Since the day I get back home (Jordan) and start working with Al Hayat Center, my life style has definitely changed, working with a Team Full of power, passion, and energy, a group of people who work and give from their hearts because they love their Job. Now I myself have become so passionate about my work and my personality got stronger, I also found out that I can work under pressure , I want to prove myself and to my community to show that women can be successful and effective and they have the power to make a change in this world.
After the RASED Project Conference with Al Hayat Team
Working with RASED for Government Monitoring Project opened for me Doors to get into political life (http://www.hayatcenter.org/programs/rased-accountability-monitoring/), knowing more about our laws, elections, writing reports and focusing on what’s important. I appreciate the fact that Al Hayat team Worked hard with us to build our skills in many fields, and made our experience a constructive one.
Spending those 3 months in Portugal helped me a lot to improve myself, believing in myself was the most important thing for me, it wasn’t my first time to be out of Jordan alone, but it was the first time for me to have the sense of independence and ambition to be the best.
Living with 8 people from different cultures, thoughts, beliefs, and different life styles showed me that no matter where life puts me I can be myself, and present myself and my country in the best way I Can 🙂
(Sarah, Olivia, Natali, Reem, Baraa, Dalia, Amro, and wisam ) each one of them touched my life and changed me into a better person I’ve learned from each one of them how to think before I speak, how to face the challenges with a smile, to be wise, caring, loving, strong, and responsible as well.
I am blessed to have had this chance and those people in my life… They became my Family 🙂
Between October and November 2015, Sofia, Federica M., Marta, Antea and Federica N., five participants of the CaBuReRa project had the chance to design and implement their own local project, named Il Mediterraneo per Noi e per gli Altri – the Mediterranean for us and for the others, running a series of activities aimed at raising awareness about the Mediterranean region, including its history and traditions, and at delivering an idea of respect towards those cultures which belong to these regions.
High school students, because of their young age, are usually subjected to a misled or a lacking communication, in terms of knowledge about contemporary worldwide events, and this is due to the wide range of sources of information and the consequent confusion that this can generate.
The idea was to implement, in different schools of Palermo, activities that could develop awareness among youth about the Mediterranean with a focus on the countries involved in CaBuReRa.
Thus, three schools have been involved and approximately 90 students from I. M. S. Regina Margherita, I. I. S. S. Alessandro Volta and the Fine Arts High School Vincenzo Ragusa and Otama Kiyohara.
The students, aged between 17 and 19, have actively participated to frontal lectures and debates, with video presentations and non-formal education activities focusing on the figure of the migrant, so as the journey he has to face, the problems connected to it, those laws and rules which should protect him.
Moreover, the students had the possibility to know more about migration flows and armed conflicts situations, and also to know about the opportunity of doing an international experience through a mobility project as they have done within CaBuReRa.
Furthermore, the topic of the civil war in Syria, and the phenomenon of jihadism had been introduced, as to explain the new dramatic migration influxes caused by the conflict.
Students’ feedback has been overwhelming: the activities allowed them to get to know more about contemporary events, and they have been very active and participated to all the sessions.
Sofia, Federica M., Antea, Marta, Federica N., and CESIE would like to thank all the schools involved for their participation:
I. M. S. Regina Margherita,
I. I. S. S. Alessandro Volta,
L. A. S. Vincenzo Ragusa and Otama Kiyohara.
A special thanks goes to headmasters and teachers, who made possible to carry out the project and who supported us in reaching the objectives with great results.
It has been an exciting experience both for the five CaBuReRa girls and the students who expressed their enthusiasm openly. Initial fears have been replaced by an important educational experience.
It already passed a year since the beginning of my adventure in Jordan, since the so much awaited November 9, that had become an utopian goal. It’s been a year since the responsible of the CaBuReRa project in Jordan, Rami, was waiting for me at the airport; a year since I rang the bell of my new future house in Al Fuhais and I met the first of my travelling companions, Catarina. A year since the beginning of four intense months of work, sharing, travelling, of Arabic language classes, of empathy and understanding, knowledge, discoveries, study.
