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Testing the Waters— Palestine & Israel, 2006 |
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Journal, March 24, 2006—RamallahFor photos: Friends preschool in Amara refugee camp In the Camp - Friends Preschool in Amara refugee camp I finally found the preschool run by the Ramallah Friends School in the Amari refugee camp and directed by Muna Khleifi. Thanks to bumping into all the right people in the Ramallah Friends School elementary office—Diana, Hala, Salim, Salma—they called me a taxi driven by a man that regularly goes between the elementary school and the preschool. At the school a most exuberant and bubbly group of kids and teachers. During the nearly 2 hours I was there, they never stopped moving, speaking, interacting with the teachers except for a few children who seemed withdrawn. Maybe ill, maybe tired, maybe traumatized. What is the history of this camp, its context? Weaving thru the gaiety were lessons in numbers, the alphabet, and vocabulary, all bilingually, Arabic and English. Graphics adorned the walls. Colored paper festooned the ceiling. Kids sat at round tables, each cluster numbering about 6. Boys and girls were intermixed, not always done in traditional Arabic society. They sang songs, and they performed the body motions that went with them. I longed to know just one song, to be able to join with them. I recalled my kindergarten experience, but only dimly, remembering most vividly that I’d agreed to marry Becky Caravasas when we reached an old enough age. Do these children make similar agreements? What is their fantasy life? What do they long for: freedom, comfort, knowledge, power? The end of the occupation? How aware are they of the occupation? The head teacher, Wafieh Said Attyah, smiled and laughed and threw her arms over head and ducked down, mostly always with the kids repeating her actions. She was in perpetual smile. Now ordinarily I might shy away from photographing smiles, but hers seemed genuine. Perhaps she was acting, not fully feeling the smile. But the effect was contagious: kids smiled. If these children were to join the group led by Hannah and Dunya [two friends from the US who lead tours for American Jews and work with refugee camp kids], going to their ancestral destroyed villages, where would these kids go and what would be their experience? Until the age of 16 or so Palestinian children can cross the political boundaries of Israel-Palestine and visit the homes their family fled and were driven from. After that, they are blocked. Where would they go, what would they see, what would they feel, and how would they be effected? Near the end of this morning’s session, we heard a child wailing. The head teacher quickly went outside the room to find the source. There, a small boy, sitting alone in the small playground, wept. The teacher bent down, enveloped him with her arms, and cradled him till he stopped crying. If only our woes could be always so swiftly healed. The ending of the session was brilliant. The teacher called out—every one whose name begins with the rrrr sound come forward. And she would enfold them in her arms. Then the ssss sound, and so forth. Till all the kids had bodily contact with her and with others sharing the sound of their name’s first syllable. Friends preschool in the Amari camp Birthright Unplugged & Replugged in addition: |
