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AEI-Open Windows News
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An
Exchange of Cultural Heritage |
The AEI-Open Windows
organized an exchange project to take place in
North Ireland in Kinder House. The Dutch
Institute (Stichting) Kinderhuose Noord Lerland
invited youngsters from Palestine for an
exchange project entitled "Sharing Stories: An
Exchange of Cultural Heritage", which aims at
widening horizons among Dutch, Palestinian and
Irish youngsters. The exchange project was for 1
week in the period between 17 – 25 August 2007.
There were 14 high school
youth group members and 2 leaders from the Arab
Educational Institute as well as four Irish
students of Down Academy DownPatrick CoDown, and
5 students from Gergoriuscollege Utrecht,
Holland.
The program was so exciting
and full of site seeing, social and fun
activities, and active workshops. There were
tours to so many places. For example, the
participants went by buses to
St. John's Point Lighthouse, where they were
dropped and then walked all the way back to
Killough. It was so nice especially the
walk by the sea however the weather started
raining so we decided to return. The whole group
was split into two smaller groups, which
resulted in the loss of one of the groups. As
one of the Palestinian participants said: "we
lost each other, and we were not able to find
out our way back ". Another complained about the
rainy weather and said: "I hope that we won't
get sick out of this bad weather". After a
while, they found a house and asked for help.
The house owners were very polite and helpful
especially when they knew that we were coming
form Bethlehem. They even offered us
transportation back to Kinder House in
Killough. The participants
found this activity fair to bad only because of
the bad weather and because almost all the
Palestinian group was left behind and eventually
were lost. However, Walle (Dutch participant)
had an opposite idea "it would have been a great
idea to split into two groups and made a kind of
a competition".
On another
day, we all went for a visit to Newcastle and
Tullymore Forest Park. It was so beautiful
because the weather was not that cold or rainy,
the stroll in the park was beautiful and above
all the ice-breaking games were so exciting and
active.
According
to the program, there was also a scheduled tour
to Castle Ward, where Walle (Dutch participant)
introduced the rest of the participants to a
Brazilian dance called "Capowara", the youths
enjoyed the walk around the castle.
In New
Castle at St. Patrick's Centre, there was a very
interesting workshop delivered by Mr. Sean O
Boail, conflict resolution trainer from the
Mediation Institute in Northern Ireland in
Belfast. Mr. Boail described the conflict
between the Catholics and the Protestants in
Northern Ireland and proved that it is not a
religious conflict at all but a conflict on land
(political one). He talked about the traditional
stories about the conflict and then he explained
and introduced several political factions with
different flags representing them. The
presentation was very interesting because it has
many similarities with the Israeli - Palestinian
conflict. Later there was a documentary film
about Saint Patrick, the patron of Ireland.
The film presented the story of this saint as
well as religious and historical sites connected
to him. With the high tech of LCD and the huge
wide screen, the participants felt as if they
were in the movie. Some of them said: "I thought
that I was there as part of the scenes….it felt
so real".
Before the
last day, the participants suggested to go for
swimming, and then they proposed to go for the
sea. Most of the people enjoyed it, especially
the Palestinians for the Israeli Occupation
deprives them from any sea access. "I felt free
running on the shore… I missed the sea".
There was
a visit to Belfast. All the participants had a
city tour using a sightseeing tour bus. All of
us sat on the top of the bus in order to have a
good view of the city. The bus went around the
city. There was a tour guide who talked about
every place we passed by. It was so interesting
because the tour covered the political,
economic, religious and historical places of
Belfast. Even the students said, "We got a
deeper understanding of the conflict" the scenes
were fascinating, especially when the group saw
some graffiti on the wall showing solidarity
with the Palestinians in their national struggle
for justice, freedom and peace.
In
addition to these tours and activities, there
were also workshops, which concentrated on
"Culture". There were three main workshops. The
first one was about "Presenting one's Cultural
Identity". This workshop was interesting for
the youths because they were asked to present
their cultural heritage and identity using
artistic means (sketch, drawings, singing,
dancing, etc.). The participants enjoyed it a
lot because they didn't have to talk much.
