Small people are angry

August 7, 2007

We went dancing! I learned to Chechen dance! The little girls really wanted to teach us to dance and show us some of their dances, so they arranged for us to come to the common room at 8 (kind of funny thinking about little kids wandering around teaching dance lessons after 8 pm when most kids their age elsewhere in the world should be in bed, but oh well). They turned on some Chechen music, which was techno. Okay, so I don’t know if the techno was really Chechen, but they did have some on a cd that they threw on that did have some Chechen music on it as well. As the kids were showing us how to dance, the older boys came into the room, and of course started showing off and inciting us to dance. So how to describe Chechen dancing? Well, in Chechen culture, because it is Muslim, the man and woman may not touch, and the woman may not look the man in the eyes. Everyone else forms a circle around the room, and the man invites a woman to dance with him, he dances about the room, kind of stomping and moving his arms from side to side, (oh I am not doing this justice at all!) the woman takes small little steps and waves her arms as well—kind of like in hula. The man directs the woman with his arms, and it is kind of a chase dance, where they never touch, but the couple dance together and it ends up looking rather sensual. This one guy, Ramzan, invited all of us to dance. I loved it! I ended up dancing quite a bit, since Maja and I were the only ones willing to dance, and I was actually pretty good, if I do say so myself. Granted, it wasn’t such a difficult dance, with the woman doing small moves and the man doing the wild stomping, and then showing off for his friends. While we were dancing with the grown boys, Ania was talking to the little girls. She came back and reported—the small people are angry. The kids were all so upset because the older people had taken over with the dancing and forbade us to dance, so we tried to include them a bit more. It was so much fun… until the men kicked out all of the children and women, and wanted to have a European dance. Now, I don’t even know what that means, but when the Chechen women and children left, I left too. I was not about to stick around in a room full of men who thought I had different standards and were expecting a lesser one from me. The little girls told us that Ramzan, the one who had been dancing with us the most, and the one with the beard who had been a Chechen fighter, were really bad and tried to live in a European way. You know, I really don’t mind dancing, and I wouldn’t have even really minded dancing in a European way (waltz style) had everyone been allowed to stay—I would’ve gladly shown people. But the fact of the matter was, the men were attempting a double standard and wanted to take advantage of us girls.
Day 2 of teaching went well. I brought out the cameras and had a short photography lesson with them and it was really fun to have them take the cameras and observe things around them to take pictures and to try taking pictures from different angles to change perspective. I think that the camera thing may be a success after all. Classes otherwise were really fun—I had like 5 little “maimas’ or monkeys hanging onto me—these totally adorable little girls who would not let go of my hands. There is this one that is like the most adorable thing I have ever seen, who will hold my hand and just look up at me with her beautiful big brown eyes and give me this smile. I have to get a picture of her doing it. But I want her as my own little Chechen child. I may have to steal her.

This is a workcamp after all, so I suppose we should work

6 August 2007

We began our first workday at the work camp with breakfast. Maja was rather surprised that at breakfast, onion was served along with the tomatoes, but she enjoyed it. We started our first lesson at 10 am. We were excited and nervous about our first day, and not exactly sure what to expect. We planned to teach the children how to say hello and good morning, the alphabet, and what is your name. The children were so good! After we threw away the whistles, the children were quiet and listened carefully, and they all participated, even the little ones! We each had a chance to teach one game, and Ania interpreted for the most part (she did a beautiful job—the kids did just what we wanted them to for the most part). Simon Says was a little confusing, but really funny to see Daniel make the letters with his body and everyone trying to imitate them. It was so cute to hear the kids asking, “What is your name?” all day long, and answering with their beautiful names—we remember Iman, Adam, Islam, Umar, Isabell, Madlena, Linda… those are the only ones we can remember now. The children paid attention so well that we feel that we should plan to teach more tomorrow.

After the English lesson, we took everyone outside to run around for a bit. We first played freeze tag, which was very fun, but kind of confusing after a while, and we weren’t sure who was “it”. After that, we decided to play a game where we wouldn’t all have to run around (freeze tag was tiring!), so we played Cat and Mouse, or Koshka I Myshka. Suvi then had her hair styled beautifully by a little girl and Maja also had her hair brushed. After about an hour, we were all so tired that we made the kids come inside with us. Maja and Ania left us to go fix her mobile phone, and the rest of us were in charge of creative time. Unfortunately, we hadn’t planned too well, so the kids just ended up drawing pictures on the floor. Tomorrow we will plan a little bit better, but I think that everyone had fun.

