Connection
As the trip continues to develop, multiple connections between the group members and Israelis are becomming more familiar. The Israelis are getting more involved in activities and are showing excitement towards getting to know everyone in the group. I have noticed this effort and have felt an appropriate response would be to recipricate their act, one by trying to get to know not just the Israelis but also everybody else in the group.
One of the Israelis had mentioned to me during one of the activites that he liked to write, this I thought interesting because I have been writing entries in a composition book before this trip began. His name is Omer and told me that when he writes, most of the time he gets stuck and because of this, ends up crumpling the page and throwing it in the trash can. I was upset at this because Omer looked down on himself for thinking that he was unable to produce a quality product. I saw this as an opportunity to help out Omer so that he could better himself and his writing and give him a base in which he could start off.
I had told Omer about a familiar brainstorming exercise, one which was very simple. I made a promise with him that if he would do this, I would read a poem to the group that I had written a day earlier. The brainstorming activity consisted of writing down words, circling them, and branching down to other words which collaborated with the words that were circled. This would give Omer an opportunity to expand vocabulary and generate ideas from words alone.
The next day, Omer had said to me that he didn't do his assignment. Because of this, I took some free time out of the day to take Omer to a spot where our group leader had showed us earlier during the day. Omer, myself and about 10 other group members walked to this spot, one which offered an incredible downward view of a collection of rolling green hills. I took Omer to the edge and asked him to tell me specific words which described the valley. These words were: green, free, relaxed, openess, vast, strong, desolate, isolated, quiet, mist, fog, spiritual, nature, non-materialistic, rolling, relaxed, simple. When I collected these words, I then told Omer to think of another set of words which sparked emotions and feelings. This was what we came up with: calm, small, alone, desire, wants, king, fragile, fear, freightened, bad, dark, negation, still, cloudy, misjudge, connection, thoughts, life, in the moment, trapped, caged, abandonded, rage, anger, hide, run and game. With these words, Omer and I created a poem which we read to the group before our mid-afternoon activity.
Our poem titled 'No Choice' went like this:
In the vast openess
We feel caged
Trapped within green hills
Furios rage
Muddy valleys
Dark alleys
Abandonded and alone
Every step is fear of the unknown
Something's getting closer
Difficult to breathe
Gasp for air
No strength to relieve
The monster within
The open land
Giving up
I take it's hand
No more worry
Fragile desire
The burning's done
No more fire
This experience of sharing the poem with the group opened up personal opportunities and allowed for an expression which gave both Omer and I a new confidence. I felt proud to offer help to someone else and allowed myself to be open and honest. I feel that this gave Omer a jump start and encouragement to pursue writing in a new way and appreciate himself for who he is.
Shorashim, Winter 2011/2012, Golan Heights, Noah Feldman
