13 DAYS LEFT...
I don't have anything planned for today. I'm at Starbucks in Hamra taking advantage of the internet and trying to plan the last few days I have here and pack as much in as possible. I'm tired.
Yesterday I went to a new basketball camp in As-As...South Beirut along the airport road. The camp brings kids from different parts of Beirut together to play, using basketball to bridge sectarian divisions. There were kids from the Bourg Al Barejni Palestinian camp wearing kuffiyeh, Shia kids, Sunni kids...girls and boys all together on three scruffy courts. The courts are divided by chain link fences with holes where people stretched the fences open so you can crawl between each one. A younger brother of one of the boys participating spent most of the hour running in between the courts, through the fence holes, dodging air balls.
On first glance you could knew these kids were from different economic backgrounds, I can't tell who's a Sunni and who's a Christian or Shia, it's easier to tell who's parents have more cash. Some of the kids had basketball gear, high top shoes and those long shiny, shorts, with knee socks...others were wearing soccer cleats, worn hush puppies, and ill-fitting warm up pants. They were playing all together, running lay-up drills and dribbling drills and they were interacting with each other and seemed to be having a good time.
One of the boys hammed it up the entire time I was out on the court. He stood out, with his bright red soccer jersey and 80s haircut (we're talking rat-tail) and he loved being photographed. I interviewed him during a break and what he said disturbed me and he's only 14 years old. I heard there was a fight between some of the kids on the courts last week over politics and when I asked him about it (through a translator) he thought I was talking about the Arab University scuffle between Sunni and Shia a month ago. He started talking about that incident and how he wished there was another civil war in Lebanon so that the Sunni could kill all the Shia in Lebanon, his cousin joined in and so did the 6 year old boy who was running through the fence holes...they were all nodding and agreeing that the Shia deserved to die. My translator (who's Lebanese Shia) looked at me afterward, on the verge of tears, and said, "this is what I hate about this fucking country."
But it wasn't all negative. After that I went back to the court to speak with the coach some of the older kids ran up around me and were dying to talk about the political situation in Lebanon and how the camp was a great way to meet new people. They were all talking over each other about how they're sick of politics and religion. One said, "I thought all Christians hated me, but that was before I'd actually met a Christian and now I know that I can't assume people hate me, when they're far away, I have to be close and know them before I can decide." Another said, "take this camp for example, you have Omar, you have Ali..." when I asked him what that meant he said, "it's very diverse here there are Shia there are Sunna there are Christians." (people here can tell what sect they're from by their names here)
have you been training or teaching any capoeira?
Posted by: pavao | March 20, 2007 at 07:43 PM
I totally agree with Karen - that stuff about the gay/trans-gendered scene is incredible. You might have found a really cool niche meraji ... keep up the amazing work!!
Posted by: Stephen | March 19, 2007 at 02:16 PM
This is really good stuff--the pieces on the gay/transgender scene are things I've never read anywhere else. Keep digging beneath the surface. You're doing really well!
kgb
Posted by: karen bates | March 19, 2007 at 07:43 AM
Saw a trailer for a US documentary called "Jesus Camp". I'm sure you've heard of it. It blew me away. Seeing children talk this way is disheartening. And it happens all over the world.
Great read. Keep em coming.
Posted by: Federico | March 19, 2007 at 06:30 AM