And then lunchtime and naptime! We all crashed—playing with kids is exhausting!

Afternoon… Maja spent the afternoon playing with the children outside with Ania and Lindsay while Daniel and Takashi taught an English class for men. The girls sang songs and played house and had a good time during this unstructured time with the kids. Daniel and Takashi really enjoyed the men’s English class—6 men attended class, mostly young single men, who were disappointed that none of the girls were helping to teach. Maybe the boy with a crush on Tina will learn enough English to finally talk to her…. The men were Istan x 2, Samil, Rahman, R.B., and Aslan. Suvi, Tina, and Natalia were greeted with “Good Afternoon”, so the class must’ve been a success. They then taught the women’s English class, which was attended by Zarem, Luiza, Albina, Madina x 2, and Liza. They were all young woman, and very open and smart! We are looking forward to this class and hope that the women continue to learn and participate. Suvi saw Medina later on in the day and we exchanged greetings—‘How are you?”

After classes, some of us continued to spend time with the Chechens out in the yard, playing singing, playing volleyball, and talking with some of the mothers. The women shared with us about life in Chechnya. We were fascinated to learn about Islam in Chechnya, and they shared with us some of their traditions. Many things changed after the first Chechen War when the Wahib, Muslim extremists from Afghanistan, came to Chechnya. The Wahib forced the Chechen form of Islam to change to a more extreme form, and encouraged suicide bombers. They also killed many Chechens. Life really isn’t fair.

We really love being here in the camp! The Chechens are so kind and so open to learning. We were told that the parents really appreciate our work with their children. These children have come from a war torn region and haven’t really had much fun. We are so glad to be here and to play with the children.

Also we like our evening talks about different cultures, especially Japanese. We laugh so much during our, evening lessons, we just love it! In japan, instead of a ghost saying boo! They say kiaaa! Which is actually a lot scarier I think.

the plight of refugees in Poland

5.8.2007 Day 2 Smoszewo

Exhausted. Today we spent the entire day planning for the upcoming weeks. Well, actually we had an overview of the situation here at the refugee center—more correctly an asylum center, because the people here don’t have refugee status yet. So, the path goes like so—the people left Chechnya and Poland is the first country in the European Union (as in it is a designated refugee entrance point from, at least from the east). So they arrive at the border of Poland after a long and expensive journey—legally with a passport, or illegally smuggled, but in any case, an expensive one. At the border, they have their first interview, and request refugee status. They are then sent to the main refugee center in Warsaw, where they have a more extensive interview where they are asked to prove that they qualify as refugees—legally, that they have a well-founded fear of persecution because of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, and must be seeking shelter in another country. Most of the Chechens say they are fleeing because of the war, but really, that is not reason enough (at least not politically). They must then prove that they have a real fear for being persecuted because of their nationality, Chechen. To give you an idea oh how easy this is, a woman told that soldiers had raped her. She was not granted refugee status because, according to officials, rape does not qualify as persecution, but rather a criminal offense. What?!! So yea, 90% of the applicants will receive a negative response. Those who receive refugee status receive assistance for a year. The remaining 90% end up in two categories: tolerated status or negative. Tolerated status, or “Status B’ means that you can stay in the country and have permission to work, but nothing else, no assistance. The working becomes rather difficult in this case because you can’t get a job unless you have a home, and you can’t have a home if you have no job and money. Catch-22. The negative status is that you need to leave the country. However, there really isn’t a deportation process here in Poland. Many refugees, whether granted refugee status or not, want usually escape to other countries, because the opportunities are simply better in other European countries. Learning about the status of refugees and the process here in Poland is interesting, since it differs from the United States quite a bit.

