1948berg
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Hei!
Jeg kopierer og limer inn reisebrevet jeg har skrevet til bloggen paa facebook, sann i tilfelle dere ikke er online der. Det er bare aa beklage at det er paa engelsk, men er lettere aa skrive denne slags ting paa engelsk siden flesteparten av mottakerne leser engelsk.
Hello friends and foes, I am writing to you from Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp on the outskirts of Damascus in Syria. I have been here for 2 weeks now, as a participant in a voluntary program.
The first few days of the program consisted of introductory classes to The Palestinian Case, taught by volunteers at the Jafra Youth Center, our host organization. We were taught about the history of Palestine, the different political parties and idiologies, the role of the UN and its relief agencies etc etc, in order to get an introduction to the lives that these refugees live.
Jafra lies in Yarmouk, which is a community of palestinian refugees. Check out http://www.un.org/unrwa/refugees/syria/yarmouk.html for more information about the camp.
Some of the preparation time was also spent planning activities that the group of foreign voluntaries would be in charge of during the children's camp that we were here to help out with. The highlight of this preparation session was the night we were invited to another refugee camp - one where the standard of living is quite lower than the one in yarmouk. In the end of the visit, we were invited home to one of the men who volunteer with the Jafra center, a really really lovely family with the old grandmother (the only one in the family who has actually lived in palestine), and the rest of the extended family living in the house. By using one of the Jafra volunteers as a translator I spent a lot of time talking to the grandmother of the family, showing her photos from Norway and hearing about her life. Two of the children of this family were attending the camp later, I had quite a lot of contact with them, and as a result I have been invited to visit this family for dinner one night, and experience I am looking very much foreward to.
The summer camp was for children between 8 and 13, and it was organized in a huge educational center run by the PLO on the outskirts of Damascus. This center is a welfare center for widows and children of palestinian martyrs who have fallen in the fight for palestine rights, and consists of school buildings, a large outdoor area, huge dormitories and kitchen facilities, along with sports fields and theatre halls, all in a quite sad cement/ rundown style, sort of reminded me of images of eastern europe... All the walls of course had images of Yassir Arafat, posters with palestine propaganda and the like.
The kids had a quite hard program every day, starting with morning gym at 6:30 (jumping jacks and running in circles), breakfast, motivational lectures (mostly regarding palestine war heroes), play time, and in between there would be semi-military activiites including lots of standing in rows and yelling out palestine war cries. Which is why at times the whole childrens camp felt more like a military boot camp for minors.The activities would last until maybe 11 at night, so the kids really had a tough program. Me of course I got up much later and also took a siesta during the worst heat of the afternoon.
Its really difficult to explain but the fight for palestine freedom and the right to go home is so strong within the palestine refugee community, even after generations abroad. Its everywhere, even in the childrens minds, which was quite a culture shock for many participants. It could be quite disturbing to see these small and innocent children in drawing class drawing martyrs being killed by israeli soldiers, or theater plays involving massacres. Sometimes it really felt like I was on a different planet, where everything I have ever taken to be normal and true was flipped upside down in this palestine mad world.
On the other hand it was really rewarding and lots of fun to hang out with the kids! They were wellbehaved and fun, and even though they spoke very little english, and my arab is huhm well, extremely limited. I have picked up some words though, and I am making an effort to learn some more. And its amazing to see how far a bit of bodylanguage and making some animal noises will take communication!!!! I gained quite some fame among the kids after being a "mechanical bull" on a night that we organized games for all the kids in the evening.
The European volunteers worked in different workshops such as ceramics and dance, I was in charge of taking photos of everything during the camp, so my days basically consisted of strolling around taking photos of the kids and their activities, and chatting to the local volunteers. I must say that I have been fortunate to meet many really nice people and some of the local volunteers are the kind of people I would have become really really good friends with if I had stayed here for a longer time, and that I appreciate having met and shared some time with, -and that I expect to keep in touch with.
