What I learned in school today

I woke up far too early today (7 a.m.) to get a glimpse of Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam’s primary school. I accompanied Peter Ongolo, my neighbor, to the 6th grade English class today.

Inside, there were 12 rambunctious kids, almost all Jewish, as the Arab kids were on holiday, some for Christmas, some for Eid al-Adha, the Muslim celebration retelling the story of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael. (sound familiar?)

In any event, the rambunctious Jewish class spoke in Hebrew amongst themselves as Peter tried to teach an English lesson, first using a game of hangman without the hanging, and then telling them a story and having them retell it. The process was challenging to say the least. Peter, originally from Kenya and living in Sweden, does not know Hebrew, so it made communicating difficult, though the students did have enough English to communicate. I believe there is normally a second teacher in the classroom, one who does know Hebrew, which would have made things easier.

At the end of class, they went into the building’s library, which is a large one-room space with a row of computers and bean bag chairs to sit in. The kids flew off their shoes, loudly running over to the books and playing amongst themselves before settling into the bean bag chairs to read for a little while. Well, read, poke and pester each other. The kids may be in a binational, bicultural school, but they were still 10 and 11 year olds, and they acted like it.

When the  bell rang for break, the kids started putting on their shoes to leave. Two of the girls then asked me if I knew the Gilmore Girls show. I said yes, and then they said that they thought I looked like one of its characters. Coming from a 6th grader, I have no idea if this was a good or a bad thing, and I couldn’t ask them as they quickly hurried out of the room, giggling, after telling me this fact.

Now I’m off to interview some more people today, before joining an Arab Christian family for Christmas Eve. Should be fun.

An uneventful Shabbat

It’s been a while since I’ve written, which is too bad because I am keeping a journal with daily notes and observations. However, it’s much easier to do that in paper form, not to mention they aren’t things I’d publish.

In any event, it’s been a busy week for me at Neve Shalom. I’ve talked with more than 15 people from many different parts of the village, and I’m just getting started. I still have to talk with most of the village “officials,” which is doubly useful because they also have their stories as to why they came and live here.

It’s weird that I only have five days left here, two of which I’m going to spend at least part of outside the village (One of those days was supposed to be today, to Jerusalem, but unfortunately that didn’t happen). Wow, that just made me realize how much reporting I have to do in a short period of time. In that sense, I wish I had more time, to see more things. Still, I will always be saying that, because there’s always more people to talk to, more things to read, etc.

One of the things that’s interested me in my interviews thus far is how the village means the same thing for both Arabs and Jews, but they experience it differently. Both sides come to this village because they want to live in peace and provide a place for their children to grow up where they can be educated. But there are many instances where that means different things, which I won’t get into now. This is something though that I want to explore further.

Aside from talking with people, I’ve taken two dog walks through the forest with an American-born Jew living here. It’s been nice to see the wilderness so close to the village — not to mention the Bedouin sheep herders — and it’s also been a chance to interview in a more conversational setting. I’ve learned something about the village, and the greater conflict, on both walks. And, he and I got a chance to play guitar together afterward. One of his old guitars is now sitting in the volunteer house for my continued enjoyment, which is really distracting me from my work.

I haven’t gone over much of my interview tapes, though I’m ensuring all the digital files are properly labeled. I should be listening back through them, but after the first day when I had a couple hours of tape, it’s been hard to do. Eventually, I’ll have to wade through them all, but even now listening would give me a better sense of what angles to take with more sources, or whether I should be doing follow up interviews.

The good news is my finished product doesn’t have to come until June, though honestly, I feel like I’m going to have the bulk of my reporting done before the new year. I didn’t think this was the case before I left, but I think a lot of the material will come from within the village. We’ll see, I haven’t actually picked out what I’m going to write about, so I could be wrong.

Today, Shabbat, I was supposed to go to Jerusalem with Rosa, a German volunteer, but when we took Valerie, a French woman shooting a documentary, to the airport late last night, we didn’t get up and moving to make the trek. Oh well, I think we are going Wednesday. So, instead I’ve been mulling around the volunteer house, relaxing and doing laundry. It wasn’t a productive day, though maybe a needed rest. I did get one interview that was one of my better ones.

That’s all for now, I will try and update this a couple more times before I leave.

If anyone is actually reading, that is. Probably not, but that’s OK, it’s still useful for me to write down my thoughts.

Language: In one ear and in the other

I’ve spent two evenings at Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam, and still no bag. It should have been here today, but something got lost in the Shabbat non-workday. Either the guy showed up with my bag but no one was in the office, or something. I should have it tomorrow for sure, but the way it’s gone so far I shouldn’t make assumptions.

Fortunately, the rest of my time here I’ve experienced similar communication problems. Fortunately, because this problem is a good thing. In the past two days; I’ve heard four languages spoken around me, often all at the same time. At one point, I sat on the steps of the volunteer house, hearing a conversation in Hebrew and Arabic in my left ear and one in French on my right.

The village residents speak Hebrew, Arabic and English, while two of my volunteer housemates speak French. One is German, so I’ve probably heard that language, too.

No, I don’t understand any of it, aside from a couple of words. But I’m OK with that. Even in diversified California, I nearly always talk to people and hear people in English, with a little Spanish thrown in. I now understand how Spanish immigrants feel trying to communicate in the U.S. It’s damn hard. If I were staying more than two weeks, I might start getting the hang of the languages at least a little bit, but I’ll just sit back and enjoy hearing the differing flavors the tongue has to offer.

I haven’t started formal interviews yet, but I’m making connections and meeting people. Tomorrow I’ll begin that process, which I’ll hopefully be prepared for. I’m still not sure where this story will end up. There are so many different angles about the village, that it would be best to focus on one. But I don’t know what that is yet.

When I first heard about the village, I didn’t realize how much had already been written about it. The way I’m going to come up with the best story is to break new ground, but that’s hard to do when so many people have (and continue to) cover this unique place. Still, I feel there are stones that remain unturned based on the stories I’ve read so far. I just have to find them. I’ve followed the village through the 80s, into the peace process, through the memorial controversy of the fallen soldier and past the second intifada. There’s a lot of meat there, and I don’t know what I can say that hasn’t been said already. So, I think I need to look to the future. That could be with the kids in the village, or the village expansion, or looking at what role the village plays in this mess we call the peace process after 30 years of existence.

Or, I might write about none of those things. I can’t say. It’s too soon, but I want to try and find a focus as quickly as I can. Unfortunately, it may be a long time before I know for sure. Until then, I’ll try and cover every possible pathway, searching for the one that leads me to my story.