Sunday, July 26, 2009

They hug with their eyes (Tuesday)

The railings of Chez Jenin have been given a new lease of life with a coat of black paint. All the windows of have been cleaned. The kitchen sink has plumbing so the water now drains away rather than falls on the floor. The front stoop of the building is now nearly level. The back yard is nearly clear and much of the building materials have moved inside the house. We’ve achieved such a lot today with the building work and I think Fakhry is quite happy with us. He let us finish early and go and see the Cinema, about four doors down from the guest house. It’s a bit of a wreck. They’ve gutted the building and ripped out all the old, decayed seats. At the moment it’s just a shell with a lot of pigeons, but the plans they have for it are superb. The old projectors from 1958 are still there and working, all they need is the renovation and they are good to go. The plan is to have the cinema operational by November this year and the official opening in April 2010.

Our being here has created such a buzz in the local community that we permanently have a band of young boys with us. I think they are on rotation or something as we seem to lose them throughout the day and gain others. One of the neighbours has been looking in on us throughout the last few days with her baby son and teenage son and waving at us. It was so nice to see the teenage boy join us today and join in the work. I think it’s better than doing nothing for them, and I guess that seeing a bunch of foreigners working to provide them with something has produced some sort of inspiration, whether that be interest, guilt or wanting to join in the fun. Last year we were told that our doing what we did reminded them of a lost culture. I don’t think it’s us doing the reminding this time, but there is certainly something we are doing which is making them want to feel involved.

The important thing is to not feel pity. They don’t want us to. This is their life and to pity it makes a mockery of the rich culture and sense of community they have, their victories, celebrations and day to day life. It doesn’t mean they are not grateful for what people do for them; you can see it in their eyes. Their eyes hug you so that it’s really very difficult to articulate what I think they feel, but it’s somewhere around gratefulness without being grateful. Perhaps it’s appreciation, respect almost. It’s nice to be on the receiving end for sure.

The curiosity has sometimes also been confusion. Women here don’t do hard labour let along walk around in shorts and t-shirts. Jenin is one of the most conservatively Muslim towns in Palestine, so much so that even if a man wears a vest top he gets raised eye-brows from the community. Despite the conservatism there is a very lovely level of affection. Talking to one of the local guys who has spent a lot of time with us, he pulled a hair out of my eye as we were speaking. It was such an intimate gesture that it shocked me a little at first. If a man did that to me when I was in Dubai I’d be a little freaked out by it, but here it was brotherly and with no sexual undertones whatsoever. Here I am, a western woman with liberal values whose culture readily accepts the baring of skin who is surprised by intimacy in a city with people who have a genuine warmth and affection for their brothers and sisters across the world but choose to be conservative about expressing their sexuality. It’s quite a refreshing realisation.

Surprise and treat of the day was a visit from Ismael of the film Heart of Jenin. He looks just as he did on the film, which should be no surprise. It was like having a rock star in the house. When you saw him you knew you knew him but couldn’t think quite where from, and then the double take as you realise where you know that face from.

Dinner turned into an evening of local song and dance followed by more international song and dance back at Chez Jenin. We got a sound system, which was so needed for the bar. Shimsham, Charleston and Swing all ensued to the quaffing of warm Taybeh beer and the laughter went long into the night.

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