behind which sits a group of girls learning simple weaving. For a single hour the girl comes to this place, and in this way she learns a kind of handicraft and fills her free time with something fruitful; and out of the proceeds of this work of hers a part of her fees takes shape, so that she saves her family a great deal.
And to this little oven a group of the girl students comes with a teacher twice a week to "roll out" the bread thin. A teacher and a pupil take part in the baking of it. Often the voices of these students rise in songs of every kind — popular songs, anthems, and spiritual hymns. In this family atmosphere formality is lifted, and the teacher comes to know the students' inner selves, and the inclinations and dreams that turn in their heads; and this helps her to understand them better, and so to guide and direct them.
On Thursday evening, after supper, you see most of the students, girls and boys, astir. They are preparing to hold a family evening, at which talents and inventions come to light. At these evenings the preservation of the rural heritage is encouraged — popular dabkes, village songs, and short playlets in which the spirit of the jest usually shines through; and often these playlets aim at teaching and cultivating in an indirect way.
These are fleeting glimpses of what goes on at the "Jibrail Center." Would that you, reader, might manage a visit to Akkar, to become acquainted with the Jibrail Center with your own eyes and not your imagination, and to grasp the stages it has passed through — and still passes through — and the many crises it
has overcome by diligence, work, and patience... And for all this, whoever comes to this center loves it and feels he has become a part of it, accepting no substitute for it — unless it be for the sake of a broadening of learning
and knowledge.
The "Jibrail Center" is an excellent model of the rural centers that lift the life of the village toward a better society... It is, as I said before, the tale of bringing life back to the village...
The Alba washing machine
Washes, and dries in the open air, quickly and easily
ALBA
Price 450 Lebanese lira. Easy terms of payment
Boustany Brothers — Damascus Road, opposite the Tramway Company
Telephone 36011 — 36786