And after one year, I am here now with tears on my eyes for laughing and crying, reading the list of our adventures in Jordan, a list made with such discipline, written every day, so we won’t forget all the amazing moments shared together. After one year social networks have become really important to maintaining contacts and to know day by day what is going on. After one year I do not miss possibility to read and look at everything that has to deal with Jordan, from international to local news, from tourist video sponsorship to documentaries filmed in the streets of Amman or in the refugee camps.
After one year, I am facing a new adventure in a new continent, totally different from Jordan but in some ways similar. And so everything becomes a comparison: “well, instead in Jordan…”, “You know that in Jordan”, “but people in Jordan”, “Oh let me talk about food in Jordan…”; and are rare the times when Jordan lost the comparison.
After one year, memories are not yet blurry but are much milder, more tender, more intimate: I imagine floating on the Dead Sea, to ride a camel in Wadi Rum. I feel the taste of breakfast with humus and falafel, I remember the first time I tasted pomegranate juice or the enthusiasm to be in line waiting for a hot slice of knafe. Chatting with the workers of souvenir shops, living Amman and Jordan through the eyes of a local, feeling part of something I won’t never truly understand but that makes me feel at home.
Because after all, I am far away physically but Jordan never let me down and I relive it every time I am holding something that reminds me of its places and its people, its history and its present. I think back to the first time I got in the adventure of preparing the most typical Jordanian dish, or when I got in front of the treasury of Petra, or when I got in contact to the fascinating world of Bedouins; I relive Jordan when I watch the photos I took by myself and I am so happy to have had the opportunity to spend four months in this amazing Country. With a smile on my face I think back to the mornings when I was trying to wake up my companions, to the crazy drives around Jordan, to the despair because of taxi drivers, to the last minute shopping among shops filled with colours, smells and sounds.
I think back to the sweetness and kindness of people who always gave you a warm welcome in their Country, offering you a tea or a coffee.
A whirlwind of emotions, a stream of moments and a lot of flavours. And Jordan in the heart and mind, always, because somehow I also feel it a bit my Country.
CabuReRa was a really great experience in all levels: I had the chance to meet new people from other countries, different backgrounds and experiences, different points of view and all of the experiences in different contexts made me grow as a person.
I also had the chance to work, for the first time, in my field of studies – cultural heritage. I worked in Lebanon with a group of young entrepreneurs that were building a company of cultural tourism. My role was helping them to find the right strategy to grow and to implement themselves in the market. For the first time I felt that what I have studied was useful and that feeling was amazing!
Back to Portugal that feeling grew even more: I started working with a project that is really what I want to do with my life – develop the cultural tourism in Algarve. This project is called The Mediterranean Diet Route (www.rdm.pt) aims to cover not just food/ restaurants but also local products, artisans and heritage!
For me it was very positive to work in this project not just for the project itself but, mostly, because to work with culture in Portugal is very difficult. There is no money and it’s extremely hard to “enter”! The feeling I get is that one door is already opened, I just need to keep working, show my value and hope for another door to open…
Beginning of September, Palermo shows its beauties on a shining sunlight. A soft breeze coming from the sea cool down the heat and suddenly everything looks just perfect. It’s our rendezvous. We left each other only few weeks before but it seems so far ago, another life perhaps, another place for sure. Beirut, Amman, Birzeit used to be our homes and now Palermo is going to replace them for the next three months.
We look funny with our big luggage, perfectly mixed up with the dozens of tourists surrounding us. But we’re not tourists, not today. Among clothes, shoes and other personal effects, we also brought ‘nduja, taralli and other basic supplies we missed abroad and that we now need as fresh air. Each one of us had chosen something typical from its region with the clear idea of sharing it with the others. That’s us, there are no mistakes. We just look somehow different. Maybe it’s our clothes: eventually we had the chance to make a renewal of our wardrobe and we’re not used to see each other with a new shirt or a different pair of jeans. Some of us went to the barber shop and now are showing a new haircut too. Yet, we still look different, you would tell there’s something on our faces this time we didn’t have that day we said “see you soon” one month earlier.
“How are you? What did you do back home? It’s nice to see you again!”
