Saturday, February 11, 2006
Back to School
Before leaving Yanun we paid a visit to the local school. It was freezing cold outside (looked like it might snow at one point), so classes were sort of canceled. There were 4 students who had decided to brave the cold and were having an informal lesson. The teacher tried to get the children talking to us in English. We ended up drawing with them and I managed to explain to them strategy for O's and X's (always go for the centre). The school is for the 12 or so children aged between 6-12, higher levels of school are held in Aqraba the town where the villages went to escape the settlers (see previous posting).
The children enjoyed playing with my digital camera, I have found it a rather useful device in interacting with young people in the villages. Often they take really bad shots but at least I can delete them. The girl second to the left (first photo) started off really serious so I was rather pleased when we managed to make her laughed with the other 3 and pull faces at the camera (second photo). Most of my posts till this point have tended to focus on activist stuff and the occupation, but in a town where the kids are scared to climb 100 meters above their village for the very real fear of being shot by settlers, helping them have a bit of fun was an act of resistance. To exist here is to resist. We had to leave on Thursday due to other actions that were taking place the following day and the EAPPI weren't coming back till a few days later. I hope the village will be ok, activist resources are scarce at the moment and there are so many places like Abud where just by being there and having fun you are able to help the resistance. Plus the local women make the most amazing goats cheese I have ever tasted.
The children enjoyed playing with my digital camera, I have found it a rather useful device in interacting with young people in the villages. Often they take really bad shots but at least I can delete them. The girl second to the left (first photo) started off really serious so I was rather pleased when we managed to make her laughed with the other 3 and pull faces at the camera (second photo). Most of my posts till this point have tended to focus on activist stuff and the occupation, but in a town where the kids are scared to climb 100 meters above their village for the very real fear of being shot by settlers, helping them have a bit of fun was an act of resistance. To exist here is to resist. We had to leave on Thursday due to other actions that were taking place the following day and the EAPPI weren't coming back till a few days later. I hope the village will be ok, activist resources are scarce at the moment and there are so many places like Abud where just by being there and having fun you are able to help the resistance. Plus the local women make the most amazing goats cheese I have ever tasted.