So we had a meeting set up with the entire center this evening, but initially, only children showed up, which was disappointing. Well, since we will be working mostly with the kids, we introduced our plans and ourselves and then started in on some games with them. Slowly but surely, the adults started popping in—just couldn’t seem to resist. It was really fun to play things like fruit basket with them and teach these darling kids orange and apple. I think a few little girls have adopted me as their pet. Which is fine because they are teaching me all sorts of Chechen words—like “maima’ which means “monkey”. The foreign language part of my brain is switched on, and when I want to say something to them and I don’t know the word in Russian, Polish or Chechen (which is most of the time) it wants to come out in Spanish. Tomorrow we start with classes! Hooray! I’m a little nervous, because I am going to be the main teacher in the adult women’s class. I’ll start doing some of the photography stuff in a few days, after we get a feel for how our days will be going.

So we have this awesome Japanese guy in our group, Takashi. He has traveled around Russia and the Ukraine and Uzbekistan and everywhere, and is fluent in Russian. Well, Russia isn’t exactly the safest place in the world to travel, and turns out that he has been arrested for two weeks because the Russian officials thought that he was a Chinese drug runner and wouldn’t believe him when he tried to convince them that he wasn’t even Chinese, much less a drug runner. And then he was kidnapped by Russian skinheads (who are really dangerous and really prejudice). He told us this story of how he was in St. Petersburg and these three skinheads grabbed him and took him with them. At this point in time he was 19 and didn’t speak much Russian. They tried to get ransom for him from the Japanese embassy, but he wasn’t sure how much they asked for him. He spent three days at their house watching Russian TV, and then when they were asleep one night he escaped and hitchhiked to St. Petersburg. Scary story, really when you think about it, but, Takashi told it in such a matter of fact, undramatic way that it was really hilarious. You just had to be there to hear him saying, in his Japanese accent, “yeah I escaped from them and hitchhiked to St. Petersburg and that is when I was really afraid.” Hmm, for some reason it made us laugh a lot, but now it just sounds scary.

Anyways, time to sleep so we have energy to work with the kids tomorrow. We have this great neighbor names Aslan who brought us a TV so that we would have some entertainment. Everyone is so nice! A di quol! (Totally phonetic spelling for good-bye in Chechen).

Meet the Work Camp

August 4, 2007. Smoszewo. Or, tiny village about 50 km from Warsaw. Population 150, with about 160 refugees, and now plus 8—our little contingency of work campers. So, I left Krakow early this morning. Krakow was really a beautiful city, and I so enjoyed wandering about on my own, just soaking in the city, and stopping by periodically of my street musician friend, Marek, to chat until he had to start performing again.

I arrived at the train station in Warsaw, and wandered outside, not really sure what I was looking for (the directions were to look for a bus out front of the station and which should leave at 10:50 for this village. Why a bus was going directly to this village of 150 four times a day I do not know. But I am glad that it did because the other option was to get off at the next closest village a few miles away and walk, and I think I would have dropped down dead on the side of the road.) Anyways, while looking for the bus I saw a girl with a large backpack looking equally lost, and so I figured she must be going to the same place. I stammered out “Are you going to Smoshosomsmm….” And she, understanding this mishmash of sounds, said yes. Meet Tina, from Slovenia. She had just arrived from a few days in Prague and is currently a student in Slovenia, studying Social Pedagogy (which is like psychology and Social Work). Super nice, laid back girl. We finally found the bus (really, just in front of the station like we had been told, but still, you know when you are in a foreign country and you don’t know where you are going, you get totally panicked that you are going to miss a vital step. Maybe you don’t, but I do.). On the bus we met Maja, from Croatia. She works as a work and education counselor there. The three of us had a delightful time getting to know each other a bit and speculating about the camp—what it could possibly be like. And then we arrived…

Smoszewo is a little farming town, right next to the Vistby River, which runs almost through all of Poland. There are little farms and some houses (30 maybe? I’ll get a better count sometime this week), each of which had a few little barking dogs in the front yard. It is very rural and idyllic. I look forward to some nice, contemplative strolls to explore the flora of the region.

The camp itself is made up of a few apartment buildings (small ones) with a common canteen where the meals are prepared—however, Ania (one of the coordinators, from Poland. She speaks Russian really well so acts as an interpreter) said that often, to make this place more homey, the mother will go pick up the food and take it back to the flat so that she can prepare the food herself and they can eat as a family. I think that is good. We live in one of the buildings, which also happen to double as an old folks home. I’m not sure I would’ve put together Chechen refugees and old folks, but hey, it seems to work out well. The first people to great us were, of course, the children, gabbing away in Russian and Chechen (Chechenski). So, you know how I joked about finding myself a Chechen refugee husband? Well, I had no idea that Chechen men were so good looking! I am serious; the young men in this center are incredibly cute. Good thing men and women don’t interact at all, otherwise I might just have been brining home a Chechen boyfriend-kidding dad, just kidding.

