My first experience as a teacher volunteer

By Theresa Toerien

July 1 - July 3

Ali Bey Kenagi Hotel

We arrived in Istanbul on July 1, and continued onto our next flight and destination - Gaziantep.  We arrived at this very quaint old style hotel, where we met up with Natasha.

We had a day and a half to get ourselves prepared for our workshops and orientate ourselves with our environment.   After a lovely day exploring we met up with Jehad, Furaz, Ms. Ruba and Captain Fawaz to explain our program and make arrangements for the next few days.

On Monday morning we all woke up refreshed and ready to go. After sharing a breakfast of a variety of cheeses, breads and fried eggs with Natasha and Naima, we did some further preparation for the day ahead at New World Academy.  

Communication is a barrier and messages get lost in translation.   We were waiting for Captain Fawaz, (he got that name because he coaches soccer) to pick us up at 12:00, since we thought after our previous evening’s meeting that we would be working with the teacher’s from 12:30-2:00, since the boys were swimming and the girls had another activity.  Captain Fawaz arrived at 1:15 pm and excitedly we jumped into the mini van.   We arrived at NWA and it seemed chaotic. The 3-4 year olds were running around getting ready to go for lunch, the girls were in English class, the boys were just returning from their swimming activity and heading to lunch.

We decided that we will take all the kids from ages 4-11 to work with them for the first 2 hours and then do some art at the end of the day...Oh boy what an interesting experience. I walked around and started taking photos as I was the designated photographer.

We had to wait a while for the kids to finish lunch and as they finished slowly they started peeking around the door of the multipurpose room that we were going to use as a drama room.   One little boy was brave enough to come in with a little bit of encouragement.  You could see by the look on his face that he was intrigued with these strange people.  We learned that his name is Said and that he can speak pretty good english, eventually his friends Assad and Ahmet joined them.   After a couple of minutes the rest of the school rushed in.   The “games” began.  I must say I loved seeing the little ones trying to mimic the Drama activities with as much gusto as the older children and with maybe even more concentration.  It goes to show that even with the language barrier actions speak louder than words. After an hour we decided that it was time to split the groups as it was a little chaotic and the AC was not working in the room. Naima took the older ones and continued the drama activities and Natasha took the 4-7 year olds for ELL.  It was interesting to learn that the kids were reluctant to remove their shoes and sit on a floor without carpeting.  I observed the kids and noted that they were very aggressive towards each other and then there were also groups who would not let go of each other.  We have an idea of what some of them have experienced in their short lives but we will never know the actual back story and the impact it already has on their future.

We arrived back at the hotel after a long and tiring day to meet up with Buket who joined us from Istanbul to help with the Art program.

Monday, July 3rd

We arrived at New World Academy and Naima and Natasha received a resounding welcoming. I moved between classes for the first two hours taking photographs and just observing the behavior of the kids. We had purchased books for the kids to do their writing and it was interesting to see that every time they were asked to do a different writing activity they would rip out the page and start on a new one. When they left the room they just left the writing books on the table although we had explained that it was theirs to keep and to bring back for the next lesson. For the last hour of the day Naima and I started a hand drawing activity with the boys as the girls were dancing.  We are getting them to make a friendship tree.  

Tuesday, July 4th

They drew their hands, wrote their names, drew a picture and then colored it. Once they were finished each boy had a turn to get up and explain why he had used the specific colors and what the words and pictures meant.  They were all very engaged in this activity and it was one of the quietest moments during the day.  The owner has kindly offered us 5 free meals. We day and enjoyed a lovely dinner at Imam Cagdas Restaurant.  

Wednesday, 5 June

Yet another interesting day to begin with the little mites. Today we introduced friendship bracelets. I prepared the card with the string and taught them how to start weaving the bracelets. They were all very interested in making these bracelets and took pride in their achievements when they saw how these loose pieces of string eventually became a knotted bracelet.  They could not complete the task in the given hour and were very excited that they could take them home and bring them back the next day to complete.  This was the only activity where the boys and girls were not aggressive toward each other and gender did not matter they were just being kids.  Mohammed had finished his bracelet and wanted to finish his as he was not coming back the next day.  I did not quite get the message from Naima and the poor child was so upset that he could not finish his bracelet.  Naima managed to get the message across that we would put the button on the next day and send it home with his mother who works at the school.

