D-3 Chess Training at Shiraa

The second chess session at Shiraa Association has come!

We received a special guest today, the Palestine West Bank Chess Champion, Ahmed, so we co-animated the class.
Firstly, we went through their notes taken yesterday, and the children got it all correct :)
Then, we continue on new pieces' movements on the board, with some corresponding excercices. We tried as much as possible to make the kids participate.
So everytime a answer needs to be done, the kid are coming to the chess board to show it. They are very proud of themselves when they find the correct answer.
In order for them to work as a team, we made them play one game on the big chess training board, boys against girls ! For every move to be played, one member of the team was coming to the board. They were quite competitive, and instead of playing on their own each move, they were thinking about it all together.
The boys won the game ...

D-3 Cultural differences

Today, I have been invited to Hussein's sisters' place for some conversation.
My first surprise was that they are living in the flat just above :) My second surprise was that they were actually between 40 and 60 years old, which is something I was not imagining for 3 sisters living together.
They actually still live at their father's house because they are not married. They explained me a woman can only leave her parents' house when she finds the man she'll be spending her life with. The 52 years old one confessed she has not lost hope yet and is confident she'll find an husband soon. The 40 years old asked me to take her in my luggage back to Spain as she thinks it will be easier to find there. She asked me "Do they like fat women there?" ;)
One of Hussein's son was translating for me. He added "Men can leave their parents' house whenever they want; I know it is not fair. But I would not like my sister to live with a man if they are not married, so she will stay with us until she gets married as well".
They asked me about my situation and were happy I was married... They could not understand though, what I was doing here so far away from my husband.
It was definitely a cultural shock!
As usual since I arrived, we shared some traditional food; I love their convivial way to eat all together, all in the same plate, with no forks or knives.

D-3 Bethlehem

I visited the church of Nativity, and it was quite interesting to see even though I am not much of a Catholic... they were so many tourists! Mainly Spanish and Russians.
Hussein told me they are all coming to see the church within the day but are not actually making the tourism industry work, as they never stay overnight in Palestine. There is no airport in Palestine, so they are all coming from Tel Aviv, where many touristic packages are being sold, with accommodation within Israel obviously.
Since my arrival, I have already replied at least 10 times to the question "what is your religion?", this is really a main subject here, as well as politics.

D-2 Meeting the children for the chess training

The chess training takes place at the Shiraa Association, which goal is to contribute to building up a modern civil society, and maintaining sustainable development. Their activities are mainly for kids and women and our chess project is towards both.
After school, around 3PM, the kids arrived at Shiraa so we could start our training. They were 25 and they were looking really interested in the game/sport.
The centre had bought all the necessary material (chess boards, chess clocks and a training chess board), for us to work in a good way. Rabea was my translator from English to Arabic, and we started with the basics, as it was for most of them, the first time they were hearing about this game.
The kids look like fast-learner, and always replied positively to my practise questions. They had a good understanding, and wrote a lot of notes for them to be able to repeat at home.
I also improved, as I now know the Arabic names for all the pieces :)

D-2 The refugee Camp

On the first day in Dheisha Refugee Camp, my host Hussein, the manager of Shiraa Association For Development, took me for a tour in the Camp.
These family refugees have been chased away from their villages in 1948. Hussein showed me a 7 square meters room he was living in with 11 members of his family during 10 years. This room is now part of the Association.
The hope to return one day to their village is still on their mind: he explained me all the elderly people in the camp still have their house keys and leave them to their sons when dying.
We arrived on a square he called the "Death square" because 25 kids have been shot there. The houses and streets are in a poor estate.
It is depressing to see how lucky we can be without even realising it. Along the way, several children, mainly girls, were following us, surprised to see an European girl. Here is a picture of one of them... As you can see on the wall, it is written Barcelona! They are big fans of the Barca Football team.
Hussein and his family were really happy the day I arrived, because they had just received the water for the month, after 4 days with no water at all. I am being as careful as one can be when using their water !

Tomorrow, a big traditional celebration is planned: Hussein's brother is getting out of prison after 10 years spent there!
The whole camp is in joy even if some prisoners are still there; we can appreciate the solidarity they have between each others. Hussein explained to me that the women will be in the kitchen or in the house singing and dancing, while the men will all be outside in the streets. I asked why and he replied "This is our habit. When I was born, it was like that, what can I do?". I asked him if his wife could go outside during the party if she wanted to and he said "No, because there will be too many men! She can watch through the window". :) This was my European question, but actually, Nadja, his wife, is happy this way, spending the time with her girl friends.

D-1 On the way to Palestine

My trip to get to Bethlehem was quite an adventure but went fine :)
I left my home in Barcelona at 4h30 am to take a taxi to the airport: the driver was very happy to have someone sober on this busy Saturday night.
In Zurich, the flight was 1 hour delayed, and during this time, I was wondering what to do with the documents I had about Palestine in my purse. Indeed, I had been advised to speak only about the centres I was going to work with in Israel, and I was afraid they found them.
When arriving in Tel Aviv, I felt a bit more tension, but maybe it was my head. There were several security guys asking questions randomly and the waiting time at the passport control was an average of 5-10min per person, even in the Israeli queue.
Finally, my turn arrived and the girl asked me if I was going to stay in Israel only: I said yes and explained the project for the centres located in the Jerusalem suburbs. She asked me if this project would be an opportunity for Arabic kids as well, or if it was for Israeli kids only. I said Israeli kids only and she seemed happy with my answer since she stamped my passport straight away. Youhou !
The trip was only starting actually, patience is the key. I was badly recommended by a local to take the bus to get to Jerusalem. There were 2 changes and 30 to 45 minutes to wait for each under a burning sun. The first bus took only 4 people and I understood I had to fight to get in ;) The second did not even stop... The 3rd was the good one!
The traffic was quite bad and it took us 1h30 to get to Jerusalem, but unfortunately, not to the place I was supposed to go ! With a fellow German traveller, we have been advised to get into the station and had to do another security control to get in, only to find out there was no bus going to our destination.
At this point, it was starting to be very dark and I was loosing my control. I called the person I was supposed to meet in Ramallah and he thought the best for me was to take a taxi cause the bus would be a long way.
My research for a cab to take me to the check-point started there, but the only reply I was receiving was "I am Jewish, I cannot go to the check point, find an Arabic driver!". Finally, one accepted to take me to the check point but only leaving me a couple of hundred meters before.
I felt like in a movie: it was very dark and here I was with my back pack, walking towards militaries... In the end of course, all went fine :)
On the other side, 3 men working on the project were waiting for me and took me to the head office of the NGO "Care Palestine". There, a whole committee was waiting for me, composed to the NGO's president, but also the project's coordinator, the Palestinian chess Federation President, responsibles of the youth centres involved in the project etc ... I felt very welcomed and appreciated: they were repeating me "you are our sister, feel at home". They all expressed their sympathy and gratitude.
Then, the coordinator informed me we were supposed to get to Bethlehem. We found a taxi bus easily but had to wait for it to be full before leaving... It took 45 minutes... Of course no one was complaining, it was all very normal, and they were just chatting.
We had to go through 2 check points, easily. In Bethlehem, I met my family for the week, and was welcomed with tones of food. They live in a refugee camp.