Music as Therapy

03

DEC
2009

Posted at 13:50

News from Bethlehem 10

Hannah:
Our last few days are proving to be extremely busy as we continue to deliver sessions at the SOS School and in the Village. By now however, many of our trainees are able to lead the sessions by themselves which is great for us to see and reassures our hope that they will be able to sustain these sessions once we leave. The instruments we purchased last week are going down very well and proving a success in both places.

Over the weekend the village was fairly empty as the majority of the children were away visiting family or friends for a few days to celebrate Eid. There were however, around ten children who stayed at the village for the duration which, for me, really highlights the importance of the SOS community and organisation as these children sadly have no one else to look after them. With a complete day off last Sunday we set off for Jerusalem to meet up with the music teacher from SOS school who is also one of our trainees. He had kindly offered to spend the day with us (I say ‘kindly’ because days off are rare for him and he sees us many times at school!) and he gave us a fantastic tour of the Old City, this time focussing on the Armenian Quarter as this is where he grew up. Despite spending many an occasion on a noisy bus trip where the children here go wild for loud Arabic pop music Liz and I have yet to be put off; in fact we have fallen in love with Arabic music off all kinds and so whilst in Jerusalem with our music specialist we were desperate to get our hands on some CDs to take home!

What we have seen of Palestine so far has been fantastic. As well as the phenomenal architecture, sites of religious history and landscape that is very different from home, I think the most special thing I have come across here is the friendliness of the Palestinian people. Tomorrow will be our last day at the SOS School. We will really miss all the people there as they have been extremely welcoming. The trainees especially have worked very hard and shown great enthusiasm for the ‘Music as Therapy’ programme. I’ll try get back on the computer and give you some more information before we leave.

Music as Therapy trainees.
27

NOV
2009

Posted at 16:37

News from Bethlehem 9

This week has been very busy indeed. It is a Muslim holiday here at the moment, so the schools are closed until Tuesday next week. To compensate for missed days, we have made up some sessions over the past few days, and will be trying to ensure everything is tied up neatly by the time we leave.

Preparing the handbook for staff is our priority at the moment, although it’s a bit difficult to concentrate! Some of the children who are here in the Village without families or friends to stay with over this holiday are being very boisterous, and keep rushing in as they don’t understand why we are working today! In fact I’ve just been given some sweets to keep me going by a kind little friend.

Talking of food, we’ve been given some amazing meals here in the Village. Earlier in the week we had Cabsa, a rice-based dish containing various spices, sultanas and roast almonds together with chicken. We have been given the recipe, and also a quantity of spices to enable us to (hopefully) reproduce this when we go home. Another hit was a famous dish called Musakhan. This is again made with spiced roast chicken, and served on large round pizza type breads called taboon. It has a sweet fried onion topping made with sumac, a spice derived from the plant of the same name that is deep purple. We recommend it, although beware, it is very filling!

A social worker at SOS village and a music teacher (below).