from ramallah to abud and north to salfit - (uni)cycles of violence
another building site of a changing room with open but barred windows and plaster covered allsurfaces. every child from the area was there it was baking hot as the show started at 3pm - the weather has turned noticeably in the last few days and the blonder clowns especially are starting to suffer. The show was really good although it ended in chaos - we had to hold back the kids with brooms at the end, as we grabbed our props and ran - we had a juggling ball and a hat half inched (these children are fast cos we are all pretty on the case of protecting our kit from fagins kids!) the hat was returned just as we were leaving, obviously not cool enough. A little bit of an in+out gig but we did stay for about an hour afterwards turning aggressive interactions into more playful ones, helping to dish out winterwear presents??? and chatting. Good fun but we were back on the road by 530pm.
We arrived at Salfit an hour later, to meet a really good friend who introduced us to many local people at the local PAC office. We had a wicked chat about why we & they hoped we were there - bringing play laughter fun magic to kids who are talking hardcore politics when they are 5 or 6, showing them strangers are not always people to hate+fear, that guns arent the only toys ..... Went for a walk through the streets - usual chaos, magic, unicycles, issues in the street - meeting 'Bobs' in different shops and houses all around town.....this is why we are here in a nutshell - to help the people striving to find positive ways forward for their communities, to bring our energies to help their voices and hands to rise above the voices + hands of hate, fear and reaction. This is true in all communities both sides of the wall of seperation. Straightaway this was illustrated - as we were on our way from drinking coffee at the insurance shop to the cafe we were finally going to eat in. A big group of kids had been congregated around the door the whole time we were in the shop, we had been showing bits of magic foolery and banter, and 'Bob' the best friend of our friend who brought us to Salfit, (and a man who i know will always be my friend and in my heart) had been on the door and very patient and cool with these cheeky lairy boys. On the way to the cafe i was having to be firm but gentle with one boy of 10 or 11, (the town hyperactive 'naughty' kid) to tell him i would teach him unicycle the next day and right now he needed to let go of it - nothing particularly unusual this happens in every workshop i do everywhere! the next second a man in his 50s (who had just been sat in the room as we talked about breaking cycles of violence) flies across the front of me and punches this kid really hard in the head and kicks him in the stomach! what the fuck? im just gobsmacked - so sudden and disproportionate - i grab him shove him away up the road with a mouthful of grrrrrrr!!! and turn back to see a young boy with tears shining in his eyes, a throbbing head and a cocky smile trying to sit on his face as he tries to save face and big himself up in front of his mates! i know this boy, i have been him b4. After he has shouted abuse up the street and run away from me expecting more conflict with me - i manage to crouch down with him and communicate - look this is why you should listen when i try to talk with you, this man and his violence is not me or my way, he is a dick, but you dont want to be like him either, chill, listen, i will teach you this tomorrow, dont react, i know your head hurts i can see it swelling - im sorry - we came as close to hugging as he could manage. and with a heavy heart i went to tell my friend what happened. he was sorry and angry, but said simply this is why i asked you to come here! very true. that night and the next morning 'Bob' got many phonecalls from the community - people asking what he was doing bringing such freaks here, people saying thankyou for bringing such freaks here and people concerned about their children going so crazy on the street at 9pm. we had a lovely meal, did more magic - the people were seeing magic everywhere - the waiter was convinced i had made a fish appear in the bottle of water, and that id drunk it - and wanted me to make it reappear. he wouldnt take no for an answer and was still on this trip the next day. We stayed the night in a community centre (funded and run by the scandinavian evangelical alliance churches) . over the meal i asked the dutch couple who run it whether they kept their religion out of their development work??? 'of course' the guy answered 'we have to or we would get burnt down!' good - pretty simple when its spelt out in black&white innit? This area is full on - settlements everywhere, land and water stolen by the settlements and the wall, olive trees destroyed by the wall, the water that isnt stolen been poisoned and turned black by the settlements industrial waste, all the issues inherent in traditional muslim countryside life, israeli soldiers coming in to assert their control several times most weeks - driving into the school playground (where we did a chaoticl show the nextday) to provoke a reaction - the same 'bobs' who are trying to break the cycles of violence - are at the school when the soldiers come, helping to prevent the children reacting to the soldiers, keeping them inside, asking them not to throw stones, leading them to walkout of school and go home to defuse these situations Many people here (including children) have been killed by the israeli defence force. hopefully (inshallah) we are helping to be spanners in the works of these cycles................ Now i am writing this locked inside the community centre's metal shuttered computer room, (in case the soldiers come) where 'bobs' friend 'bob' teaches english and computer skills on the 10 netted up computers to the local kids, organising as many international virtual friendships as possible to help burst this bubble so the kids get a diversity of interactions+information+ideas ..... if you are interested in being involved in this project or know projects who might be please get in touch - this is far future work - really important mattboomchucka@yahoo.co.uk xxx
Bless the bobs!