To Make Them Stronger: From Past to Present
By Maya Katz-Ali
ENP Volunteer Summer 2014, via Onward Boston Israel
Student at Clark University
I value each new story I hear. The students have been patient with me while I write their answers and helped me with spelling. I tell them they can also ask me questions after I tell them a bit of my own story. Who knew that one of the most difficult parts of my project would be to get them to pose or agree for pictures. I'm trying to put together a book for them of their stories or sentences from their interviews. But to pose for a picture - no way! Embarrassed or not cool for this age, or just cultural thing...it's hard to tell.
Also quite late in the game, I got the idea of asking the kids about Ethiopian names and their meanings. Understanding the meanings is incredible! It really adds another level to the story I get from each student, because each meaning of each name holds story and culture. For example one of the children’s Ethiopian name (name in Amharic) means patience. Which in itself tells a story of the family, the values and culture. Most of the kids are somewhat embarrassed to tell of their Amharic name and the meaning. The more I am with them I am able to see the assimilation process they are each going through. How each student is struggling with the balance of their culture at home and fitting in, in this country, conforming to the present.
We have also been doing some projects with the girls once or twice a week, with snacks and activities. It’s a blast to see the girls enjoying themselves and gaining confidence. I have realized that not only do the kids need to look back on their history and see their lives as stories to pass on, they also need strengthening in the present. That is why the girls’ evenings hold so much meaning as well. There was quite a few activities that I suggested to have at these evenings. One of the other volunteer’s Hebrew is improving but still somewhat in beginner stages for conversational Hebrew, not that mine is great, but for many of the activities I translate the best I can.
When looking back on my favorite moments from this summer, one that sticks out is on one of the girls’ nights when we played a game I had learned in another situation in working with children. This game involves humming tunes to well known songs and having the rest of the group try to guess what song it is. It so happens that both mine and the girls’ music taste overlap in some areas, so I was helping to give song suggestions to each one. Then they would hum and have the rest of the girls guess. The game pulled each girl out of her shell and soon every girl was raising her hand to do another song to have the other girls guess. I have a picture stuck in my head of one of the girls enthusiastically humming and for the life of us, no one could understand which song it was. What I had started to notice in the last month and a half is that the group of girls was quite split up to some extent, slightly cliquey. In this moment, every single girl was crying with laugher while trying to recognize this strange tune. The girls were all enjoying and laughing with one another and in that moment there was no clicks. There was no difference between “cool” girls or “shy” girls or anything because all were enjoying and laughing, including the girl humming.
ENP Volunteer Summer 2014, via Onward Boston Israel
Student at Clark University
I value each new story I hear. The students have been patient with me while I write their answers and helped me with spelling. I tell them they can also ask me questions after I tell them a bit of my own story. Who knew that one of the most difficult parts of my project would be to get them to pose or agree for pictures. I'm trying to put together a book for them of their stories or sentences from their interviews. But to pose for a picture - no way! Embarrassed or not cool for this age, or just cultural thing...it's hard to tell.
Also quite late in the game, I got the idea of asking the kids about Ethiopian names and their meanings. Understanding the meanings is incredible! It really adds another level to the story I get from each student, because each meaning of each name holds story and culture. For example one of the children’s Ethiopian name (name in Amharic) means patience. Which in itself tells a story of the family, the values and culture. Most of the kids are somewhat embarrassed to tell of their Amharic name and the meaning. The more I am with them I am able to see the assimilation process they are each going through. How each student is struggling with the balance of their culture at home and fitting in, in this country, conforming to the present.
We have also been doing some projects with the girls once or twice a week, with snacks and activities. It’s a blast to see the girls enjoying themselves and gaining confidence. I have realized that not only do the kids need to look back on their history and see their lives as stories to pass on, they also need strengthening in the present. That is why the girls’ evenings hold so much meaning as well. There was quite a few activities that I suggested to have at these evenings. One of the other volunteer’s Hebrew is improving but still somewhat in beginner stages for conversational Hebrew, not that mine is great, but for many of the activities I translate the best I can.
When looking back on my favorite moments from this summer, one that sticks out is on one of the girls’ nights when we played a game I had learned in another situation in working with children. This game involves humming tunes to well known songs and having the rest of the group try to guess what song it is. It so happens that both mine and the girls’ music taste overlap in some areas, so I was helping to give song suggestions to each one. Then they would hum and have the rest of the girls guess. The game pulled each girl out of her shell and soon every girl was raising her hand to do another song to have the other girls guess. I have a picture stuck in my head of one of the girls enthusiastically humming and for the life of us, no one could understand which song it was. What I had started to notice in the last month and a half is that the group of girls was quite split up to some extent, slightly cliquey. In this moment, every single girl was crying with laugher while trying to recognize this strange tune. The girls were all enjoying and laughing with one another and in that moment there was no clicks. There was no difference between “cool” girls or “shy” girls or anything because all were enjoying and laughing, including the girl humming.
Comments
Post a Comment