Before I went to Jerusalem I took part in this Volunteer-information week. During the week I met up with Bodil skjøtt. She asked me if I wanted to help out with some teenage girls in Jeriko, in a project called Jesus house of Prayer.
I thought it sounded like an interesting opportunity and I agreed on helping out. Although at the time I had no idea that things in Israel is not always planned and I have had a lot of surprises already. They dont have the Danish mentality of planning, that takes a while to get used to for me personally. Why am I giving you this dribble? Because I found that there was some extra info I hadnt really counted into the equation.
On my first time in Jeriko - I was told that we would be having a meeting, in order that I could find out what they wanted from me. I thought it would be once a month, and then I had the idea it was only teenage girls we were working with.
But no, no no the "meeting" took place in the car back to Jeriko, and when I arrived in Jeriko the house was filled with kids in all ages- boys and girls. The only arabic I knew - came from my two first arabic lessons- and my arabic only extented to say: I am not from here, I am from Denmark, I live in Jerusalem. My name is etc. I couldn't even tell them how old I was - That was the first major challenge - language. Even if I only knew such a limited amount of Arabic I was very grateful for the little amount I knew. A fun factor is that most of the kids in Jeriko only reads English, so they have trouble speaking English and understanding it when being verbal. Therefore the only sentence they could say was: hallo - whats your name? A bit like me actually. Although they kept on asking me again and again: what is your name? Because they wanted to talk to me.
Then on my way back home to the Caspari flat, I realized they were expecting me to come every Saturday. After some days of reflexion I came to the conclusion that I would tell them, I would help out every fourteenth saturday, I thought one Saturday pr. week was a little too much for me.
Therefore I am now helping out in Jeriko: with kids from five to the age of fifteen, both male and female. It is always an energetic lot, but that is what you can expect if you put so many kids together in a small amount of space. It functions a bit like a day care center, the kids come to the house to have fun and play with the facilities in the place.
My second time there all the kids was to go to a local pool, it was touching to see and experience the joy of the kids about finally being able to go to a real life pool - Since it cost money. So for them it was a big thing to visit the pool. On this my second time, I suddenly found some reason in what I was doing, one of the younger girls was clinging on to me and wanted to swim with me all the time. When we had been swimming around for a while, one of the co-workers pulled me aside and told me that the girl had just lost her father. So for me being able to be there for this girl - made the whole situation worthwhile.
By for now.
Hej igen!
Inden jeg tog til Jerusalem deltog jeg i et voluntør kursus. I løbet af ugen mødtes jeg med Bodil Skjøtt. Hun spurgte mig, om jeg ville hjælpe med nogle teenage piger i Jeriko, i et projekt der hedder Jesus House of prayer.
Jeg syntes, det lød som en interessant mulighed, og jeg indvilligede i at hjælpe. Men på det tidspunkt havde jeg ingen idé om, at ting i Israel ikke er planlagt og jeg har allerede fået mig en masse overraskelser. De har ikke den danske planlægnings mentalitet. Det tog lidt tid at vænne mig til for mig personligt. Hvorfor skal du høre det nu? Fordi jeg fandt ud af at der var nogle ekstra informationer jeg havde glemt at tælle med ind i ligningen.
På min første tur til Jeriko - fik jeg at vide, at vi skulle have et møde, for at jeg kunne finde ud af, hvad de ville bruge mig til. Jeg troede, det ville være en gang om måneden, og så havde jeg den idé det kun var teenage piger vi arbejdede med.
Men nej, nej nej "mødet" fandt sted i bilen tilbage til Jeriko, og da jeg ankom, til Jjeriko var huset fyldt med børn i alle aldre-drenge og piger. Det eneste arabisk jeg kunne - kom fra mine to første arabisk lektioner- og dette var bla: jeg er ikke herfra, jeg er fra Danmark, jeg bor i Jerusalem - mit navn er osv. Jeg kunne ikke engang fortælle dem hvor gammel jeg var eller noget - det var den første store udfordring - sprog. Selvom jeg kun kendte sådan en begrænset mængde af Arabisk, var jeg meget taknemmelig for den lille smule, jeg besad. En sjov detalje er, at de fleste af børnene i Jeriko kun læser Engelsk, så de har svært ved at tale og forstå det verbalt. Den eneste sætning de kunne sige var: Hallo - Hvad hedder du? lidt ligesom mig faktisk. Selv om de blev ved med at spørge mig igen og igen: hvad er dit navn? Fordi de ønskede at tale med mig.
Så på min vej hjem til Caspari lejligheden- fandt jeg ud af, at de forventede at jeg kom hver lørdag. Efter nogle dages overvejelser kom jeg til den konklusion, at jeg ville fortælle dem, at jeg ville hjælpe ud hver fjortende lørdag, jeg fandt at en dag per uge var lidt for meget for mig.
Derfor hjælper jeg nu i Jeriko, med børn fra fem til en alder af femten, både piger og drenge. Det er altid en energisk gruppe, men det er hvad der kan forventes, hvis du placere så mange børn sammen i et begrænset område . Det fungerer lidt ligesom en daginstitution, børnene kommer til huset for at have det sjovt og lege med de faciliteter der er på stedet.
Min anden tur til huset, skulle alle børnene på tur til en lokal pool, det var rørende at se og opleve glæden ved børnene som endelig kunne komme til en vaskeægte pool - Det kostede nemlig penge, så for dem var det stort at besøge en pool. På denne min anden tur, fandt jeg en mening med det jeg lavede. En af de yngre piger klyngede sig til mig og ønskede at svømme med mig hele tiden. Da vi havde svømmer rundt i et stykke tid, vinkede en af medarbejderne mig til side og fortalte mig, at pigen lige havde mistet sin far. Så for mig at kunne være der for denne pige - gav arbejdet mening.
Farvel for denne gang.
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