| APPRECIATION OF PETER COLERIDGE ON SEPTEMBER 22, 2003 Page 3 |
| From Martin Richardson: (Class of '80)  |
Dear Mr. Coleridge, Happy birthday! I am faced with a mental dilemma - as a kid of thirteen in 1975/6 I used to think of yourself as incredibly old (you were, after all, staff) and yet now, some twenty seven years past, the fact that you are retiring at sixty whilst I am 40 really makes you seem quite young as many people with whom I've worked with for the last 15 years have recently retired in a 'downsizing'! The draft dossier reminded me that I still have a couple of relics from that era in the Lebanon; both rescued from your Landrover where you were using them as oily rags whereas I always thought they would become items of perhaps some historical interest. ( 1 T shirt with holes, 1 flag with oil stains) Just to prove you had a lasting impact I enclose a fairly recent photo of self on a falconry course. My interest in birds of prey was kindled by your efforts to save the (steppe??) eagle which you nursed back to health following it's problems suffered during it's migration over the Lebanon - I can't remember the outcome - it did survive didn't it? I hope you have a long and happy retirement, you've reminded me I only have another 20 years to wait to take up falconry with the time it truly requires! I'm jealous! All the best to yourself and family, Martin Richardson Somerset UK |
| From Arjumand (Aby) Kamal: (Class of '76) |
Mr. Coleridge: The first time I saw you was when you were standing on a chair in front of the black board looking very closely at a gigantic (or so I thought at that time) black hairy spider that was crawling on top. "How very fascinating. What a beautiful creature. I wonder if it is poisonous" you said getting closer and closer to that creature. I decided then and there that you had to be the bravest human being on the face of the earth. But brave or not, you were absolutely wonderful. From making me laugh when I was homesick to making me feel ultra special, you had the knack for saying just the right thing. You will always hold a very special place in my memory. May you have a long and happy life and may you continue to share your wisdom and compassion with those around you for years to come. With warm regards Aby ( Arjumand) Kamal |
| From Aly Killidar: (Class of '80)   |
Mr. Coleridge, Don't know if you will remember me, I wasn't at Brummana for very long. I did enjoy the hikes you would take us on though. Perhaps you remember a time when I was stuck outside little house and all the students where gone and all the doors where locked, I think it was during holidays and I had no where to go and it was windy and cold, so I huddled myself into a corner on the steps that lead to the 2nd floor and attempted to snooze, then you found me all curled up in the corner trying to keep warm so you told me off for not coming up to your door and knocking for help after which you took me in with a blanket and Mrs. Coleridge prepared a hot soup and a meal for me and thus I was brought back to life and my hope in humanity reinstated. These are the experiences that are a pleasure to remember, thank you and a happiest birthday of all to you sir. Much love and regard. Aly Killidar |
| From Maria (Ria) Reyburn: (Class of '80) |
Hello Peter!! Though I never had you as a teacher at BHS (Mrs. Pilling taught our English class of the young smart alecks of Form 2E the year and a half I attended BHS 74/Dec 75), your (and Angela's) presence and influence in my experience at Brummana were indelible. You may even remember my brother David, whom you did teach, and who lived in the dorms at Little House a year before I arrived at the school from Beirut. My mother and father, Bill and Marie Reyburn (linguists and translations consultants with the United Bible Society), who lived in Brummana, remember you fondly. In fact, we all bought a pair of hiking boots from you, from a batch that you apparently had made available.. leftovers from the D of E Club?? Wherever they came from, those were one tough batch of ass-kicking hiking boots!! My dad and I were still wearing ours years and years later, and I even have this funny memory of trekking through the mud in the eastern jungles of Ecuador some time in the 1980s with my folks and looking down at our feet and all saying at the same time, "hey, aren't these the boots we got from Peter Coleridge??!!" In the Autumn of 75, your wonderful wife Angela taught me to play the guitar. Angela, how can I thank you enough for teaching me a skill and encouraging me to discover the pleasure and delight of guitar music that has stayed with me all my life. The same with photography. From their home in Goshen, Indiana, my parents and David join with me to wish you the very best on your 60th birthday, Peter -- so young!!!! (I can't believe that when you were teaching at BHS you were ten to fifteen years younger than what I am NOW!!! ..a mere whippersnapper!!!) Un abrazo fuerte, Maria (Ria) Reyburn |
