7/23
The second and final week of the English camp was a little less rocky than the first. We are learning so so much about limit-setting and the necessary clarity & simplicity of instructions & expectations for young children. I already had an inkling of all these principles beforehand, as I have worked with substantially large groups of children many other times throughout my life, but never has the student:teacher ratio been so large or the children so rambunctious (though with good reason--see my blog on Week 1 of the English Camp). We have Atallah there to be the "bad man" when things really get wild. Also, 5 young teenage girls come to help a bit in the teaching.
I have so enjoyed my mornings waking up at Hisham's house this week. Walter and I spent 2 nights in a row in Arroub this week, and it was such a delight to feel more and more like I was a part of Hisham's family--helping cook a huge breakfast in the mornings, sitting in fig trees with Balqeese and Lujain looking for the ripest ones, running out to meet
Walter when he walks over from Aytallah's (where he spends the night) and hollering back to Huweida, Lujain, and Balqeese back in kitchen that "Walter hoon!" ("Walter is here!", in Palestinian Arabic) alerting them to scurry to put on their hijabs again so that Walter may enter the house.
Hisham is still as outspoken as ever--this week, during a political conversation, feeling comfortable enough around me to declare, "I HATE Americans!!!" But while I feel welcomed in their house, Walter still gets tested by Hisham and even by Hisham's brother Muhammad in various ways. Here's Hisham below lecturing those gathered on America's favoritism towards Egypt.
After all the boys came back from working on the site for Hisham's second house, Walter offered to help Huweida in dinner preparations. When Muhammad waltzed in to see Walter sitting around the kitchen table Huweida, Lujain, Balqeese, and I, learning from us how to roll up rice inside grape leaves, he sneered in all seriousness, "Walter, what are you doing? Get out of here. This is WOMAN'S work." Walter just tsk-ed him (as is customary in the culture, by the way), looked up at him plainly, and continued to work with us. I have to say that this is one of many examples in which Walter is able to live counter-culturally in Arroub, but in a way that never rocks the boat too much. I know that the many ways in which he shows his gratitude for the women's work and his desire to interact with each in her element (offering Huweida help in the kitchen, playing chess with Lujain) is a light to the household, a light that begats even more warmth and hospitality on the part of the women. And I am not the only one who is seeing what the heart of servant who serves out of love can start.
Last week, the English Camp covered basic introductions between people, vocabulary and a few basic sentence structures to be able to talk about foods, drinks, the numbers, and the colors. This week covered vocabulary for people, rooms, and objects in school and in the home. And one day, we used some of our vocabulary to travel to different places in the world! We had different stations for Peru, Egypt, and the U.S., and the kids read handouts with pictures and simple sentences of Walter and I in these different places and did different fun activities in each country. They were thrilled at the prospect of imaginary travel, which we played up to the utmost, as many of them (though they live only 30 minutes from Jerusalem) are confined by checkpoints and the permit system to about a 20 minute driving radius which does NOT include any part of the state of Israel.
One of our activities for the "U.S." station was swing dancing, which a few of the girls refused to do (even with another girl). As you may remember from a previous blog where I had a very unfortunate experience with my clothing at the women's side of a wedding party, women and men RARELY dance in one another's presence unless they are married and in the confines of their bedroom. Aytallah, who had brought me to that wedding party the previous week, helped me oversee this swing dancing, and had no problem with it as the style I was teaching was even more de-sexualized than swing dancing already tends towards. Luckily I had a chance to redeem myself from the last party I attended, when the woman who keeps the key for the Women's Center where we hold our camp, invited me to a party "lil-nisaa, bess!" (for the women only, in Palestinian Arabic) to celebrate her daughter's high score on the Tawjihi, Palestine's equivalent to high school graduation exams and SATs rolled into one. I went dressed to a "T," with a little make-up, and very welcomed and not judged. Everyone wanted to get up and dance with the foreigner in the center, who to their surprise knew "raksa arabee!" (Arabic dance)
At the end of the week, we held a kind of ceremony for all the kids in the English Camp. They showed off their conversation skills, and we played some of the educational, interactive (some also having an element that develops emotional communication skills) games from the week to their parents, presented each child with certificates of achievement and candy necklace medals, and served juice and cake afterwards to everyone. Only about 30% of parents attended, but those that attended saw the progress their children had made. Walter, Hisham, and I made respective speeches about how their children watch them, look to them for encouragement in their education, and desire to be assured that mistakes are a necessary part of learning. Given their situation, it is easy to feel like they are not smart enough to learn English, for example. But if the parents try to use and practice with their children what little English they know and allow THEMSELVES to make mistakes, but to be humble enough to keep trying, then their children will follow suit.
Here are a few pictures:
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