D-15 Qattana's Village

As usual in Palestine, here in Qattana, people are very welcoming, warm-hearted, generous...

Every meal is a celebration, with so much food as you can see on the picture (coming soon).

Unfortunately, these people really don't have an easy life. Qattana is surrounded by the "Discrimination wall": the wall and settlements are part of the view from anywhere in the village.

As we were touring around the village, Diya asked me:
- Do you see this boy?
Yes, I was seeing a little boy on 2 crutches at the bus stop, with a lot of difficulties to stand up.
Diya then explained me this kid was shot by settlers while he was at school ! It happened a few months ago...
The boys school is located very close to a settlement, and along the years, about 30 children of the village have been injured at school, 2 have died, and some are in prison.

The settlers' proximity is a source of anxiety and concern in their daily life. Some fireshots (in the air) and gas bombs are reported daily in Qattana.

D-14 School and training in Qattana

Today, in the morning, Diya (the chess trainer in Qattana) offered me to come to a school with him.
Public schools are not mixed here... We went to a school where are studying 740 girls from 6 to 14 years old.
I have been introduced to the school director, a very nice woman, who took me for a tour around the school. It is very modern and colourful. They have so many ideas and projects going on, for a better future.
Among them, there is the chess project of course: Diya started to teach 2 years ago there. The class is optional and lasts 5 hours (very long class!) every Saturday.
The girls have been awarded many times already as I was explaining in a previous post.
She also showed me the art room, with many hand made jewelleries, decorations etc only created by the girls. The objective is to increase as much as possible their creativity for a better self-thinking.

The issue they have at the moment is a shortness in the staff and space. There are about 40 girls in each class, which is not really convenient. The director explained me the school has been built thanks to a german donation, and has been extended 4 years ago.

I have been asked to give a little talk to a class tomorrow, to speak about chess and its assets in general, my experience, and the Peace and Sport project.

In the afternoon, back to the youth centre. Here is a picture of Diya and his girls :)

Diya really wanted me take in charge the strongest girls while he was dealing with the beginners.
They all have a good sense of the game, but are lacking some basic knowledge: we worked on tactics exercises, writing their games and commenting them afterwards etc ...

Thinking sisters on the left !




I noticed they were very motivated and focused: after 2h30 of full training, they were still asking for more and more exercises!

D-13 My dream is...

Yesterday morning, Mohammed, my new translator and I went to Ramallah and walked around the city centre.

Mohammed is an English teacher, he's fluent even though he has never been to an English speaking country. Actually, as many Palestinians I have met here, the only time he's been out of the country was in Jordan, as they can go there by bus.
At some point, during our conversation, Mohammed told me:
- I have been dreaming to go to the beach for 10 years now.
- Where about? I asked naively (already thinking about some heavenly islands!)
- To Haifa (Israel). It is so beautiful there and so close to us, but we have no access to it.
He also told me he could go to the Dead Sea but it is divided into Israeli and Arabic, and according to him, the Palestinian side is very dirty.

In the evening, during the dinner with my new family, they were telling me a bit more about themselves. They have 5 children, and all the brothers / sisters / cousins / parents live in houses around. During the evening, I could actually meet many of them as they all go from one house to another all the time :)
The mom insisted for me to come and see the view from the balcony.
- This right here is Israel (very close by, with the "Discrimination wall" in the middle), and over there, you can see Jerusalem. Jerusalem is such a beautiful city, I would love to go there, but I have no access.
The dad added that his dream was to go to the Mosque in Jerusalem.

I also met the grand father: he is 62 years old and even though for us it is not a big age, in Palestine they already consider him as an old man.
He is still working like crazy: he wakes up everyday at 2h30 to leave his house a 3 o' clock. He is working at 7 am but he has 3 buses to take and a couple of check-points to go through...
At the end of his working day, around 5 pm, he has to do the return trip and gets home around 8pm.
He explained to me that his job is no located that far away, and before, he could reach it in an 1h, but now he has to get round the wall and it takes ages.
- If only we could be living all together with no occupation and controls everywhere... We would be happy to coexist, we are not asking to be independent.

I have already heard this so many times during my trip...

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 ...