Yesterday I was supposed to teach but my lessons were cancelled. It was a waste of my preparations but it’s just a part of my internship: to be flexible! I would teach the students English (speaking skills) by challenge them with some facts,cultural aspects and the differences between Belgium and Israel. Monday I spoke about the similarities between Dutch and English and automatically the students involved their and mine culture. Based on questions and answers of the students, I made a presentation to evoke their opinion about the Belgian culture. Mister Taha told me that I could shock them so I used opposites and extreme behavior. As an alternative I could spend my day with Laila but she said that her day would be too busy. Suddenly I had no plans to pass the day. I worked on my thesis to spend the day.
In the evening I was invited to a party of the University of
Haifa. The nephew of Laila picked me up. In his car were three other friends. One
Muslim and two Christians. They all study at the Universtity and speak Arabic.
It was nice to see that religion plays no rule for having a good time. At the
party, most of the Young people are
Jewish. Some of them wore a keppel but the major part wore very modern clothes.
I saw very shorts and skirts, tops, sexy dresses and a lot of bare shoulders.
There was not a sign of mutually conflict between the students. But Mahmood,
the nephew of Laila, told me that the Israelian bands can not sing in Arabic
even if that is the language of their songs. It’s so sad that even on this
event you can feel the hostility between the Jews and the other religions.
Today I visited Atlit, a small town close to Haifa. I saw
the ‘Chateau Pelerin’ built by the Crusaders. I wanted to go close to the ruins
but it wasn’t possible. The castle is surrounded with a fence. In Atlit there
is also a museum. It used to be a detainee camp (1930) to protect Palestine
from the Jewish immigrants. After World War II a large amount survivors of the
Holocaust came to Atlit. When you think about the situation now in Israel en
Palestine, the roles are reversed. Once were the Jewish people ‘locked up’ so
they can’t enter Palestine and now are the Palestians locked up in their small
area (West Bank and Gaza Stip).After Atlit I went to the Mount Carmel and visited the National Park. In 2010 was there a huge bushfire. Trees, shrubs, flowers, plants…were destroyed. People who lived close to the area were evacuated. Nations all over the World helped with fighting the fire. The damage is still visible: blackened trees and bald spots in the park. It will take the nature years to recover from this tragedie! During the bushfire 44 people died. They wanted to escape with a bus but they were stuck between two huge flames and they all died in that bus. The government built a monument for the fire victims. All their names are engraved in a rock and a picture of the bus was hung next to it. It’s a very sad story but there is one luminous point: to combat the fire the leaders of the Arab and Jewish community prayed together. For one moment they realised that religion isn’t the most important thing. In the First place we are all humans and they al wanted the same thing: to combat the fire…
I also went to Bet Oren because I’ve heard you can discover
the nature by horse. This riding school is also located in the Mount Carmel.
After the bushfire, a big part of the park was destroyed but this area with the
horses remained intact. It’s almost like a religious story. I rode horseback
for one hour and enjoyed the beautiful nature and the silent moments.
In the evening I wanted the work for school but Lailas
children were begging me to come with them to their grandmother. I said that I
will be there after I finished schoolwork but they didn’t take no as an answer.
Actually that habit, keep pushing even when people say no, is one of the rare
thing that my two host families have in common.
They offer you food and don’t agree when you say now and they don’t let
you study when they want to be in your company. Sometimes I feel angry because I
hate it to delay my schoolwork but here is it necessary to be flexible! So I
visited their grandmother and aunts. We dronk tea, ate fruit, watched the TV
show ‘Arabic got talent’ and played with the kids. This family is so modern, It
could be easely a West European family. Later in the evening Mahmood asked me for a drink and we went to a
bar at the beach. We talked about culture. When I compare his opinion with
Yasmine, it’s a huge difference. They are both Muslims but interpret their
religion in a different way. Mahmood still wants to be a good man but he don’t
strictly follow the rules. For example: Yasmine got engaged by the age of 20,
Mahmood believes in a relationship before the engagement. Maybe their is a connection between the place
you live (village or city) and the way you think (conservative or modern)?
No comments:
Post a Comment