Meetings with women in Jurish

Bella's report

Sara and I continued with the English lessons and Yoga during all the meetings with the women and the young girls, even during Ramadan and the war, except on 27/7, when there were demonstrations around the village and the director of the womens' center was anxious about our safety.  She called and asked that we not come at that time.

Fewer women took part during this period, around 6-9 as an average at each lesson (probably because of Ramadan).  However, they come with a lot of motivation and enthusiasm to meet, to study English and practice Yoga.

In English, we reviewed the previous lesson, and added new vocabulary, verb tenses and did new exercises, including writing and conversational dialogues between the students, short stories about themselves, e.g. what they had done at the end of Ramadan, on Id el Fitr.

I told the women that I would soon be going to a conference abroad and, instead of me, Shosh K. would be teaching them​.  I promised to return by the end of September.  At the end, we celebrated with chocolate and more chatting in English.  

I think that at the beginning of the school year, when the young women return to school, we should consider changing the time of the lessons to the late afternoon.

Sara's report

The women really enjoy the Yoga lessons.  We practice breathing, movement, their body awareness, and encourage feelings of self-love, and love of others, of the family and even those whose are not nice to them...The meetings take place in a good very friendly atmosphere.  According to their reports, they also practice at home what we learned in the lessons.

During the trip to Jurish, we didn't see any unusual security forces on the road, not even at Tapuah junction.  There were also not long lines at the checkpoint.  As we know, the entrance to Jurish is blocked with large boulders which the army put in place,and also the side road, which was captured and blocked by the residents 2 months ago, is still blocked and forces anyone who wants to get to the village to travel by a circular detour, by way of Kusra.