Summer school

The library at Ruwwad is, at the best of times, a hyperactive community centre. You can divide the kids who come at any time into three fairly stable groups: those who come along day in, day out, and really want to take part; others who are fairly involved when they’re around, but only visit the [...]

Last-minute cramming…

Most of the children in Jabal Nathif are coming to the end of the school year, and are taking their final exams – it’s been amazing (and a little trying at times) the sorts of kids now interested in working on their English. Still, it’s good to have the chance to come into contact with [...]

Doing it for the kids

The preschool part of Ruwwad is in its seventh month of operation, and definitely still in development. The two women in charge, still a little confused as to where working with children fits into me studying Poli Sci., are completely open to suggestions for programs and activities they can run with the kids, so I’m [...]

One of Ruwwad’s more recently started projects is the preschool. I’ve been fairly free in the mornings while the older children are in school, so I’ve promised them I’ll help out there from now on. As you can see the kids are adorable – I didn’t arrange them for the photo above.
The kids are learning [...]

Cats, kids, and Outcome Mapping…

Today Nadim and I shared a taxi ride home with the smallest cat I’ve ever seen, sitting in a box next to us on the back seat. We had planned to go and play football (soccer) this evening with some of the kids we work with but when Nadim headed out of the office, [...]

You have an ID with you, yes?

Yesterday the whole debacle with the police about Nadim’s laptop went on long enough, with lots of indignant mutterings in Arabic between the staff and the police which I wouldn’t dream of having understood. Coming back this morning to find the same police officers already there in the main office was a little disheartening. It [...]

Happenings

So today took a negative twist when the Canadian intern (Nadim) checked his bag in Ruwwad to find his laptop gone. The next few hours snowballed from a few pertinent questions about who might have been in the room to police being called, coming, and taking notes and statements. The police were non-uniformed, guns in [...]

Little Children

The children were still playing when I returned from the town centre. Conversation was a little stilted, but it was a good chance to practice my “do you have any brothers or sisters” (useful conservational Arabic 101, naturally) before the fun starts tomorrow. Their father took one look at me out of the window [...]