Qira

Kira, meetings with women, young girls and children

Michal reports:

It has been four weeks since Galia and I, Michal, are partners.

Galia teaches yoga to about 8-10 women.I work with them on handicraft, knitting, painting etc. During these weeks we have witnessed a very nice cooperation between all of us. Almost all of the women come to the meetings.

After the kisses and the greetings the women form two groups, to exercise yoga. At the same time I work with them on different kinds of handicraft. The women and I brought material and white blouses, and I taught them to draw and to decorate the blouses and the material with my textile colors.The excitement was great.

With Galia's bit of Arabic we communicate much better than in the past, which brings us much closer. Suddenly everything flows. A bit of English helps as well. At one of the meetings I brought with me stuffed grape leaves, which immediately excited the cooks, who wanted to prove that they know better. Yesterday each one brought a different dish. We ate and drank and enjoyed ourselves very much.Galia and I promised to bring our own dishes for the next meeting (I still don't know what in fact is our own? Perhaps a pie a la francaise…)

The children have already begun their holidays. The girls arrive, join the yoga class, and draw as well.

Small brothers and sisters join in excitedly.

After a few meetings which dragged on heavily, we gained considerable headway.

We leave the women's club, not before we hug everybody.

Galia reports:

I began the activity in the village full of curiosity and excitement, but with some misgivings too: I am such a novice, completely new at MachsomWatch, and the whole yoga affair happened by pure chance. I am not really a yoga instructor, I just practice it. I have never given a lesson, and the very idea of giving a physical lesson caused me much tension. I knew that the girls of the village had worked with Sally-Anne Friedland. Entering the big shoes of an illustrious dancer and real professional frightened me… Who knows what expectations the village girls might have…

The fact that one relies on my knowledge of Arabic only caused me more tension. I knew that the literary Arabic which I learned at the university years ago, plus childhood memories of the Arabic film of Friday afternoons were not really a solid basis for free communication. The wish to communicate was enormous, but the capability…

In fact, at the village, the fears have dissolved already at the first meeting and since then even more each time.

I found open-minded women, receptive and warm. They are ready to accept my broken Arabic and appreciate the effort itself. I began bringing a notebook and try to learn something new each time. I sometimes perceive that they laugh at me a bit… but kindly. Some have a bit of knowledge in English, and so, between the broken languages, we form relationships which become closer and closer. I try to remember the names, attach names to faces, and learn also the name of their daughters who come with them, so that they aren’t "the women of the village of Kira" but rather Najah and Hayat and Amira and Kriman – each with her particular world…

As for yoga – I came to understand that "yoga" is, after all, a heading. Nobody expects from me to perform twists like an Indian guru or to stand on my hands. The women just long for a bit of physical activity, for "quality time" with themselves and their bodies. We do moderate physical exercises and I try to match it to their abilities. To see the change they undergo when they enter the tiny room – how, after the blinds are pulled down (of course) they remove the long dresses and the head gear and stand on mattresses in long pants and t- shirts, with glowing eyes…. This is worth everything.

I am still curious to see where all this is leading to. I know that the reality is fragile, that the lines are narrow… I hope with all my heart that a real friendship and a courageous relationship between us and the women of the village will develop, but am aware of the possibility that the violence around us might tear this delicate fancywork with the flash of a knife…

Let us pass this summer in peace and quiet…  And a big thank you to Michal who has accepted me quickly and naturally, and who collects me every week from HaKfar Ha'Yarok interchange and lets me feel at home.

These are my impressions from my first month and a half at MachsomWatch.