Blog #5 Day Four at Kara Tepe

Blog #5
Day Four at Kara Tepe

Note:  These three photos are stock photos of Kara Tepe, which I found online.  As you know, we cannot take photos of Kara Tepe, especially any with residents in them, in order to protect and keep the residents safe.  These images will give you some idea of what Kara Tepe looks like visually...  

Gentle Reader,

Kaleemera!  Salam!

Woke very early today, so I walked down to the Carpe Diem shop to borrow their wifi and eat a little breakfast...

I bought some bread and jam the other day, and wrote this poem last night as I was enjoying the snack:

Ode to Apricots

I have decided
I want to bathe

in a vat of Miral Greek jam.
sweet honest smell of apricot

in the bend of my neck
behind the lobes of my ears

in the folds beneath my breasts
under the soft slope of my buttocks.

I tasted an apricot, fresh
almost forty years ago

the farmer's garden hands
offered the apricot to me

from a tree in California
on a hazy desert May morning

a sun fire from his hands to mine
apricot liquid light jitterbugging on my tongue.

                                       -Marianne

Just to backtrack for a moment...
When describing the Women's Dance Party we had on Wednesday night, I forgot to mention that one of the most memorable visuals was an old Mama, beautiful hijab around her face, dancing full energy to Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off."  Oh yeah...!!!

Highlights from Thursday, April 19:

1.  With each day, I run into more and more folks that we have worked with in The Shop to find clothes and shoes.  Such a joy to see the children, especially, point to a shirt I helped pick out with them and then smile.

2.  I spent some time at the Moon Kitchen this afternoon.  There are resident volunteers in charge of the kitchen, but we help out by going to the Isoboxes and telling the women that a cooking station has opened for them.  There is always a long line of women at the door to the kitchen a little before noon. Many have already chopped vegetables and are ready to cook, others chop at the kitchens.  The dishes were similar in ingredients and spices, and I think I can now cook a version of this Syrian dish when I am at home.

Here's the basics, if you'd like to try it, too!

lots of safflower oil
saute sliced eggplant
add purple onion
add shredded carrots
add many quartered tomatoes
fresh garlic
tumeric
cinnamon
salt
small amt of tomato paste


Let all simmer.  The smell is amazing!!  Stir into cooked rice.  Ready to eat!!!  One of the women offered me a heaping  spoonful.  Delicious! Excellent vegetarian/vegan dish.

3.  Few showed at the Cookies and Conversation informal English today, so I had a little time to visit the music buildings.  First, I participated in the percussion class.  There were about ten children in thee room, ages under one to about 12.  Mostly boys, but a few girls, too.  On the floor, an approximately 7 month old baby sat with a stick with bells on it, making his own music and rocking happily back and forth.  The teacher was showing the students how to strike the center of the drum with little pressure, then how to add the other beats on the perimeter of the drum.  He instructed everyone to just "relax" and play soft together.  That worked for a few rounds of four, but them many of the children improvised their own beats.  "Silence" then "begin" over and over, occasionally all playing the same rhythm.  I admired the patience and gentle guiding of the instructor -- as well as his obvious passion for drumming!

The teacher sat next to the young deaf boy, the one I mentioned was sitting next to me at the Clown Show.  This activity appealed to this child, knowing he could feel the vibrations as the teacher guided him both  tactically and visually.  Smiles all around.

After the percussion class, a young girl pulled me into the guitar class.  She wanted me to see what they were learning.  The instructor had an adult guitar on hand, which she quickly tuned and gave to me to play.  I know a few chords, mostly from long ago, and that's about it for my guitar proficiency.  This class follows a method that doesn't involve note reading or letters.  Everything is done by numbers.  The strings of the guitar are drawn on the board, then numbers placed indicating frets.  The instructor explained the method to me, and within minutes I had the first eight bars of the Arabic folk song melody.  I will try to take a pic of the board the next time I visit the class.  I was so impressed with the students in this class, who have learned a whole folk song this way.  Phrasing is accomplished with the instructor saying "breathe" at the end of phrase.  The rhythms we generally quarter and eighth notes, but there were  some three over two beat configurations that the children played expressively.  What a delight to hear a whole room of new guitarists play a full folk song!!! You could feel the pride and excitement in the room...

4.  A program out of Barcelona operates soccer here for the children and teens.  Pauline is one of the coaches, and I had the opportunity to accompany her and the 10-12 year old girls to the soccer field.  They load up on a bus  and take about a 10 minute drive to a beautiful soccer field, next to a field of yellow flowers and horses.  Lovely!

The soccer program is rooted in values:  respect, humility, ambition, etc...  Each day the coach focuses on one of the values, and also reemphasizes values from previous practices.  This was a training day, so there was a lot of talk between coach and teammates.  One of the older teen girls served as a translator.  I was so impressed with all the teaching and learning that was occurring out on the field -- and these are learnings for both the field and life.  The girls come from different cultures, oftentimes cultures that do not traditionally get along very well back in their home countries.  Here on the field, and at Kara Tepe, cooperation and respect are vital to maintain a peaceful atmosphere.  This soccer program contributes greatly to that peace.

We began by playing a cat and mouse game, where one girl is on the outside of the circle and proceeds to try to break in.  Our job in the circle is to moved vertically to block the path.  Much laughter all around.

The girls then engaged in a match, after red and blue shirts were distributed to designate teams.  Pauline told me that girls will often switch shirts to be on team with their friends, but she encourages them to use the shirt they receive, mixing it up a bit every practice.  One girl ended up quite overheated and sat out part of the practice on a bench.  Another had a five minute time out on the bench for lack of cooperation.  Disputes erupted occasionally on the field, and the girls are encouraged to work out the problem on their own.  When they cannot, Pauline pauses the game, gives each girl an opportunity to share her side of the story, they talk through the conflict, and then play resumes.  None of these young girls had played soccer prior to coming to Kara Tepe, so keeping that in mind, their skills were really very impressive.  I bow to the patient, strong leadership of Pauline.  This is an amazing program out of Barcelona!

I will conclude today's blog with some quotes regarding the power of music...






 

May music envelop you today, make you remember.  May music always save your life...

Namaste,
Marianne