WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU REALLY DOING IN ISRAEL?
Well, here's a snapshot!
I. Hasan Bhatti, Music Advisor/Organizer for the Jerusalem Youth Chorus
II. Hasan Bhatti, English Teacher and Volunteer for Yad B'Yad
III. Hasan Bhatti, One Time Volunteer/Barterer for Al Jebel Afterschool, and The Spoken Word Poem I Wrote About It
IV. Hasan Bhatti, Searching for One More Placement
I. Hasan Bhatti, Volunteer for the Jerusalem Youth Chorus
As part of the program I'm on, each of us has our own individual placements that we work with for two to three days a week. As I had indicated on my fundraising pages, I wanted to utilize ultimate and vocal music as a way to bring youth and Israeli, Palestinian, Israeli-Arab, etc. together.
So fancy that when I found the Jerusalem Youth Chorus run out of the Jerusalem International YMCA (whose plaque indicates its intention quite clearly as peace and reconciliation through communal programming) that brought Israelis, Palestinians, and immigrants together through vocal music.
And fancy that when I, the vocal musician + community organizer + youth educator, decided I'd like this to be one of my placements. Fortunately they had a volunteer spot open, and so I jumped right in.
Micah Hendler, the person who started and now directs the chorus, was a Seeds of Peace camper and counselor. He found his calling in high school and college through vocal music. "It's just the way that I found myself relating to other people in the world." The chorus was a project he did as part of his independent study thesis at Yale and he decided shortly afterward that if he had spent this much time thinking about this idea, he had better put it into action. After a skype call with the International YMCA, the CEO said he loved the idea and thus the Jerusalem Youth Chorus was born.
I went to my first day two Mondays back where I got to know Micah and sat in on the rehearsals from 4:30 to 8.
One might say that this is a very long time to sing even for stimulated high schoolers, but the members don't actually sing the whole time. The group devotes the first 45 minutes to rehearsing followed by a 15 minute break. For the next hour and a half they enter dialogue groups conducted in Hebrew and Arabic covering issues in Jerusalem that affect each side. After another 15 minute break, Micah takes them again for the final 45 minutes of rehearsals.
Three of the guys in the chorus speak only Arabic while everyone else can speak Hebrew and English. Micah speaks Arabic pretty fluently, but this doesn't help much of the other singers. There is little integration between the two just because of the raw language barrier, but when they sing, they smile, laugh and high five one another freely without need to speak.
This is the beauty of music that needs no language to speak but the manipulation of vocal chords.
Micah has also become a kind of mentor-friend as well along the way. After all, he graduated in 2012 and started this chorus literally the week afterwards, so our ages are very . We've drank scotch on his porch while munching on burgers, we discuss the dynamics and difficulties facing the chorus, and we both were directors and arrangers of vocal music during our high school and college career. He's asked me for advice on music matters, arrangements, and community organizing for the chorus.
Given my background and experience, I'm really excited to put these skills to the test with a very passionate and driven individual :-)
Oh, and tomorrow (2/10/14) I'll be going to Tel Aviv with the chorus while they sing with Voices for Peace, another Palestinian/Israeli chorus in Tel Aviv.
.......... I don't know if you can tell or not. But I REALLY like this placement :-).
II. Hasan Bhatti, Volunteer for Yad B'yad
More on this as my duties come into fruition.
But I've spent some time here, and the teachers are of the kindest I've met, the students just as warm as those back in the states (except they speak more esoteric, and in my opinion, beautiful languages interchangeably).
I've worked so far with 2nd graders, 4th graders, and 9th graders. The goal is to start doing poetry/creative performance with them. We'll see if this happens.
III. Hasan Bhatti, One Time Volunteer/Barterer for Al Jebel Afterschool, and The Spoken Word Poem I Wrote About It
Two Wednesdays back, I went with Mischa and David to what we thought was going to be a permanent volunteer placement for us (I'll explain at the end of the post): an afterschool for Bedouin children on the outskirts of Al-Azeriya.
Some background: Al-Azeriya is a Palestinian Arab village outside of Abu Dis on the West Bank side of the security fence/separation barrier (look at this map to see where it is in relation to the wall; notice that it's almost completely surrounded... and in the distant future, per the plans for the wall, it will be almost completely surrounded). Everyone here does not have Jerusalem citizenship, thus they have a very hard time crossing the wall unless they have a really really good excuse go over in order to get a permit from the Israeli government (which itself is a long long process).