That’s us, pretending nothing has changed. Same old jokes, same old laughs, but they’re just a little less funnier and spontaneous than they used to be. And an embarrassing silence suddenly comes by, a silence we had never experienced before. It seems we know each other so well that we don’t have anything new to say. But our eyes speak for us, and they tell things only we can understand: they speak about the places we have been, our experiences, the people we have met. It’s the way we look at us that is changed. “Do you remember when… ?”
That’s it. Of course we remember, our memories are still fresh, our old routines are still vivid in our minds, but they’re over and we can’t resign to this basic, simple truth. We left each other with the pledge of keep going and now we find ourselves lost in this melancholic state we just can’t let go.
“Let’s go for a coffee”, Mario says. He was in Jordan with Alessia and Antea and he has a talent for saying always the right thing at the right moment. A coffee and a relaxed chat in a nice and not-so-crowded bar are all we were longing to let ourselves loose that much we needed. And the river starts flowing again as it used to: “What have you planned to do in the next months? Have you heard that news? What do you think about it?”
If there’s something we truly love that is chatting: we could speak about everything for ages, no matter the topic. Once we got stuck discussing about “shaving” for about a couple of hours (and our unfair balance with the girls-to-boys ratio helped a lot); with “food” or “music” we usually go even beyond that limit, but most of the time what we talk about are work related topics or opinions on general life subjects. For as many jokes we would ever do to each other, the truth is that we have a really high mutual esteem and we take into deep account our different views. Even when we don’t agree on something, which happens often, we usually dig enough (that means we waste that much time needed) to reach a common point after that nobody has nothing more to say.
From an outer point of view we might seem sick, and we would also agree on that. One of our colleague at work once said: “You guys are amazing, you are kind of a guild: no matter what you are doing, no matter to whom you are speaking with, whenever you find some of you ‘Cabureri’, you move toward him, or most likely her, almost unconsciously, as if there is a special gravity at work only for you”. And we all know it’s true.
Our base is in via Sampolo, intercom “Liberty House”. This is the place where those of us who are not from Palermo live. It’s a nice old style building and we are five (we used to be six but Rosa had to go back to Napoli earlier due to hers university commitments). Even though we are all different, with different life cycles and interests, astonishingly we get along very well and we’ve hardly had any serious quarrel, so far. From time to time, usually on Friday, we organize a big dinner open to friends that normally shifts close to a cooking competition: we are all really proud of our cooking skills and we can’t wait to prove it every time we can (except for Dario, he’s not even able to boil a potato). Those nights often ends with laughs and empty glasses of wine. Sometimes our neighbour appear at the door to share some of her complaints, we apologize and life keeps flowing as if nothing happened.
At home we have our rites. We follow a strict schedule on who has to put some music on and you will hardly listen to the same song twice: we move from Arabic to Latin music and from Italian songs to Electronic or Jazz sometimes. Garbage is a male thing and a late night briscola decides who between Mario and Dario is going to throw it away, even though recently Luisa brought some new games saving us from this vicious circle. Alessia needs hugs, don’t ask why while Federica has a thing with cactus and tea, so we all started collecting both. Rosa was the kitchen coordinator and since she left our meals are a bit messed up, but luckily, every now and then, Valentina goes to Catania and she brings back a lot of food: those are happy days. To express this harmony we chose the Guayabita as our anthem (an old Colombian traditional melody) which instantly loose our daily stress and put us in a happy mood.
La Guayabita
Days pass by, seasons as well. Now Palermo is getting colder, rainy and nights come earlier, but its beauty still remains. We already know this feeling, it’s the same we experienced last summer: our time is almost over, once again. What will remain of this experience? Of our relationship? Will our neighbours miss us?
We know what will never change: that glance in our eyes every time we will meet again in the future. Those eyes will always make you understand that there has been a story our lips would never be able to tell. And we already apologize because of this but it’s not our fault, that’s what we are: a family.
Here I am doing the second part of the internship in my country Palestine, after coming back from Greece which was a magnificent country with its kind people and its amazing landscapes.
