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Thea Hesselink: They
are Proud, I am Proud
July 19, 2008 
Like last year, Thea
Hesselink has been giving workshops
at AEI’s summer school of
communication. This time she helped
young girls to do painting
activities. And she guided AEI’s
women’s group in making wall
tapestries of pieces of cloth. The
products of her courses were shown
on the final celebration of the
summer school. She personally stuck
a selection of children paintings on
the military watchtower near
Rachel’s Tomb.
The women liked the
course. Thea: “They told me that
their spirit becomes ‘fresh’. They
feel distracted from their daily
concerns, so feel better. They
brought their own pieces of cloth.
The women were afterwards proud of
what they made. I told them: ‘I am
also proud’.”
I watch Thea working
with children of preparatory level
(12-14 years). She gives them forms
to color in. Spread out over the
large tables is a series of elephant
paintings which the children
especially liked. Thea: “They find
it difficult to develop something
from an empty paper. Maybe this is
less creative but the good thing is
that the end result is always
satisfactory for the children. You
see them smiling at the end. On the
other hand, they really have to
learn how to finish their drawings.
At school, they haven’t learned how
to do that. Also, they should clean
the room at the end of the workshop.
Who else should do that? And they
have to learn to be careful with the
paper, and finish their paint.” Thea
can be critical but always in a
friendly and calm spirit. Together
we talk about Dutch frugality (zuinigheid).
While working, Thea
once in a while talks in Dutch with
the children, and says “Goed zo!”
(very good). The kids smile and
proudly exercise some Dutch words.
The workshop’s atmosphere is
informal and friendly. Thea is a
little upset after a Palestinian
facilitator calms down a youth
perhaps a bit too strongly. The
child looks intimidated. “That was
not needed. The kid is very
expressive in his painting. It’s
just that he is also sometimes a bit
too expressive in his behaviour.”
The girls, she says, are very
girlish and giggle a lot. No
problem.
At the end of the
workshop the children proudly show
their drawings in front of the
camera. Thea, who is near the end of
her sixties, is looking foreword for
a good rest in the Carmel’s
Monastery where she has a quiet
place to relax. In the morning she
walks through the central street of
Bethlehem which she loves walking
through because there are so many
colorful people and things to see.
As I observed myself, she has
developed a beautiful collection of
Bethlehem photos Standing out are
her portraits and pictures of the
market.
She knows everybody
at the school and everybody knows
her. A woman enters, “How are you
Thea?” But at the end Thea has had
it and says, “And now I stop
talking!”
Toine van Teeffelen |