However, they had to think deeply about their
culture and its main aspects. For instance, the
Palestinians shed light on; occupation,
Christians and Moslems relations in Palestine
and the folkloric Palestinian dancing, while the
Dutch focused on freedom and liberty, trade,
geography especially the dikes, etc. (73%
said this workshop was very interesting, while
27% said the workshop was fair). As Alex (Dutch
participant) said: "we learnt a lot about each
other just by not doing too many
efforts….Palestinians are proud of their
country, even though it is not easy to live in".
and as Mo'tassim (Palestinian participant) said:
"we learned many things about Holland and the
Dutch people…freedom in Holland, free trade, and
many other things"
The second workshop entitled
"Painting on the Wall". It was a continuation to
the first workshop by helping the people to
present their cultural heritage using paintings
on a wall of one of the rooms in the Kinder
House. Two moderators were there for assistance.
The youth made their sketches on papers and then
they painted on the wall. Most of the youth
(87%) enjoyed this workshop however only few
(13%) did not enjoy it because they did not like
painting at all. At the end, we had very
beautiful paintings and graffiti on the wall.
All were impressed.
The last workshop was about
the "Culture of the Youth". This workshop
highlighted certain aspects of this youth
culture like (freedom, duties, education, sex,
alcohol and drugs, marriage, love, relations
with parents, religion, etc.). The youth enjoyed
this workshop because, first of all, it took
place on a remnant of an old building by the
beach, so the atmosphere was so beautiful. In
addition, the subtopics were so connected to the
youths that they communicated so easily and
frankly, as Vera (Palestinian participant) said:
"we learned about youth life in Holland and in
Palestine in a very relaxed and interesting
way". On the other hand, it was interesting
seeing these youths comparing one another
culture and trying to present their own culture
to the other group. The entire group confirmed
the most interesting and exciting workshop in
the whole project.
Regarding the organizational
matters; discipline, control and punctuality,
the participants showed satisfaction as Motasim
declared, "We learned how to respect time".
According to 89%, the schedule was relaxed and
flexible, while for only 11% the schedule was
tight. For example, George (Palestinian
participant) complained: "there wasn't enough
time for shopping or for relaxation, but the
schedule was good". However, Walle expected to
have the schedule distributed on the first day
and the responsibilities concerning washing the
dishes and cleaning up). Concerning the
ice-breaking games, they aimed at bringing
people together and having fun at the same time.
Almost the participants enjoyed, these games.
The participants were
satisfied with the food and the accommodation.
For example, the food was very good as all the
participants admitted. However, some said that
it was not enough in some of the excursions. On
the other hand, they were satisfied with the
location and the facilities. As Toby (Dutch
participant)said: "the location was near the
sea, beautiful and very peaceful. The place was
good with its facilities especially the
backyard". On the other hand some of the
Palestinian youth participants complained about
the crowded dorms especially the Palestinian
boys, as Mohammed said: "we were 10 boys in one
room,. Sometimes I felt there is not enough
oxygen".
The Palestinian youth group
used to sit for a debriefing session almost
every day. As Laurine (Palestinian participant)
said: "we learned how to speak openly and solve
our problems peacefully face to face". While
the Dutch youth sat only few times as Walle
said: "Saskia used to meeting with us informally
for evaluation". On the other hand, George
(Palestinian participants) and the other
Palestinian youths expressed their contentment
and joy for the fatherly, friendly and caring of
Fuad and Anton
The good thing was that there
were no problems because of cultural
differences. Nevertheless, Mikie felt
overwhelmed with the huge responsibilities of
cooking, laundry and other things for 21
persons, which we all appreciated and thanked
her for. However, she could not handle it any
more so she blew up.
On the organizational and
coordination and implementation levels; Fuad and
Anton felt that there was lack of joint daily
debriefing sessions among the Palestinian and
the Dutch groups' leaders concerning; daily
schedule, implementation, cultural problems,
food, communication, identity and roles of each
of them.
In general, the entire group members enjoyed so
much the unique and rich new experience. They
also promised to keep contacts via emails, and
chatting, and decided to exchange email
addresses. In addition to this, they learned
many new concepts and skills, explored new
places, and respected different cultures and
identities. |
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