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| YANOON |
A few weeks ago, I went to a wee village in the hills called Yanoon. The reason I was there was to do a wee bit of “accompaniment”. In the spirit of teaching English, I will explain this word.
Accompaniment: 1 – noun, something that is served or used with something else (e.g. “the dinner had hummus as an accompaniment”) 2 – noun, musical term for an instrument or orchestra playing alongside a singer or another instrument that is playing the main tune (e.g. “that pianist provided decent accompaniment”) 3 – noun, providing an international presence that may discourage harassment or violence towards Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli army and/or Jewish “settlers” and act as a witness to such acts if necessary (e.g. “let’s go to Yanoon to do a wee bit of accompaniment”)
(To get the full effect of my teaching style, you have to imagine me writing the word squint onto a white/blackboard and getting students to repeat the word in a vaguely Scottish accent.)
In case it wasn’t clear, I was opting for Definition 3.
EAPPI (Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel), which is part of WCC (World Council of Churches, a slight misnomer as they are only a world council of Christian churches), recruit volunteers to be stationed usually in an area that has suffered from harassment from Jewish settlers, such as olive crops being burnt or stolen, guns being fired to scare children and so on. Yanoon is one of many villages that have been suffering from such harassment.
The volunteers they have do three month stints. In Yanoon they had a couple of days between one group of volunteers leaving and the next arriving, so Project Hope had been asked if they had some volunteers who could help out during that time. Three of our volunteers headed there on a Thursday and me and one more joined them the following morning.
As it turns out, I was only there for a couple of hours, as the new group of volunteers arrived sooner than we expected. During this time we went on a walk around the village in the baking heat and said “sabah el-kher” to a few locals. Absolutely nothing of interest happened.
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| YANOON SCHOOL |
It was good, however, to learn about another organisation and to see another example of the good work being done to help the people of Palestine.
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| THE YANOON LADS |
Looking over the above, I worry that it may come across as a flippant account of some important work being done to tackle a very serious issue, but there are so many issues and so much hardship to get your head round in Palestine that I’ve remembered the importance of finding the humour where you can.
I’ve also learnt the importance of enjoying walking around a lovely wee village, taking in the view of the hills in the West Bank and spending time with good friends.
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| A WEE DANDER |
5 comments:
I'm delighted that "Absolutely nothing of interest happened". I suppose you may expect the worse, given the background of the situation and the man hours being put into the accompaniment process. (Loved your three dictionary descriptions by the way). Yanoon sounds intriguing, and the kids look like they could be in a boy band!
Back to "nothing of interest"; that all depends what you mean by "of interest" in the first place. I myself am hugely interested in you even going for a dander!
Glad to hear you being humorous again. Have been thinking about you lots this week. In fact, and I know you won't laugh at this, I have had my iPod on shuffle all week and every time Coldplay come on it makes me think of you! Ooooh, the irony...
Love, K x
DANDER: 1. A misspelt male goose. 2. A short stroll. (Definitions provided for you international audience!) X
I'm glad that some good has come out of Coldplay's pishy music.
I'm fascinated by this 'accompaniment' business. It does seem to me that accompaniment should carry with it a bit of an 'engagement' with the people you're accompanying - ie along the lines of companionship. What this EAP programme seems to be about is watching, being a 'deterrent' presence simply by being there. Now, that's OK, but my question is: 'Does EIS actually involve itself with the local situation, or does it just have a watching brief?' On the WCC issue, more discussion when you get back. But my other question is: 'If the WCC is only Christian, where is the world forum for inter-religion dialogue?' And, no, your blog didn't come over as flippant. They never do. They always seem to come from a place of thoughtfulness and reflection. All good stuff!
Answers to your questions. It seems that EAPPI doesn't have more than a "watching brief", although there are similar organisations that encourage volunteers to go a little further, such as helping out with the olive harvest. There is no in "world forum for inter-religion dialogue" that I know of, or certainly not with a presence in this region. Organisations that present themselves as inter-religion seem to me to be weighted more towards Judaism and/or Christianity. Exactly why this is the case I'm not entirely sure. Cheers for the feedback.
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