Today has been spent pretty much just getting settled and getting to know each other. I am so impressed with this group and think that we will have some good dynamics. Everyone has done something with refugees before and is really excited to be here—although, what else would you expect from people who voluntarily sign up for a work camp with refugees? My type of peeps. Daniel is the other facilitator, and while he doesn’t speak Russian, he has been working with refugees and SCI for 4 years and so has tons of knowledge about the situation here. The other members of our group of 8 are Takashi from Japan, who taught Japanese at a Russian University is like a Russian expert (in my eyes); Lindsay from New York, who is the young one of the group and spent a year on an exchange program in Poland so she speaks Polish, and Natalia, who is also Polish and just finished her degree in Refugee studies. I’m so excited to get to know everyone in the group and most especially to start doing some teaching! The kids were teaching me Chechen words today (mesh=hair) and I must say, it makes me giggle quite a bit. I will probably be hopeless at learning anything, since I am trying to pick up Russian, Chechen, and Polish at the same time and I can’t even tell the difference at this point! But it’ll be fun. This place is beautiful.

pictures of Auschwitz

I thought I would include some pitcutres of Auschwitz to go along with the blog I wrote a while back. Not a happy place so i didn't take pictures in color.

Chechens!

Two tons of hair and 43,000 pairs of shoes

Auchwitz Birkenau is not a happy place. I'm sure you don't need to be told so, but I feel I must say it. It is not a happy place. Systematic, brutal death of over a million European Jews and over 500,000 others. From the soon-dead, they stripped their clothes and shoes, 43,000 of which I saw leftover when the Nazi's left the camp. They seperated them from their families, and when they were done with that, they sent them off to the showers where they were showered with cyclone B. They killed with incerdible efficiency-- 1500 people dead in 15 minutes. From the dead women, they cut off their long hair, often done by the hand of Jewish me from the same transport. I saw this hair, two tons of it. It had been waiting to be shipped off to make fabric and mattresses. When i say it is not a happy place, I mean my skin has goosebumps and there is simply a cold, dark feeling, even in the bright sunlight.

Auchwitz-Birkenau is not a beautiful place. It was built (or converted from other buildings) to become a death camp, to exterminate an entire group of people and then some. It was designed as a place of disease, inhumane treatment. Of freezing cold and stifling heat, human beings packed as tightly as possible and then more. When it was built, it was designed with not enough toilets, no running water, and no heat. Each prisoner was allowed one minute, twice a day to use the toilet. Mind you, there were rows of holes with no privacy and diarehea rampant. If you passed over your one minute, you could be shot. So much for those with stage-fright. When I say that iw as not beautiful, I mean it was a palce that had no right to exist in this world and had nothing, nothing that could redeem it. Across the barbed wire, there were trees and flowers. Inside, the only thing of beauty were the souls of the people who were forced there.

Auschwitz-Birkenau was powerful, but not because it was a strong place. The control exercised by the Nazi's was brought on by fear, exploitation, mistrust, hate, and lies. It evoked a powerful feeling because it exhibited all of that. Yesterday, I explored a number of churched int he old town of Krakow, all of them still functioning. Boasting histories of hundreds of years, continual worship, and ornate splendor, today I had to wonder where was their power and splendor when all of this was happening a few miles away. They (we) speak of a God of love, mercy, all-powerful, omnicient, full of truth and beauty. Auschwitz was the exact opposite of all of the. I know God allows bad things to happen to good people-- but this bad? And what about all the other people who lived and worshiped in these grand churches? I know it is easy to sit here, be able to see it all 70 years seperated, and leave, and judge the people before. It is shocking I think because is it so recent, and so close-- people of Europe-- educated, cultured, and yet so many fo them involved in this systematic brutality. It is frightening because what is to stop it from happening now? And it does.

This place. THis place... I went because I wanted to remember, to be a witness and have yet another reasont o be convinced that I must do something human. And I am never coming here again.