Journal, May 24-28, 2006 (edited June 14/23, 2006)—Gaza & Ramallah
Photos: Gaza-7
Other photos and writing
Dispatches from Gaza - 7
(Popular Achievement thru the American Friends Service Committee)
part two
By Skip Schiel
I consulted with AFSC about their media outreach. Amal especially feels they could do much more locally, regionally and internationally to broadcast the good story of the Popular Achievement in Gaza. We began with a discussion of 2 questions I posed: what is your story and who is your audience? These drive me crazy in my own work so I thought, why not share the anguish? And they are evocative orienting questions.
The story is roughly: youth, after training in leadership and community building skills, teach others and those others then design and implement a community service project. There is a broader story which is less clear—enduring the oppression and struggling to end it. The audience locally is current and former participants and the Gaza community generally. The regional audience is Israel-Palestine plus Arabic countries. And the international audience is largely Europe and the US.
They’ve decided to form a media group from college students pursuing media studies. A good idea, but possibly hard to coordinate. Another related thought is to ask for one volunteer from each group who would be the media specialist, charged with providing material for media, stories, pictures, interviews, etc.
A key question is: what is the media format, the channel for the good story? Their previous experience suggests a combination of website and newsletter. I suggested what Fida and I had been discussing, a sort of on-line, constantly updated newsletter, perhaps like the International Solitary Movement site.
But this is all is in the formative stages. Plus we didn’t have much time, plus I had to interrupt my concentration with photo downloading for Amani, and Amal and Ibraheem K were taking phone calls and signing letters. Not the most concentrated time.
We also visited two Popular Achievement sites at two for the four universities in town, Al Aqsa, and Al-Azharr. Both groups were highly energetic and laughed much. Ibraheem invited me to introduce myself, and I tried to speak to the issue of sustaining hope. The 1st group wanted a group photo, and one soul seemed to want a photo of him and me, so all this morphed into a group photo with me in it, a self-portrait. Their project, still being decided, was to organize a student movement to petition the university to allow two hours of free time weekly for a big and needed breather from the fast pace of university life. Hardly revolutionary or designed to address the siege. I can share Alma’s frustration with the lack of political activism in the program.
I commented to Amal later that Popular Achievement is related to Pop Education, similar techniques of teaching, mostly interactive.
—Gaza, May 24, 2006
Happy to report both writing and photoing wksps went well. All showed up—a rarity for me. And all stayed tuned. But of the 10 photo students, only five had photos. Ibraheem explained that some were too busy with exams to process their images and some did not have the funds. I suspect also that some might have been embarrassed by what they perceived to be the low quality of their work.
All had writing, so the writing feedback groups seemed to function well. As with Louise’s experience, students dive into this, hungry for feedback, feedback of a certain sort. And the model used by writing teachers that I’ve tried to learn seems suitable for beginning writers.
Now whether any of this teaching and coaching will lead to better media for Popular Achievement is a question I can’t at this moment answer. We’d hoped to unveil the new website design that Ibraheem had created, but due to computer and network glitches, we failed.
—Gaza, May 25, 2006
Open day turned out, as I expected, to be a respite from the suffering of some Gaza people. The laughter, banter, jokes, mixing, energy, jocularity, fun, and playfulness were impressive. This was a chance for like-minded souls who shared not only the experience of Popular Achievement but of suffering in Gaza to come together and release tension, share stories, probe issues. One issue was community development, what a community is, how to form one.
A woman specializing in this topic—the only woman present without a head covering, hijab, and wearing revealing clothing, I will add—spoke to the group of about 30, then gave them some interactive exercises. I’m sorry I can’t report much about the content of this presentation since it was exclusively in Arabic. Rawand offered to translate for me but I used the opportunity of me being deaf and dumb to concentrate on the visuals.
And more activities, including drawing, writing, speaking in small groups, interacting with the main speakers, and role-playing. All very much in the tradition of both Popular Achievement and its near twin, Popular Education.
I photographed freely, having complete access with only a few exceptions. I could tell when someone wished me to go away—the grimace, the hand in front of the face, the turning away from the camera. And I honored this.
