Tuesday’s Child Blog

Tuesday’s Child Returns to Gaza – Day 5

Friday 10th July 2009

Ahmed collects me at 10.30 a.m. and we go to look for another hotel. It is very good of him as today is his day off when people stay at home with their families. He explains he goes to the mosque at 12 to pray so we have until then. He is a very good person, with a “white heart” as they say here in Gaza. Everywhere Ahmed goes, his prayer mat goes with him and often when we are doing our outreach visits, I notice him quietly in one area praying. The Muslim people here have great faith in God and the Islam principles of love, peace and harmony are evident in the majority. Why Cat Stevens converted and is now Yusef Islam! l have always loved Cat Stevens and was very grateful for the prizes he donated for our auction at the music concerts for Gaza in Dublin. The picture, often painted by the media, of a violence-orientated community is grossly misplaced for the majority are a peace loving people.

Gaza is not that dissimilar to our own situation over the years of violence in Northern Ireland, where peace was hi-jacked by the selfish and narrow views of two minorities with the long sickened civilian majority suffering the greatest losses. While Hamas may have been democratically elected in 2005, this was a response from the people to their disillusionment with the corruption of Fatah. The persecution of their own people here is evident daily. It is tragic to hear that the local punishment tactics of knee capping that shattered too many legs in the province has now become enshrined in standard Hamas protocol here in Gaza...different bucket, same shit.

The Palestinian people in Gaza have never been more divided and in this Israel have achieved their aim. Without unity between the Palestinian factions here there is no hope for a future for Gaza. Without it, the humanitarian situation will not improve nor will the blockade end. For some, the continued blockade is welcome, for an elect few are making millions from the tunnel business. Yet, speaking to the young people, they want unity between the two communities for truly it is their only hope.

The first hotel we try is one that some of the large NGOs use here and so we call to check availability and price. While both lovely and recommended, I cannot condone the 115 USD tariff per night, equivalent to 400 shekels that would feed a lot of people for one month, so we move on. Tuesday’s Child does not take expenses or travel costs, no costs, or salaries even, and it is a requirement of our work that we continue in this ethos. I have issue with the percentages some organisations take in the name of charity. Hotel bills, at such high rates, in my book, is an inappropriate use of public monies.

We go to a second hotel, recommended by Saskia and bargain them down to half the price of the former. Regardless, the cost will not come out of the Tuesday’s Child pot for Gaza. I ask to see the room and it is clean and airy and I think it is the best deal I will get in Gaza. We return to The Cockroach Palace to collect my bags and check out. If anyone is looking for me, they will have difficulty, as this will be the third move in 5 days; my needs for cleanliness and security are covering my track well.

It is now 11.45 a.m. and we stop to re-stock the sweet factory. Ahmed seems to be enjoying his role of sweet dispenser and I christen him Santa Claus! I ask him to cover his large service taxi with ribbons and ballons and go through Jabalyia giving toys and sweets; he laughs and says we would get killed – mobbed by children! Secretly, though, I know the child in him is up for it. He leaves me off at Sabah’s home and goes on to the mosque to pray to his beloved God. I will leave it a few days and try again.

I spend the afternoon with Sabah and her family. Her husband, a fine man of principle and integrity is also getting ready to go to his local mosque to pray. The violence of Operation Cast Lead and the loss of civilian life in Gaza has done nothing to weaken the faith of these people. I tell him, as he leaves for the mosque, that he looks regal, like a Sheik! Sabah’s family help her prepare lunch and her youngest daughter Rima, makes me a braided bracelet in red and white. Sabah is a fabulous cook and all her children have learned well for they are all very handy in the kitchen. They prepare a lovely lunch, and we eat when Nazim returns. The craic is good but I cannot eat. I stick to a little bread and coke, as very little else here is agreeing with me. I dislike coke intensely but I have to keep drinking fluids and flat coke definitely helps the nausea.

Later in the afternoon, Ahmed collects us and we drive around more war torn areas and do some filming and then back to the hotel. I have been upgraded to a suite with a sea view. They take me into the suite only to find a man just out of the shower wrapped in a face-cloth. Either that or he s very well endowed. I hadn’t realised the tariff included such a handsome Palestinian! We leave him for 10 minutes, they re-tidy the room and it’s ready. A room with windows that open, heaven! The Queen Anne settee and chairs and the chandelier seem strangely out of place overlooking a beach with Unicef tents. It must have been quite beautiful here in its day.

