Editor’s note: EPF PIN’s education work group and friends were in Gaza 27-29 April. Harry Gunkel reflects on one day trip.
"I am so proud to be Palestinian"
"Saed" is speaking. He is 23 years old, married, and is driving us to some project sites we are visiting in Gaza. Saed's English is very good. He studied a little in school but mostly taught himself from movies and music. (He loves action movies, Vin Diesel etc). His father is a physician in Gaza.
We stop first at a school where safe drinking water access has been provided. Access to safe water, or any water, is one of the two biggest problems here in Gaza. The other is the thousands of homes destroyed in the bombings last summer and the lack of rebuilding (more about that in a later post). It's recess time when we step into the schoolyard and we are mobbed by hundreds of smiling friendly children who just want to greet us and shake hands, ask our names and be near us. None of us has ever experienced anything quite like this before. It is overpoweringly moving but also heart-wrenching because we realize we are only there because it's noteworthy that these children have access to safe water. At least while they are at school. What about when they go home and what about all the other thousands who don't?
Next we visit a center near Khan Younis in the south where some of the most devastating attacks occurred. We stop in on a Play to Heal session. In a small damaged building (everything here is damaged), we see several concurrent sessions for children. Sports and active games; art; drama; and storytelling. The children are 6-12 years old. While they are busy, their mothers are being attended to to address their psychosocial needs and concerns. We are able to speak with the mothers a little. They tell us of their struggles because their children are withdrawn, not doing well in school, having nightmares, incontinent and constantly afraid. We notice some children are participating in the activities but some are only within themselves. A lot more time will be needed for them.
On the way to that project, we become lost a bit and find ourselves in the No-Go area, the area within Gaza but close to the border with Israel that is forbidden to enter. It's hard to know when you are there because it constantly changes without notice or warning. Someone says it is dangerous and we could be shot or get missiled. I wondered - what if we were hurt or killed because of this. Would you even know? Would it be reported as attacks on "militants" who came too close to the "security barrier"? This is life for people here.
Toward the end of our time with "Saed" he says "I love Gaza, I will never leave it." We arrive back to the hotel and we exchange contact information with "Saed". He is one of many new friends we made here.
I just happened to read today that the British novelist John Fowles called war a kind of psychosis that occurs when people are not able to recognize relationships. During these days, that seems particularly apt to me. There are people in the world who want to bomb and destroy this place because they cannot recognize that there are people here to have relationships with. It is a place with people who want to be free. That's all.
I cannot bear the thought, but I know it is more than likely that there will be war and bombing here again, and perhaps soon. I am afraid that some of our new friends or their families might be hurt or killed, or their homes or lives destroyed. Why? They are people who want to work and go to school and get married and have families and visit Paris and hear birds in the morning, not bombs.
We are with you, dear friends of Gaza, and will continue to tell your stories.
