-=> Quoting Nancy Backus to Jim Weller <=-

 JW> large rooming house with several students from / around the world.
  
 JW> a Lebanese guy / an Israeli and an Egyptian / had similar
 JW> political views so we all got along quite well.

Both the Israeli and the Egyptian would be looking at a minimum of
one year's military service when they went home after graduation.
They both sincerely hoped that there would not be a Middle Eastern
war that year! The Lebanese guy thought they were both crazy and he
himself planned to stay in Canada if at all possible. (He did. He
worked part time at an Italian restaurant where there were a lot of
Lebanese employees who jointly did an agreement for sale with the
retiring Italian owners. [This was a common phenomenon in Ottawa in
the 60s.] And even though he was getting straight As in computer
science, he dropped out to joined them. They kept on making pizza,
pasta, steaks and seafood but added kebabs, donairs and shawarma to
the menu. Sorrento's was already my "big date" place even before I
met Albert. I just googled them and Sorrento's is still alive and
well after all these decades and still serving Italian and Lebanese
fare. It has new owners by now of course and changed locations as
well but it's still there.

 NB> And with you all taking turns cooking, that would
 NB> also broaden one's palate.... 

It surely did.

 NB> our denomination's missionaries would come for their furlough year,
 NB> so we had a little experience with other cultures and cuisines through
 NB> them

One of my uncles was a missionary and lived through some interesting
times. Uncle Clarence had degrees in English and Divinity and Aunt
Connie was a nurse. They were first posted to China in 1930 to
Moslem Qinghai province, northeast of Tibet and northwest of
Sichuan. By 1935 they had to get out because of the advancing
civil war with the Communists. They went down the Yangtze River
200 miles by small boat. They ended up having to leave China
altogether in 1947 and ended up in post-partition India in 1951;
although the bulk of the killings were over by then there was
still a huge homeless refugee problem on both sides of the border and
all the misery that that implies. They returned to Canada in 1957. I
barely remember Clarence as I only met him once and he passed away
in 1959.

My three cousins have all lived interesting lives as well. Two of
them were academics, social justice activists and left wing
political activists and the third is in international trade and
finance where his multiculturalism and linguistic skills are a great
asset.

Gordon was born in China and learned Mandarin simultaneously with
English. Later on he was home schooled and also went to private
schools in England, Canada and the USA periodically. He was
teaching school in eastern Nigeria when the civil war broke out when
Biafra tried and failed to succeed, Later on, in Canada he became
involved with our socialist New Democratic Party and was national
general secretary and Ontario party president while teaching at
McMaster University. Later on he worked for Saskatchewan NDP
Premiers Blakeney and Romanow and was one of the advisors who helped
get the Charter of Rights into the Constitution, At the end of his
life he had returned to western china to teach,

Bruce was born in Sichuan, went to school in India, came to Canada,
went to university here and became a social worker and a newspaper
columnist, writing the "Toronto Star Youth Hot line" a syndicated
advise column. After his kids grew up he got divorced, came out of
the closet and married a guy.

Alan studied at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and worked for a
while in Kuwait before coming back to Canada to work at the
International Financial Centre in Vancouver.



Cheers

Jim


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