The stories about Palestinians being delayed at or inhibited by checkpoints is a fact that these folks have to deal with on a day to day basis.
Al-Azeriya I have no good credible history on, nor have I spoken with anyone there. So I'm sorry to the history buffs; the history will not be shared this time around...
And hooray for everyone else, who are tired of my historical rampages (but, honestly, in order to understand this conflict... you need to at least start to look at history)
Al-Jebel literally means "The Hill" in Arabic. This is an area that is almost fully made up of displaced and relocated Arab Bedouins. These are people who have been kicked out of their ordinary stomping grounds that were located in Area C, which is completely controlled by the Israeli for security and governmental use (where no one but Jewish Israelis are allowed except for that 1% of the land in Area C that Israel has designated to Palestinians. Yes folks. This is a fact on the ground. See here for details).
But more on Area C soon. This is just the story concerning Bedouin Arabs.
You always hear about Bedouins being forced from their land because of governmental or security needs, but you do not hear about where they end up. Al-Jebel is where a portion of them ended up. This place was filled with permanent structures, rocks, excess metal, rusty scissors, random auto parts, toxic waste next to a water jug, llamas, half constructed houses, piles of rubble, rusted nails, limited resources....
and at the same time, they had homes, an endless supply of freshly baked pita, and a community, all against a breathtaking view of the West Bank hills.
See my videos here and here for a little more background on Al-Azariya and the Bedouins that live there.
Our task for the afternoon was to entertain the local boys in Al-Jebel for the afternoon. We had brought with us a soccer ball and a tennis ball as our tribute, and an excitement to work at a place across the wall.
As soon as we got there, we realized this boys' program was a much less structured than we had originally though. The boys were not located at the center; they were all over the place.
When they saw us coming through, this is what occurred: they looked at the two balls, our American bodies, and beckoned us over with excited Arabic phrases. We all interacted with each other quite nicely for a time. We played with them in a secluded courtyard that was all rocks and dirt (but had two soccer goals, so it was enough), we introduced ourselves and talked about what we were doing there, and we handed out sweets we had gotten for them.
And then, things started to get frazzled
Two of them began to claim these balls as their own. And good thing none of us knew enough Arabic to barter.
This was going to be interesting.
And it was very interesting. We all were there with a couple of phrases of each others language. So we communicated in the ways that we could (gestures, communicating as much as we could with our limited knowledge... the random giving of candy) and it seemed to work ok, except the two kids who occupied our tennis ball and soccer ball were not letting up.
So we ignored them, because we were going to be there for another hour. Later on we got them to cooperate and
In that time, we did different odds and ends with them.
#1: we pulled out our technology (ipods/iphones/ipads) and started to show them different applications. They were so intrigued by all of this. This was not something they wanted to steal, but something they wanted to use. I was happy to see that they respected us that much.
#2: Each of the smaller boys wanted us to lift them up and twirl them in the air. So we did.
Except, everyone wanted it... so we both got quite a workout and also got quite a back ache.
#3: They each started to ask us to chase them.
This #3 was probably my favorite.
The game went like this: I ran and ran until I caught them. Many of these kids are not speedy, but they are quick as gazelles, which puts my quickness to absolute shame.
But there was something so beautiful about this game: it came in the context of Al-Azeriya, of Al-Jebel, and of Bedouins, all of which are under a bind in some sort of freedom, yet in those moments of running just to run, we did just that: run.
And that in there was freedom.
I wrote a poem about these moments of feeling free while we ran in a place that is ridden with limits, and performed it at a spoken word evening the next night. Here's the poem in its entirety.
When we came back from our time there, we were exhausted, but in a completely positive way. We were excited to go back...
But unfortunately we will not be going back, at least for the short term. The director has gotten concerns from local families about men they do not know working with their children, which I can definitely understand. It's a culture that does not trust outsiders because of what they have been through, and for me it's
But it still left me sad, because all of us in that moment had a really fun time.
What is most sad about this situation is that we had plans to make a structure and start to teach them English slowly through activity. Perhaps this will change soon. I'm sincerely hoping that it will
so that we can fumble, laugh, and learn from each other like we did that day.
IV. Hasan Bhatti, Searching for One More Placement
Because Al-Jebel hasn't worked out, I'm in the market for another placement. Preferably it'll be an Arabic speaking placement. We shall see. Hopefully it shall work out!
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