Athens from above
Due to the bad circumstance that we “Tg2 Palestinian participants” have faced since the sending organization delayed the continuation of the training because of the financial problem that it was suffering from, which in other way resulted in the limitation of our training only in the organizations or associations next to our houses and as I am living at a small town next to Jerusalem, and this area lacks for the existence of non-governmental organizations, it was difficult for me to find a place to start the local internship in. So I have to begin my internship in a business company that belongs to the private sector.
Siniora Food Industries Company is the company that accepted to host me as a trainee at the Human Resources department. From the first day that I’ve come to the company I started to utilize what I have learned abroad and applied it in the new workplace. I’ve gained much knowledge from them in the field of HR principles, planning and individuals’ management. They introduce me to their company and to the policy that the company follows in recruiting employees, they offered me a separate office at their department with all its equipment.
Most of the work I am doing is secretarial work; and here are some of the duties that I’ve been trained on during the last two months: inserting transportation bills, survey the employees’ files, setting up new records for new employees, prepare training for the supervisors and their employees, writing official letters issued from the HR department such as: Final Appointment Letter, job evidence letter, health insurance, bank correspondences, inserting each employee assets, irregularities, certificates to the company’s network system in addition to many other duties.
I believe that this internship in and outside my country will add value to my career life. It will give me better chances in the future to apply for big enterprises and organizations or maybe to establish my own business.
This experience has definitely benefited me on both personal and professional levels. Concerning the first one, it let me meet different people from different countries with different cultures and to spend great time with them. For the second approach it developed my knowledge in the field of management in general, and also it introduced me to new concepts and terms in the public relations. So I completely support the idea behind these programs that give youth in this region a great chance to develop their personalities and their knowledge, and it paves the way towards eliminating youth unemployment in the community.
We have on this earth what makes life worth living.
It used to be known as Palestine
it became known as Palestine
my mistress:
I deserve, because you’re my mistress
I deserve life.
Mahmoud Darwish “ Palestinian poet”
Is it Normal to not miss anything about Portugal? Nor to think about that experience?
Is it weird to ask those questions?
While I was reading my friend’s blogs, I realized that I have to speak out about that great experience. Yes I can remember that it was great and it supposed to be unforgettable. May be I have some problems with memorizing?! Who knows!!
But what is that sound!!
Can you hear that!!!
It’s the same sound I hear every day in the morning, during the day after the sun set, it became a part of my life. Can anybody hear that sound!???
It makes me busy thinking all the time, it prevents me from thinking about anything else, even my about friends in Portugal, even thinking about my brother who snores all the night while sleeping.
Am sorry, at this moment it’s hard to remember
“When my father decided to sell our 500.000$ farmhouse, I was so sad because from that house I could see the beach, I could smell the trees, touch the sun, talking with the moon where I usually find myself with my friends dancing all night away. But wait, I still have the place to do that, in my country everybody has such a farmhouse I can go to Fadi’s house. Till our new farmhouse is ready the new one going to be in Haifa, where I usually hang out with my friends”
Shit!!!! That sound appears again it’s so loud this time
Ooops it think one of my friends is screaming,
Me: What Happened?
Fadi: I got shot.
Me: did you shoot yourself while you were playing with that stupid hunting rifle!
Fadi: wake up, move your head or you going to be dead stupid !
When he slapped me on the face and moved me next to him, I figured out what was that sound
It’s the sound of the OCCUPATION.
And when I read what I wrote about our imaginary farmhouse I burned the notebook, and went to the hospital to see my injured friend, and reading him the news.
STOP
No sound-bite will fix this.
We teach life, sir.
We teach life, sir.
We Palestinians wake up every morning to teach the rest of the world life, sir.
My second phase of The CaBuReRa Project began at the 24th August. I had the
opportunity to choose where I wanted to continue my journey and I my choice was In
Loco association.
like to tell you about In Loco.
If you don’t know this NGO you really should and I will make your life easy by
introducing it to you!
This Portuguese NGO was a finalist for the award of European NGO of the Year, award that is being given by European Civic Forum due to their work of promoting civic participation, citizenship and European values.
In the case of winning this award, In loco will be presenting their work at the World
Democracy Forum in Strasbourg, France.
