27 July 2007
Friday is the day of the mosque or holy day so it is a day of rest. Therefore I rested while the military made several quick excursions into the camp.I have been thinking about several topics:
1. What does it mean to be priveleged?
2. What does community mean around the world?
3. How can I ever come to understand even a part of what it is like to live in a refugee camp?
4. What does occupation mean?
Many of these are topics that I contemplated while I lived in Guatemala and I find myself drawing some strong comparisons already to the struggle of indigenous populations in these two areas. It's hard not to walk down the narrow streets of refugee camp and not see the streets of Guatemala, to look at the houses packed together like sardines where I have been told sometimes 40-50 people live and not feel the difficulties faced by families forced to live this way.
In the evening a large group of the men from Ibdaa stopped by Yajya's (I know my spelling his name is terrible) family house in Beit Sahur. Yajya is one of the best basketball players on the Ibdaa team. His uncle passed away this week and so, just like on the first night I was here, we went to sit and visit with the family in their mourning. On the way back to the car we stopped at the home of one of the 256 former Palestinian prisoners who were released by Israel earlier this month. Again, we sat with the family and shared a cup of Arabic coffee. These two small encounters captured both a part of the community aspect here and the realities of life...
I walked the sideline of my first basketball game as an assistant coach last night, a game that meant virtually nothing to the Ibdaa team since they were already through to the next round. Most of Ibdaa's main players, including Yajya and Iad (whose story is incredible in itself and I will try and write it down soon) who both play on the Palestinian national team did not play. Down 19 at some point in the third quarter and playing with many players who the coach, Asam, told me had never seen this much playing time in a game, the team staged a furious comeback and were down by only 4 with 14 seconds left and on the free throw line for 2 shots. They made 1 of 2 and ended up losing 77-72...One of the incredible things about this current basketball tournament is that there is a group of players from the United States who are here and playing with each team in the tournament to be in solidarity. Each Palestinian team has 1 or 2 American players. Again, sports can transcend language and cultural barriers and allow people from all over the world to come together!
Later back at Ibdaa we all sat having dinner and talked in broken English or short Arabic phrases (when the players were not jabbering about the game in Arabic), laughing and sharing a meal together...It is in these small moments with laughter that again we can share time together...