| The following are additional wishes that we were unable to originally send with the others. | |
| From Nigel Batty-Smith: (Class of '82) |
Dear Peter, Many congratulations on reaching this milestone event. My memories of my time at Brummana are waining as the years go by, but I still remember the support you showed when I suggested making a small garden on the parched land behind Little House. My first attempt at a water garden I believe! You introduced me to the art of developing films and photographs in that small darkroom, and also screen printing T shirts. My fondest memories though are the ones from when the school closed in June 1976. My brother, Michael, and I were stuck at the school for about two weeks after everyone else had left. All of the phone lines were down and our only method of communication with our parents was via the British Embassy radio which was held by the Vice Consul, Jimmy Ramadan (Fuad's father), who lived just below the Sanitorium. Little House was not so little when there were only two of us staying there, but you showed great kindness by inviting us to your home in the evenings (Angela had left by this time). I remember helping to make Cassius' supper of boiled rice and milk, and then playing Scrabble whilst listening to your Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel record collection. "Bridge over troubled water" seemed very pertinent at the time. Luckily on the 9th July a great Palestinian friend of ours, Adib Khoury, turned up to collect us without warning. We had to quickly pack our bags and leave, and so never really had a chance to thank you for all of your kindness. With best wishes for the future and many more birthdays to come, Nigel Batty-Smith (74-76) |
| From Adib "Eddy" Sawaya: (Class of '84) |
Keefak Peter! Many happy returns! Hope you enjoyed Tibet. Hope you didn't get stuck abseiling down any interesting looking, tight-fitting caverns there! Blessings and "a-abaal il Miyeeh". The Sawaya's - Cassius' Foster Family - we've always had a pet dog ever since. |
| From Peter Hadchity: (Class of '85) |
Hello Mr. Coleridge, I would like to wish you a happy birthday. One of the greatest moments I ever spent was with you ,my brother John, Shirley Cottam, Erica Knight, Omar Haffar and one more male student,I can't remember his name ,rowing across Lake Litani in PEJORAYBO and you taking videos or pictures of our crazy oar less crossing. Shirley remembers it as sinking but it did not .... there was a lot of water in it due to our hand rowing. ..ha ..ha.. what a great time. Thanks for it!! All the best to your wife and family. P.S. I also had a great time in the guitar club.. Thanks for that too. |
| From Elham Khater (nee Aswad): (Class of '71) |
Dear Mr. Coleridge, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you a very happy 60th birthday, and as we say, may you live to be a hundred. You never taught me unfortunately, and I never met you or your wife Angela. It all started when I was reading through the correspondence that was written by your students to be sent to you on your birthday, when something touched my heart, I was really enthralled, and I was captivated by these stories about you. I was even envious, and I wished that I was one of your students at the time. It would have been a pleasure and a great experience for me. I finally gathered from all what was written that you are one of the greatest teachers that ever taught in BHS. I deduced and I am certain, that you were and still is: a dedicated, diverse, original, kind, adventurous, loving and a very very special person. Wishing you a happy and special birthday, a happy and relaxing retirement and a wonderful trip to Tibet, and lucky are the ones that had the pleasure of meeting you. Regards, Elham Khater (Aswad) |
| From Alhussein Hamiddin: (Class of '73) |
Dear Peter and Angela,
Hello to you both. I had the pleasure to know both of you and you
both had your way of leaving a mark in your relation with others.
