Just a quick post to note that the Radio 4 programme about MECAS is still online for a few more days. In my previous post I expressed some curiosity as to how Kim Philby's tangential involvement would be portrayed. Michael Binyon of the Times put it, I think, very aptly when he observed that actually, the high-profile spy stories normally associated with MECAS are all to do with people spying on Britain rather than for it...
Other than that - the programme did stir a lot of memories. Many of the contributors noted the extraordinary friendliness of the villagers towards the college and its students, and as a small child that was certainly my experience. I remember going out on my own, even at the age of (presumably) not more than four, and the two principal safety concerns were: the risk of scorpions and snakes, and the risk of being over-fed by solicitous Lebanese villagers. I remember going with a couple of villagers from further up the hill, to pick snober (pine nuts) straight off the tree.
It's also noted that Shemlan was a mixed community in terms of religion, with Muslims, Druze, Maronite Christians and so on. One thing I remember being told later was that the woman who provided the service of 'laying out' anyone who had died did so regardless of the faith of the deceased. In a small village community, that's a pretty pragmatic arrangement.
I know there's a natural tendency to view one's own childhood with rose-tinted hindsight, but I suppose my own positive memories are all the more poignant because of much of what has happened to Lebanon since then.
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