Room with a view

We are going to a BBQ tonight and I have just a little time to shower and change. It is being hosted by an eminent physician here in Gaza for his friends, most of whom are medical or pharmaceutical by profession, their wives and children. It is nice to get dressed up and put on a little make-up and I am glad of the maxi dress I threw in at the last minute.

I speak to the women here of the war and the impact it had of them. Unlike, most women I have met this week, these are not used to poverty. The hostess is a charming woman, quite beautiful, with an understated style. She longs to visit her brothers and sisters who live all over the world, however she says she is imprisoned, cannot leave to visit them and unlike in a prison, they cannot visit. She speaks of the first day of the war and the sheer chaos and her fear for the safety of her children. She is the second person this week to tell me she thought it was the end of the world. She also gives thanks that her family are safe but she says “something has changed in all of us”.

“When I ventured to the windows, the views were indescribable. On one occasion, a woman killed by a rocket right in front the house, her head and limbs blown in all directions. I turned to see my youngest daughter also watching; children should not see things like this, none of us should. It is difficult to find answers for their many whys?”, she explains.

She goes on to speak of a grandmother attending her husband’s clinic, who was looking after her teenage grand-daughter who was asthmatic. The young girl told her grandmother she just couldn’t stand the endless bombing any longer and she was going out to sit in the car and listen to some music to relax. Her grandmother found her there 30 minutes later, dead, a fatal asthmatic attack. Others have also died from their asthma. Indeed, many with chronic disease have died in this war, heart attacks from the sheer stress and anxiety and these figures are not reflected in the death toll.

I ask our hostess about her own health. She says her hearing is affected. She has had constant tinnitus and while it may seem minor, in comparison to many injuries, it is troublesome and medicines do not give any relief. She has post-traumatic hearing defect and I am sure there are many like her. Also, she, as many, suffer general aches and pains, particularly in the shoulders and neck, classical symptoms of stress. I recommend some physiotherapy for the stress, very little that can be done for the tinnitus, but it may go, in time. All of the other women present describe similar head, neck and shoulder tension.

We move on to lighter subjects and the craic is good. The men are all seated at one side of the garden and the women at the other. I suggest it is like a dance in Ireland one hundred years ago! Well, maybe not that far back. This is how it is in Palestine. The food is good and another question, from one of the men, who are the best cooks – men or women? Men, at BBQ-ing I offer and women at cooking. i cannot enjoy the food, I have no appetite, so many children have so little to eat here that it sticks in my throat. We talk of many things far removed from the war and soon the night is filled with laughter. Humour is so important.

It is strange to be at a BBQ that has no alcohol. I think of the many barbys and parties in my own home over the years and cannot imagine them swinging without alcohol. Right now, I could murder a cold Carlsberg. It’s a Friday night thing. I will have to wait until I get home.

We say goodnight to our gracious hosts and thank them for their kind hospitality. Back to work tomorrow and when I return to the hotel, I prepare the envelopes of cash assistance, toys, sweets for the families tomorrow, recharge my camera and video camera and update my blog. Tomorrow, we will visit families here in Gaza city.

Tuesday’s Child toys

As I say my night prayers and I thank God again for enabling my 2 week trip here. I ask Him for another inspiration and this time I open at the following message: “I want to talk to souls about love of neighbour. My children, people are precious and every person on this earth is of infinite value to Me and My heavenly plan. But often the value is overlooked because of a worldly view of life. If I have placed a person on this earth, I intend that person to be adequately fed. You must proceed from that assumption. Dear little soul, so earnestly trying to serve Me, if you know a soul who is not fed, perhaps I intended that you feed that person and that is why I reveal that person’s plight to you. Be thoughtfully considerate when you hear of a person or a group of people who are hungry. Then, ask Me what it is I am asking that you do in the matter. Perhaps I am merely looking for prayers. Perhaps I am making you aware of the great blessings that have been bestowed on you. Or perhaps I am asking that you share in your wealth and support My workers who are attempting to feed souls. Again, perhaps I am asking you to be one of those souls who ministers directly to unfortunates, who lack the barest necessities for human existence. You have a role. You must ask Me to reveal it to you so that souls on earth are not housed in bodies that cannot develop because they lack food. I see every need of every soul on earth...It is My intention that My children serve each other...Many are starving today in your world. My children, this is yet another symptom of the Age of Disobedience, a time when more souls defy Me than serve me. I do not want people starving. Ask me what you can do” (www.directionforourtimes, volume 2)

I ask Him to lead me to the people who are most in need in the week I have left and I pray again for an end to this terrible siege.

If you are in a position to help any of the families we met during our time in Gaza, please contact us at info@tuesdayschild.co.uk or donate online here »

Continue to read Day 6 »