Your travel to several locations in the Arab world gave you a special
way in dealing with students of this part of the world. I still remember
when Peter attended one of our Family Gathering to talk about Yemen. |
| From Mona Abu Ghazalah: (Class of '78) |
Dear Mr. Coleridge, Happy 60th Birthday! How time flies… Looking back, I have wonderful memories of the time at BHS especially because of the extra-curricular activities you and Mrs. Coleridge took the time to organize. You have both enlightened and enriched our lives tremendously. Thanks for your caring and kindness. Wishing you happiness, peace of mind and good health on your birthday and always. Hope all your wishes come true. with Best Regards, Mona Abu Ghazalah |
| From Altamash Kamal: (Class of '75) |
Happy 60th kind teacher, housemaster and
friend. It was people like you that made Brumanna what is was for me....
a place where I 'discovered' myself. Thank you, for I don't think I have
said it for a long time. Altamash (Tinku) |
| Angela replies to the messages | 11 Oct 2003 My dear Sarmad, We returned from Tibet on Wednesday, Peter to travel straight on to Geneva to discuss work issues, and me returning to our home in Wales and your wonderful tributes waiting to be opened. Over the last two days I have printed each of the tributes out on a separate page and collected them into a beautiful album ready for Peter's return here today. It has been such a powerful and meaningful experience to read each contribution and wonder at the unique memories they evoked and the deep chords that connect across the years and around the world. What I am so aware of is the incredible richness of our own experience during the Brummana years, because of the richness that each of you gave us for being yourselves. Now, looking back across the decades, and with this beautiful album of tributes in my hand, I realise the power we all have to enrich and deepen each other's lives. Sarmad, thank you for all you have done, for your inspiration to gather these tributes and for the networking it needed and the sharing of the dossier as it came to life. It is a priceless gift. Please let everyone know how much it has meant to me. I now look forward to handing it on to Peter, and what it will mean to him. Love and blessings, Angela |
| And lastly, Peter's heartfelt response |
21 Oct 2003 Dear all who contributed memories to my sixtieth birthday. To say I was stunned, overcome, bouleversed, by all your letters is a major understatement. Angela and I had just returned from a memorable trip to Tibet, a sad but immensely beautiful country, like Lebanon, and Angela presented me with this magical album containing all your letters. I read it right through there and then, with tears running down my face. They illustrate so graphically how special those years at Brummana were for all of us. What made them so special were the fantastic students and all the wonderful things we did together. We all learnt so much! I was 28 when we arrived at Brummana, and 33 when we left, quite a bit younger than you all are now! For me it was a continuation of my own education, with all of you as my teachers. It was a golden time, when we were still all in a state of innocence, before Lebanon fell apart, and before the terrible traumas arrived that afflict the Middle East today. We moved from Brummana to an international college in Britain, Atlantic College (one of the United World Colleges), which had an international student body like Brummana. I gave a talk one evening on Lebanon, with slides. In the slides beautiful mountains and flowers featured prominently. Afterwards a Norwegian girl came up to me and said: ‘Flowers? What about the refugees?’ I was suddenly aware that in those years at Brummana we were indeed innocent, and that the problems of Lebanon and the Middle East hardly touched our consciousness. This thought nagged at me for a long time. Five years later I left teaching to work in ‘development’, and became Oxfam’s regional manager for the Middle East for some years. For the last ten years or so I have focused on disability as a special concern within development, and spent six years running a programme for disabled people in Afghanistan. The seeds of this interest were sown at Brummana, through the D of E scheme. In all these different experiences I still look back on Brummana as probably the five happiest years I have ever spent. They were indeed carefree, fun, creative, challenging and full of learning. For this I have to thank all of you, from the bottom of my heart. The spirit we felt at that time lives on, as expressed in your letters, and will never be quenched. During our last year at Brummana Anglea and I adopted Jesce as a tiny baby, through the orphanage we worked at in Brummana. Many of you will remember Soeur Agnes at the orphanage. On Jesce’s first birthday Sr Agnes said: ‘When Jesce marries, I want to come to her wedding.’ Jesce is now 29 and got married last year, at our home in Wales. Sr Agnes came, the second time she had been outside Lebanon in her 70 years, and was an immediate hit with everybody. It was a wonderful link back to Brummana and all it meant. I would like to say a special thank you to Sarmad for the incredible effort he put in to get all these letters together, and to Debi for her inspiration in starting the network of BHS students from the seventies. Debi and Sarmad have done so much to keep the spirit of ‘I Serve’ alive in a clear and loving way. This comes with love from both Angela and me for everything that you all gave us and shared with us during those years. Peter |