A couple of days ago, I got a call at my appartment in Jenin from a fellow volunteer working on the Red Crescent ambulances, asking for a volunteer for the kid's summer camp they have organised. I turned up at the local school in the morning, to be mobbed by 100+ energetic, curious, affectionate ruffians from the city and the camp, and had to fight my way to a position of relative safety at the front of the playground, behind a protective line of more experienced teachers and local volunteers while others did their best to form them into ordered ranks. An Egyptian lady, with whom I now converse in pidgin French, announced that a trip to the local open air swimming pool was scheduled for the next day, providing that the ocupation forces didn't plan on imposing curfew upon the area in their customary fashion of parading heavily armoured vehicles round the town and distributing tear gas, sound grenades, and live/rubber bullets liberally about.
The response was deafening. I don't need to prate on about the recurrent tragedies that the people here have to put up with, that wreak havoc on every aspect of their lives and make a "normal" existence impossible, but what is rarely conveyed in much reportage is the vivacious and laughter-loving spirit that abounds, which seems to indicate a certain irrepressibility and to form the very backbone of resistance in Jenin. The trip did go ahead, a blinding success, and it looks as though we're going again tomorrow; to a large lake outside Jenin this time, In Sh'Allah. (spellcheck.)
School usually lasts from 8.30 - 13.00. We had to send everyon home at half ten yesterday beacause the armed scum down the road came rolling in, with the usual operatics of intimidation. With the other volunteers I followed the @ tanks, 2 A.P.C.s and a Border Police jeep round and round the Mullberry bush until they finally fucked off out of town. Why do we follow them? to see where they go and what they do, mainly, but also to let them know that there are internationals taking an interest and that these people aren't being entirely ignored.(Futile, you might think, they'll do what they want anyway, yeah, I know the arguments but I'm fucked if I'm sitting indoors doing absolutely nothing while this goes on) Also to get between them and the kids, who are now descending behind the withdrawing vehicles armed with stones and bottles, like the furies of hell (well they scare the shit out of me!)
The Israelis haven't fired at or near us for a few days now, but they've made several arrests and threatened to return to destroy peoples homes in the village of Burquen a couple of klicks down the road. The night before last I stayed in one such a house, earmarked for destruction, sitting up all night watching for a nemesis who didn't show. That's not to say, though, that they won't come tomorrow. or next week...
We're also making interviews with the families of the arrested men and trying to obtain info about them through legal/ HR channels. Meeting anyone in their home here invariably means meeting the entire family, and all the attendent ceremony of hospitality (tea, etc.) that traditionally ensues. One needs a strong bladder for research on the ground over here. And a tolerance for sleep deprivation, from time to time. Days and nights can be crowded.
The best part of the day for me right now is with the kids; they're great. It doesn't take much to become a reluctant pied piper in Jenin (pain in the ass when you're just walking down the road, knackered, minding you're own business...)
If you want to come to Jenin, or any part of Palestine, I can't exhort you strongly enough. There's more than enough you can find to keep busy and help people, and it's the most enriching thing I've ever done. Sadly, there's an element of internal destruction creeping into one or two of the larger groups, with much petty vying for position and jealousy over territory. Listen to people, regard their experience, but don't be told what to do by some asshole (or clique of assholes) who thinks they're the mayor of a particular part of Palestin just because they've been their a few weeks longer. One learns volumes in just days here.