Jayne Kenney had travelled overland from Turkey, Glory Taweel with son Buddy flew in from Canada, and Shirley Cottom came in from the UK. 

For three days and nights the dreams of many 70’s BHS Old Scholars came true. Many had left BHS abruptly without being able to say a proper farewell to friends and colleagues. Many had longed for the day when they would come back to home ground, hug that friend and colleague, and tell them how much their friendship meant to them while they were at BHS. And how much they loved them. It was something that they so much wanted to say to them back at that time when they left, and couldn’t, and had held it in their heart until the time came when they could do it.

For many of us, that time came in July 1999.