I have to say that for me is very exciting to be integrated on this amazing Association
that I have always admired. Besides promoting all of the above, In Loco works in
different fields like: vocational training, cultural and natural heritage, responsible and
sustainable tourism, social and cultural identity of the rural communities, research,
participatory budgeting, sustainable development, entrepreneurship and innovation,…
This is a great opportunity for me to grow as a person and also as a professional,
having the chance to work in different areas, all of them related do what I’ve studied,
and really understanding what does it means to be a part of a great NGO.
Hi! I am Abbass Mouawia from Lebanon and I am 24 years old. I am an interior architect and I graduated nearly 9 months ago. I would like to talk about my special experience in Palermo city with CaBuReRa project: this experience with CESIE organization has been the beginning of my professional life and the quantum leap in my curriculum vitae. They gave me a valuable opportunity for gaining experience and knowledge and discover other cultures and societies. I met a lot of new people and make new friends from other countries and backgrounds, and of course I can’t forget the great chance of enhancing my life by travelling and visiting other countries and cities. I remember that at the very beginning of the project I was quite homesick but thanks to CESIE’s team the situation changed soon: they make me feel like I was in my country with my family and they worked hard to find the better place for me to work. I did an internship in FABLAB, that is really a good place with also the better people and stuff I’ve ever met. Those people also worked hard for teaching me the basics and fundamental ways to work in my domain as well as how to deal with people; they also gave me hundreds of creative ideas. One of the most important benefits I got from the CaBuReRa experience is surely the Italian class: it really makes me proud being able to speak the most romantic language in the world and to interact with the “palermitani”, people who gave me the help I need when I asked for some information about buses, streets, beaches, etc.
I am pretty sure that CaBuReRa project will be a strong ally in my professional life and a source of amazing memories in my social life . I hope from the depth of my heart that I’ll stay in contact with my new CESIE family and with all the people I met in Palermo. I am very thankful for all the support and help they gave to me and I really appreciate the CESIE’s efforts in dealing with us.
Thank you for your hospitality, thank you so much.
My participation in the inter-cultural event in Palermo, Sicily provided me a sense of pride coupled with a sense of pressure and burden due to the role that I was tasked with, which was to inform my international colleagues and their friends about Palestine in only 3-5 minutes.
I felt a sense of pride because I cherish and value the culture in which I was brought into and I enjoy sharing my culture and perspective about Palestine with everyone that I come in contact with.
Although proud, I also felt the sense of pressure due to the level of knowledge and misconceptions that many people have about Palestine since it is considered to be a somewhat complex environment due to the occupation that has been enforced upon it for the last 67 years.
It was important for me to present the beauty of Palestine by using facts, images, and true stories while avoiding topics that stimulated heated discussions surrounding politics and religion since these were things that I was constantly faced with growing up in Palestine.
As one of my idols, the iconic Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish stated, “We love life” and that is exactly what I decided to inform people about during this cultural night. Therefore, I took it upon myself to join together with my colleague and friend Alberto Provenzano and recite poems by Mahmoud Darwish to the audience and enlighten them with his beautiful poetry.
The idea to do this was inspired by a time when I was preparing the invitation letter and press release for the event and decided to inscribe one of his beautiful poems on the back of the invitation letters. Alberto and I worked together as he translated the poems into Italian and we recited “We love life” “Challenge” and ” We have on this earth what makes life worth living “ together during culture night.
It was very emotional to listen to Alberto reciting Mahmoud Darwish’s poems, especially when he confidently recited the Arabic version of “We love life”. I felt very proud that I took part in such an important event, and was happy that the audience engaged in the Palestinian struggle through poetry. And now, we have three additional Mahmoud Darwish poems professionally translated to Italian.
Also, it was a pleasure to organize and present a photo gallery on behalf of the talented photographer Ms. Sara Ramos, who is currently in Lebanon for her mobility period, and whom I luckily met in Jordan through the mid-term meeting of CaBuReRa project In January 2015. Her photos made me realize that we should focus on Euro-Mediterranean cooperation through similarities, not differences, which is in my opinion a very powerful method for inter-cultural cooperation and networking and success.
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