Thu 2.6.11, Morning

Road 317
 

In front of Carmel, between the settlement and the road, new olive tree saplings have been planted.  Undoubtedly this is a way to ‘expand’ the area of the settlement.  We had planned to pick up Eid at Um-El-Hir and continue to Hashem-El-Daraj but immediately after he got into the van, he spotted a police vehicle on the land of Um-El-Hir.  He was tense and said he needed to leave and find out what was happening.  We spoke to him on our return from Huda’s preschool and he told us that the settlers had also planted olive tree saplings on an area behind the settlement which is land that belongs to his family.  The settlers don’t want the shepherds coming into the planted area and for this reason, they called in the police.  This time, the shepherds decided not to enter into a conflict with the settlers and avoided the contested area.

Gan Huda

Clear progress is being made in the building of the new preschool.  The walls have already been constructed.

As always, it was a pleasure to visit the preschool.  There is now a routine to our biweekly activities which serve to strengthen our relationship with Huda and also make clear that our purpose is to provide basic resources that Israel and the Palestinian Authority do not provide to the inhabitants of area C.

Today we arrived later than usual and found fewer children than anticipated in the preschool.  A number of them had already left for home accompanied by older siblings who finished school early because it is the end-of-year exam period. 

Our routine begins with the shaking of the hands of the children. Without Eid, Mohamed and Huda were the only Arab speakers.  Today’s activities were social games.

Social games: We had work sheets describing the games.  The work sheets came from the Jewish-Arab preschool in Beer Sheva and were given to us by Suha.  The description of each game was in Hebrew and Arabic which allowed us to work together with Huda on demonstrating the games to the children.  We began with “Herzl says” (Simon says) which we changed to “Ahmed says”.  Everyone participated.  There was much laughter mainly because of the funny movements that we and the children made. It was clear that this was the first time the children had played this game and they had some difficulty understanding the rules.  It is a game that we should repeat in future visits.  The next games were ‘sea-land’ and ‘hot-cold’.  The children found these games easier to understand.  Judy (a psychologist) explained the important role these games play in the development of early self-regulatory skills.

During our play with the children, two men and a woman, apparently from UNRWA, came into the preschool.  Huda had invited them so that they could meet us.  We talked with them for a short while.  The woman is a preschool educational supervisor in the area.  Huda proudly pointed out the art work the children did during our visit two weeks ago – rocks painted with finger paint.  It is too bad there are no shelves on which to display the children’s art work.  The rocks are being kept in an open box on the floor.  We talked with the visitors about the possibility of having a summer camp for the children.  They promised their support for such an undertaking but it is not clear how they will do so.

We arrived late today so that we would be able to stay after the children left in order to talk to Huda.  We also brought supplies for the preschool which Suha selected and bought.  She bought children’s books in Arabic and also supplies for art activities.  Suha and Huda talked on the phone and together decided on a list of supplies needed for the preschool.  We helped Huda organize a place for the supplies in the toy closet which meant clearing out toys that were not yet age appropriate for the children.  The books take up more than one shelf and it was clear that Huda was please with the small library of book.

End-of-year party: In another two weeks, the school year ends for the children.  We suggested a party to end the year and to invite mothers to the party.  We need to think about the activities for the party – creative activities for the mothers and children together?  Naturally, there will be a need for refreshments.  Huda said she would be happy to have guests come to the party.