If I have to say something negative about my trip so far, it must be that I just cant quite get used to the toilet being a keyhole-shaped hole in the floor. I mean, when I suffer from diarrea (which of course I have been having basically since I arrived), there's nothing I'd rather have than a good old-fashioned sit-down toilet, some magazines to keep me company, and some nice soft toilet paper. Not a hole in the ground that I have to crouch over, trying to balance and aim at the same time, and cleaning myself with a water hose later. Sorry to give you so many details, by the way.... ;-)
On the last day of the camp there was a farewell party where the children performed their dance and theatre stuff, distributed the newspaper they had made during the camp etc. Many parents and siblings had come to see their children, and it was a lot of fun to be dragged by the hand around by different kids to be introduced to their parents and the parents and families going crazy taking tons of photos of us. In particular I got in touch with one family, whose son, Khaled, had spent quite some time with me trying to teach me to count in arab (I can now count to 30! Almost without checking my notes!!). Khaled is a lovely little kid of maybe 12 years old, and he has 3 sibilings between 15 and 20 appx, and the parents were maybe 45. The women of course dressed in long outfits and with the headscarf (hair covered, not their face). The mother of the family works as a secretary in a local hospital and is a colleague of one of the local volunteers. Really sweet people, and although only the father speaks a few words of English, we somehow managed to communicate quite well, and as a result I also have a dinner invitation to go to their home one evening. I will go with Mustafa (the colleague and volunteer) and that way I have a translator, -really a unique opportunity to get to know "real people", and something I would have never had the opportunity to do if I had been on an organized tour or backpacking by myself.
On the topic of backpacking; after finishing the childrens camp, the group of volunteers went to the roman ruins of Palmyra yesterday. In an oasis in the middle of the desert lies what used to be an important stopping point on the trade routes between Persia and the Mediterranean. It was a magical place. We arrived in the early morning, after driving through the desert at sunrise (awesome sight), and spent hours just strolling through the enormous site. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmyra . From there we went to a small town on the border of Libanon where we had a typical Syrian meal and spent the afternoon talking, eating, drinking (especially the local alcohol ARAK, quite similar to the greek Ouzo), dancing and having a fun time together with the local volunteers who had chosen to join us.
Since I have finished my volunteer program I am now free to travel around the region until I return on the 13th of September. I'll be doing some sightseeing in and around of Damascus the next few days, after that I don't really have a specific plan, the only must-do activities are the two family dinner invitations that I have.
As you can see, the hospitality that I have come across here is just amazing. Even though the language barrier is quite big, people are extremely friendly, respectful, and curious to get to know foreign people. I feel very safe everywhere I go, much more than for example in Barcelona or even Norway. Who would have thought that, from a place smack in the middle of the axis of evil?
Hilsen Helene
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Jeg kopierer og limer inn reisebrevet jeg har skrevet til bloggen paa facebook, sann i tilfelle dere ikke er online der. Det er bare aa beklage at det er paa engelsk, men er lettere aa skrive denne slags ting paa engelsk siden flesteparten av mottakerne leser engelsk.
Hello friends and foes, I am writing to you from Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp on the outskirts of Damascus in Syria. I have been here for 2 weeks now, as a participant in a voluntary program.
The first few days of the program consisted of introductory classes to The Palestinian Case, taught by volunteers at the Jafra Youth Center, our host organization. We were taught about the history of Palestine, the different political parties and idiologies, the role of the UN and its relief agencies etc etc, in order to get an introduction to the lives that these refugees live.
Jafra lies in Yarmouk, which is a community of palestinian refugees. Check out http://www.un.org/unrwa/refugees/syria/yarmouk.html for more information about the camp.
Some of the preparation time was also spent planning activities that the group of foreign voluntaries would be in charge of during the children's camp that we were here to help out with. The highlight of this preparation session was the night we were invited to another refugee camp - one where the standard of living is quite lower than the one in yarmouk. In the end of the visit, we were invited home to one of the men who volunteer with the Jafra center, a really really lovely family with the old grandmother (the only one in the family who has actually lived in palestine), and the rest of the extended family living in the house. By using one of the Jafra volunteers as a translator I spent a lot of time talking to the grandmother of the family, showing her photos from Norway and hearing about her life. Two of the children of this family were attending the camp later, I had quite a lot of contact with them, and as a result I have been invited to visit this family for dinner one night, and experience I am looking very much foreward to.
The summer camp was for children between 8 and 13, and it was organized in a huge educational center run by the PLO on the outskirts of Damascus. This center is a welfare center for widows and children of palestinian martyrs who have fallen in the fight for palestine rights, and consists of school buildings, a large outdoor area, huge dormitories and kitchen facilities, along with sports fields and theatre halls, all in a quite sad cement/ rundown style, sort of reminded me of images of eastern europe... All the walls of course had images of Yassir Arafat, posters with palestine propaganda and the like.