Others, usually my former photo students, asked to use my camera. I gladly turned it over to them after I’d done what I felt was enough on any activity. With digital, I can easily delete, and I did, on the spot. I also downloaded all the day’s photos while folks peered over my shoulders to see the results.
During interludes, when I felt I’d photographed enough of any particular event, I wrote stories and edited photos for new website entries. I’d brought my laptop thinking we’d be meeting in the AFSC office—instead we met at an arts and culture center near the university near the office—and thinking that I could occasionally sneak away for my private work. This was not possible, I did not want to trouble the staff with a request to give me the keys to the office, so I set up camp at the back of the long room, found a clear space on the table strategically located next to the kitchen and hot water, and banged away. I could leave my work when action heated up, and easily return to my concentration.
Amal asked me to interview 2 coaches. She picked a man and a woman who were proficient in English. Outside in the courtyard we conversed, me taking notes like I did in Ramallah with the three coaches or partners, and later, perhaps not until I return home, I’ll write these for the office. This is an offshoot of Fida pressing me to do the same in Ramallah.
Some men came to my last interviewee, Rawand (who’d translated in the writing workshop for me), imploring me to come inside, “They’re waiting for you, they have a gift for you.” They heisted me off the ground and airlifted me inside, all of us laughing hard. Indeed, the group was waiting, I was the last entry on the agenda. They sat me down in front of everyone, amal thanked me for all I’d done, the workshops, photography, writing, and then they gave me two beautifully wrapped gifts. I offered a few words about hope, fire in the belly, how jolly and mischievous they all are, and left them with the South African freedom fighter salute—a clenched fist, palm out. Rawand, translating for me, in an aside to me mistakenly labeled this the Nazi salute. I hope others did not make the same mistake.
Then the obligatory group portrait, a few with me in the center, one with the salute.
One very sad note about the location: it is an arts and crafts village. Studios lined the courtyard, each for a different craft—rug weaving, copper work, woodwork, embroidery, etc. I explored them all, usually pulled into the studio-shops by two young women participants who clung to me, I suspect, to practice their English. The note is sad here because the complex was set up for tourists—there are virtually no tourists in Gaza at this time. The crafts people were eager to make a sale and I was tempted, but the problem of transporting the crafts precluded any serious consideration of a purchase. For instance, a woolen rug—I could see it in my home or as a gift for someone special like Louise—not only cost 300 NIS ($65) but to ship it at $40 per kilo, 1.5 kilos, would mean an additional 200 NIS. And I’d have to do this myself.
Another discordant note, one of danger. While interviewing Adham, the young earnest friendly very-good-in-English man, we were close to gunfire. He’d invited me to a new site for the interview, out of the compound, across a sandy field, near the university. Shortly after we’d found shade beneath a palm tree and settled ourselves on the drying grass, we heard rifle shots and saw men not more than 200 m. from us scurrying about. We jumped up, ducked, and ran fast back to the safety of our courtyard. While running, I could imagine an errant bullet catching one of innocents, bringing us down, perhaps thru the head as happened to the Jordanian driver, or merely a surface injury, but enough to gain us admission to the Shifa hospital. Then I’d have a new perspective on life in Gaza, should I survive.
—Gaza, May 26, 2006
A dream. I was crossing a border, maybe going thru customs, I’d agreed to take Dan and Elizabeth’s car thru for them, a woman was interrogating me. I gave her my papers. She read them, and then asked a series of questions. My age, date of birth, home address, etc, all easy to answer. Then she popped to me the killer question: from what agency or dealer did you buy your car? I hesitated, never expecting this question, couldn’t really come up with a good answer, tried with my eyes to query Dan who was nearby for a suggestion, received none, finally said, “Oh, let me see, I think it was X and Y Motors in Belmont." In my mind I visualized the dealer I once used a long time ago in my district. Somehow I knew this had failed me, that I’d never be able to pass.
—Ramallah, May 28, 2006
LINKS
Part one of this writing
Two Stories of coaches in Popular Achievement
Gaza arts and crafts village |
