D-13 First chess training in Qattana

Today was my first meeting with the children in Qattana.

The goal of having mostly girls in the class has been fully achieved here, as there are approximately 20 girls and 2 boys :)

Most children are beginners, but there are actually 6 girls who are already much stronger. 4 of them are Palestinian champions under 12 years old, 14 years old, 16 years old and 18 years old ! They also won the Palestinian Junior Championship by team.
I was definitely not expecting such a level in this little village and was really impressed !

I must say that Diya has done an amazing work here. He's their trainer, and also a FIDE arbiter. He is very fond of the game and learnt on his own with some books.
He is happy though that I am here as he would like his girls to improve, and meet someone with more experience in competitions.

So, we are dividing the class in two groups in Qattana. While the beginners are learning the basic rules, we will work on tactic exercises and some openings for the stronger ones: luckily I brought some books for better level in case such cases happen.

D-12 Ramallah and Qattana

Friday, I arrived in Ramallah early to meet Dr Ghassan and his coordinator Johanna in the head office of the association "Care Palestine".
It was a very interesting meeting where I related my two first weeks, giving them a full report.
Care Palestine is working on many other projects apart from chess, always educational orientated.

After our lunch, they took me to Qattana village where I will be staying for a week. On the way, we stopped and took a hitchhiker. We soon realised that he was going to the exact same place as us and that he was knowing the person we would meet there.

He then said "My nephew Diya is the manager of Qattana Youth centre and he is waiting for the chess champion to come" ! Jajaja... Small world :)
We left him at his house and he insisted for us to meet his grand daughters who will be coming to the chess training.

After having visited the centre, I was introduced to my family for the night. Yes, for the night only, as in Qattana, everyone was willing to welcome me, so I will be changing house everyday ! (very nice of them, but probably a bit exhausting for me!).
I spent the evening with the mom, two daughters (one speaking English) and one cousin (speaking English as well). They absolutely wanted me to try the traditional dress ...

We spoke about our different ways of lives. For them, life in Palestine in much easier than in Europe cause they don't have self satisfaction issues , consummation issues etc... They say that we drink too much alcohol and they don't like the fact that we can have several loves in our lives: according to them, true love is the one they have as they stay with the same person forever...

D-12 Last day in Hebron

I think we managed this week to teach the new ones the basics, and to develop the skills of the advanced ones. We rehearsed a bit what have been done through the week and it was well assimilated.

I am glad to say, the girls won the team game today ! And they were also the best in resolving the exercises.

As it was the last day, we had a mini ceremony and I gave one medal to the best girl and one to the best boy. They were so proud of themselves! They promised to keep on working on their skills :) The centre also offered me a huge teddy bear; that's a nice attention ... I don't know how I am going to travel with it though :)
The two best kids wanted to play a last game against each other... The girl won ;)

In the below picure, you can see the two best children with Ahmede, their future trainer (who is also the guy who loves to be beaten by me!) 

Here is a pic with some of the girls... :)



Tomorrow, I will take a bus to Ramallah for some more adventures within a new centre !

D-11 On the way to Al-Mahawer

The house is located just a couple of hundred meters away from the youth centre Al-Mahawer, but it seems like a big journey full of adventures anyway!

I don't think I have mentioned already that the whole building is occupied by Samir's family, mainly his brothers and their wives. All the doors are always open and one goes from one to another apartment without knocking.

On the floor below us, I stop by and said Hi to my Internet friend :) I am going to her place quite often to check my emails as she is the only one with internet. She is 20 years old and has already 3 children of 2 years old, 1 year old and 2 weeks !
The oldest one of 2 years old seems really aggressive, I already saw him hitting his brother and sister but also his mom.

On the ground floor lives another woman of the family. She hides herself to smoke... Even though her husband smokes a lot, he forbids her to do the same...

Then, I leave the building and at the entrance, I find myself brought into a kid's fight. Sudheim just received a ball in the head, thrown on purpose by his cousin, the aggressive 2 years old. As a reply, Sudheim just spits in his cousin's face. I feel quite disgusted.

Then, I keep on in the street... There are something like 30 kids all over the place...

Soon after I start walking I have something like 10 of them around me :) The main phrases come back "Hello!", "Welcome!", "What's your name?", "How are you?", "I love you!"..

Before going to the centre, I stop at a little grocery shop to buy some water... All the kids come in with me ... I see a barely walking child, around 18 months old buying cigarettes ! Probably, his dad sent him, but still !!!

When going out of the shop, I notice a car going down the road very fast as usual ... All the kids are going towards the pavement, except a little girl who goes straight to the car... Oh my god, the car brakes like crazy and uuuffff that was close ...

So many emotions in just 5 minutes !!! Now it is time to teach ...

D-11 The training goes on at Al-Mahawer

The training is definitely not as easy in Al-Mahawer, as we have some new children coming everyday !

So, we have some children quite advanced and some who are just starting...
Luckily, the future trainer, Ahmede that I am also teaching is playing already a little bit, and can help me with the newbies :)

It keeps annoying me but all the team games have been won by the boys !

D-10 Hebron city centre

Today, after the class, Manar took me to the old city and the city centre of Hebron.

To get to the old city, we had to go through 2 check points, and Manar was not really comfortable with it. The "chance" he has in this complicated situation is his European looking face combined with a perfect English (plus a true European girl by his side!). So he just plays the tourist as they don't ask for the passport...
When getting face to face with setlers, all the palestinians look at their feet though.

The old city is beautiful and full of shops... At every corner, a man was shouting to me "Welcome to Palestine!"

It was really nice to see another part of the city! The city centre is messy and dusty as I like it :)

Another thing is that people are driving like Crazy! There are no red lights, cars are going very very fast and with nobody wearing a belt of course. People are walking in the middle of the streets (Manar was doing the same and I was not feeling really safe!).

On the way back, I bought some vegetables and cooked a french quiche ... Hmm, it was so nice to eat something from back home :) Don't get me wrong, I like a lot the food here, but I am a bit sick of falafel and hommus for breakfast !

D-9 and 10 in Al-Mahawer

On the first day, I did not get the chance to speak too much with the manager of the centre, so he absolutely wanted us to meet and talk yesterday in his office. He expressed a lot his gratitude for my presence in his centre, and repeated many times that I was here at home, and could ask whatever I wanted. Arabic people are always very welcoming.

In this centre, we have some more teenagers; in fact, the class is open to children from 12 to 15 but in Shira, they were all around 12-13. The teenagers are not as easy to teach, but we are doing our best, my translator Manar and I :)

When they play individually, the boys can be quite aggressive between each other, so I try to make some team work as much as possible. As a team, they get along better.

As the level is a bit more advanced, we are doing exercises with check-mates in 2 moves, and learning also how to win some common finals of games: they come to the board and play one move each which forced them to think all together.

There are some talented girls in the team: they understand everything new faster that the others, and have a good global image of the board, whereas the others are mostly stuck looking at only one side.
However, yesterday and today, in the team game, the boys won ! (again and again!).

They got also their project t-shirt. I think it is really important for them to be included in this project and to wear them. In the street, I met two moms with my students, and they were thanking me for coming here and teaching them, as during this time they are not in the streets and they do something constructive.