The kids had a quite hard program every day, starting with morning gym at 6:30 (jumping jacks and running in circles), breakfast, motivational lectures (mostly regarding palestine war heroes), play time, and in between there would be semi-military activiites including lots of standing in rows and yelling out palestine war cries. Which is why at times the whole childrens camp felt more like a military boot camp for minors.The activities would last until maybe 11 at night, so the kids really had a tough program. Me of course I got up much later and also took a siesta during the worst heat of the afternoon.
Its really difficult to explain but the fight for palestine freedom and the right to go home is so strong within the palestine refugee community, even after generations abroad. Its everywhere, even in the childrens minds, which was quite a culture shock for many participants. It could be quite disturbing to see these small and innocent children in drawing class drawing martyrs being killed by israeli soldiers, or theater plays involving massacres. Sometimes it really felt like I was on a different planet, where everything I have ever taken to be normal and true was flipped upside down in this palestine mad world.
On the other hand it was really rewarding and lots of fun to hang out with the kids! They were wellbehaved and fun, and even though they spoke very little english, and my arab is huhm well, extremely limited. I have picked up some words though, and I am making an effort to learn some more. And its amazing to see how far a bit of bodylanguage and making some animal noises will take communication!!!! I gained quite some fame among the kids after being a "mechanical bull" on a night that we organized games for all the kids in the evening.
The European volunteers worked in different workshops such as ceramics and dance, I was in charge of taking photos of everything during the camp, so my days basically consisted of strolling around taking photos of the kids and their activities, and chatting to the local volunteers. I must say that I have been fortunate to meet many really nice people and some of the local volunteers are the kind of people I would have become really really good friends with if I had stayed here for a longer time, and that I appreciate having met and shared some time with, -and that I expect to keep in touch with.
If I have to say something negative about my trip so far, it must be that I just cant quite get used to the toilet being a keyhole-shaped hole in the floor. I mean, when I suffer from diarrea (which of course I have been having basically since I arrived), there's nothing I'd rather have than a good old-fashioned sit-down toilet, some magazines to keep me company, and some nice soft toilet paper. Not a hole in the ground that I have to crouch over, trying to balance and aim at the same time, and cleaning myself with a water hose later. Sorry to give you so many details, by the way.... ;-)
On the last day of the camp there was a farewell party where the children performed their dance and theatre stuff, distributed the newspaper they had made during the camp etc. Many parents and siblings had come to see their children, and it was a lot of fun to be dragged by the hand around by different kids to be introduced to their parents and the parents and families going crazy taking tons of photos of us. In particular I got in touch with one family, whose son, Khaled, had spent quite some time with me trying to teach me to count in arab (I can now count to 30! Almost without checking my notes!!). Khaled is a lovely little kid of maybe 12 years old, and he has 3 sibilings between 15 and 20 appx, and the parents were maybe 45. The women of course dressed in long outfits and with the headscarf (hair covered, not their face). The mother of the family works as a secretary in a local hospital and is a colleague of one of the local volunteers. Really sweet people, and although only the father speaks a few words of English, we somehow managed to communicate quite well, and as a result I also have a dinner invitation to go to their home one evening. I will go with Mustafa (the colleague and volunteer) and that way I have a translator, -really a unique opportunity to get to know "real people", and something I would have never had the opportunity to do if I had been on an organized tour or backpacking by myself.
On the topic of backpacking; after finishing the childrens camp, the group of volunteers went to the roman ruins of Palmyra yesterday. In an oasis in the middle of the desert lies what used to be an important stopping point on the trade routes between Persia and the Mediterranean. It was a magical place. We arrived in the early morning, after driving through the desert at sunrise (awesome sight), and spent hours just strolling through the enormous site. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmyra . From there we went to a small town on the border of Libanon where we had a typical Syrian meal and spent the afternoon talking, eating, drinking (especially the local alcohol ARAK, quite similar to the greek Ouzo), dancing and having a fun time together with the local volunteers who had chosen to join us.
Since I have finished my volunteer program I am now free to travel around the region until I return on the 13th of September. I'll be doing some sightseeing in and around of Damascus the next few days, after that I don't really have a specific plan, the only must-do activities are the two family dinner invitations that I have.
As you can see, the hospitality that I have come across here is just amazing. Even though the language barrier is quite big, people are extremely friendly, respectful, and curious to get to know foreign people. I feel very safe everywhere I go, much more than for example in Barcelona or even Norway. Who would have thought that, from a place smack in the middle of the axis of evil?
Hilsen Helene
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