Day 5. Perfect building day. (Saturday)
We wake up to see the sun streaming in through the windows. A great start. I can’t wait to get going again after yesterday. When we get there the builders are already at work. We start with shifting more bricks, and stop for the usual tea and coffee breaks. After a while I get up on the roof and help with the steel bars that need tying together (see photo). It’s interesting to learn how a building is put together here in Palestine, I am learning a lot! It’s warm and sunny on the roof and there are lots of steel bars that need doing, very satisfying. In the afternoon the bricks for the roof arrive and we put them all in the spaces between the bars. There are jokes and laughter, lots of cake and fruit and plenty of time for talking and getting to know the family and builders a bit better. The Nema family turn up in droves, uncles and aunties and grandfather and lots of children. I spend some time in the afternoon chatting to the children, together with Wendy (who is one of the vicars in our team). Wendy has young children so she is still very much in the swing of it all, with songs and nursery rhymes. The children teach us a bit of Arabic (a fairly hopeless task….although Wendy is doing better than I am) and we teach them some English. I go back to the hostel in Marwan’s car, an interesting experience as we keep stopping along the way, paying a bill, dropping off some papers and so on. We get offered coffee here and there, and arrive about an hour later than the bus! In the evening we go to a nearby café for a drink. We are really getting to know each other better, which is very good. It has been a perfect day, and I feel very privileged to be part of this experience.
Day 6. The roof party.
Today is an important day as the concrete for the roof will arrive at 11.30am. It means we have to have everything ready! We all get going on the roof, tying more bars together. It seems there are ‘minor’ thin bars that go in between the heavier ones we did yesterday. We all work hard and manage to get it all done in plenty of time. During one of the breaks for tea we spend time writing prayers, wishes or blessings on pieces of paper. Marwan threads these into a rubber tube which we will bury inside the concrete on the roof. Alison (another of our vicars) together with Brian goes up on the roof to insert the tube, and say a few prayers. It’s a very moving moment. We don’t really know what will happen to this house, but it is becoming a very important symbol of hope, and also of unity between us and the family and village.
It’s another nice day, sunny and dry. Someone has rigged up a shelter in a corner of the site, and this is now needed to provide shade. I want to sit in the sun of course, veteran sun lover that I am. Two Palestinian flags arrive and Wa’fat, Marwan and one or two from our group put these on the corners of the house.
Then the ‘elephant’ turns up again and the builders get going to direct the concrete to the right places. It’s fascinating to see how this happens. The builders just wade through the concrete in wellies and carefully distribute it via the big ‘trunk’ of the elephant.
After the concrete has been poured and the builders finish off the roof, it is party time! The village elders arrive and there are speeches, journalists, interviews and films. The whole village seems to have turned up. The women sing a traditional song and then we join in with ‘We shall overcome’. One of the verses is ‘Palestine shall be free’. We all get presented with beautiful certificates which say ‘Thank you from the Palestinian people’. I never expected anything quite like this; it is completely amazing and a bit overwhelming. They seem to be so grateful for what we are doing, it is clear it is not just about the house but also about the solidarity we are displaying. They feel forgotten and oppressed, and it is so important that people ‘outside’ (i.e. on the other side of this horrible wall….) realise what is happening and stand shoulder to shoulder with them. After more lovely food (chicken and rice….) a large cake turns up which says ‘Welcome home’. It’s enough to make anyone cry, but instead we sing more songs and keep smiling, because this is what hope looks like……
We come home to another meal (I am eating far too much…) and it is good we are able to share some of our experiences. It is amazing to have been part of this day, completely outside anything I have ever experienced before and immensely satisfying, a real privilege. But it is also hard, because everything is at the same time so good and so very sad. This juxtaposition of hope and despair, a roof that has been completed but the reality of a house that may be pulled down again by an occupying power, is very difficult to come to terms with. These people are so brave and inspiring with incredible staying power and resilience. But when you look at the children, and realise they can’t even have a day at the seaside, and are always going to be restricted in what they can achieve inside Palestine, it is heart breaking.
Here are a few videos of days 5 and 6:
This shows some of the early work on the roof and Wa’fat
helping to move the bricks. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS63UAdZNuA
This is the day the roof was completed and we get
presented with the certificates
Abed and John passing bricks along the chain
The finished roof, before the concrete is added. It’s a satisfying sight!
This is what the ties look like. I did a lot of those!
Marwan is adding prayers to the tube, before it will be embedded in the roof
Here I am trying a traditional water pipe (nargile). It is apple flavour….very interesting!
Alison is saying more prayers when we embed the tube in the roof
Lia and Marwan watching the proceedings
Wa’fat cuts the cake, which says ‘Welcome to our home’
The elephant is adding the concrete to the roof. At the same time Wa’fat and Marwan are raising a Palestinian flag.
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