Snow Storm Dec. 2013
Tuesday 10 December 2013 was a normal school day. News of an
approaching storm was very quickly circulating among students. A snow
storm is delightful news to all students. It imposes an unforeseen break
from school, but when it comes in the middle of the week of midterm
exams, it becomes more than delightful to most students.
The minister of education took the decision to close all schools in
Lebanon. Although the decision was announced around 5.00 PM trying to
conceal this information from students was futile. Parents were already
calling saying that it was already snowing in their regions, and they
want to come to take their children (boarding students) home. Within an
hour most of the boarding students had already been taken home. A few
were left until Wednesday morning when they also were taken home.
It was really difficult to appreciate the decision of the minister of
education as the weather on Wednesday morning was good, but the
afternoon was very different. The temperature dropped very quickly and
snow started to fall. The storm continued until Saturday noon time.
Temperatures had dropped to -2 C° and the Real Feel index at times
was -14C°. We had 15 to 25 cm of snow in JLSS.
The minister of education was very wise to make that decision. All the
children were already home when the storm started. It is so nice to
occasionally have something well done in our country! Amazingly, the
first days of the storm there was nothing but criticism on the media.
The poor politicians never win even when they get it right!
Our thoughts were with the hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees in
Lebanon who were living in badly constructed tents with very little food
and less than adequate heating if any.
This storm made us pray more than ever for peace in Syria and our
region. The suffering of millions of people is totally unnecessary, if
only people learnt to live under democratically elected governments that
are truly elected by the people and accountable to the people.
May this day come to our region soon!