Thursday, July 6th

When we arrived at the school the kids came up to me with their bracelets and were anxious that they had to wait until the end of the day to finish their bracelets.  Some of the kids asked me to keep their bracelets until the art class.  It was very interesting to see their little faces light up once we had added the buttons and fastened the bracelets around their wrists.

Friday, July 7th

We took a rest day!

Saturday, July 8th  

Natasha and I decided to do a little sightseeing today.  We went to the Gaziantep Mosaic Museum. The mosaic’s displayed in the museum is from an archeological site that was discovered in 1987. The mosaics date back to 300 BC when Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the great’s generals founded the city Seleucia (named after him) on the Euphrates as a strategic and commercial city. He also founded another city on the opposite side  named Apameia.  Seleucia grew and Apameia declined.  Seleucia was annexed by the Roman Empire and renamed Zeugma.  It was a major trade city on the Euphrates.  Over the year as history continued the cities were buried and rebuilt.  Since 1987 excavations for the two cities were carried out by the Gaziantep Museum, but in 2000 due to other artifacts found it came to the attention of the international spotlight.  Unfortunately with the completion of the Birecik Dam in 2000 the water began to rise over the ancient cities of Belkis/Zeugma and eventually submerged the cities for eternity.  Fortunately hundreds of square meters of mosaics columns, fountains and small artifacts were rescued and restored and these are on display at the Museum today.

We also went for a walk through the old markets, with displays, of copper wares, handmade leather shoes, dried vegetables used for the making of dolmades and of course the famous pistachio nuts.

BBQ in the Park

Jehad and Furaz picked us up at around 6.00pm for a barbecue in the park. We arrived and there was group of about 15 adults and a combination of teenagers and smaller kids.  We were a total of about 20 people.  Upon arriving Jehad walked us around the park where we able to observe different stages for “courtships”  from weddings to engagements.  We saw brides in wedding gowns ranging from white, blue, light pink, purple it was a rainbow of colors.  Some dresses were hijab styled and others were very western and quite revealing which I found very interesting.  I could hardly figure out which were wedding celebrations and which were engagement celebrations as all the outfits were so similar.

We finally settled down under some Eucalyptus trees and the evening preparations began.  The ladies prepared the salad and breads and hummus, while Captain Fawaz took charge of getting the fire going and cooking our chicken. Throughout the evening I had various conversations with individual people in the group and found more about their lives in Syria and how they arrived in Turkey and are coping with the current situation. They ranged from doctors, dentist, biochemists, educators and housewives. They were of the fortunate ones who still had a means of getting out of Syria and starting a life in Turkey without having to experience the hardships of the camps.

Jehad and Furaz, met at university. She is from Damascus and he is from Homms.  She was in her first year and he in his final year studying to be a chemist.  She jokes about how they fell in love and he was patient enough to wait for her for four years to finish her degree in biochemistry.  They married and opened a pharmacy in Homms. After the revolution started they travelled to Damascus one weekend to visit Furaz’s family. Upon returning to Homms they discovered that their building in which they worked and lived had been destroyed, many of their friends had died and disappeared that weekend.  They went to Damascus to try and rebuild their lives but eventually decided to come to Turkey, which was no easy feat, they packed their possessions into the car and drove a dangerous route to Lebanon, from there they continued their journey and eventually ended up in a small coastal town in Turkey, once they received their protective residence status they moved onto Gaziantep as they already had a network of friend here who had made the journey before.  The car they picked us up in is the one they came with four years ago.  They took psychology courses and are working at NGO’s within Gaziantep helping local Syrian’s as well as women and children within Syria.

We also chatted with a younger lady (Sarah) whose journey was even more challenging,  she has been in Gaziantep for just over two years now.  She was studying to be a doctor like her sister but according to her she unfortunately did not get the grades required to continue after two years of studies.  She is married to a doctor who has chosen to stay in the villages around Homms because there are no doctors looking after pregnant and sick females.   Her journey to Gaziantep began like all the other stories.  Their home was bombed and after numerous moves from one apartment to another and hiding away with 3 children all the time just became to stressful.  Her sister who is a dentist was already in Gaziantep. For Sarah the journey was even more daunting - she had a 3 month old baby and two 9 year old girls. One of the girls is severely brain damaged and in a wheelchair, unable to do anything for herself.  She was born normal but at two months old the doctors found a tumor on her brain and decided to operate.  Her condition just deteriorated from there.  So with a baby and a child in a wheelchair and no husband to help her, she started her journey.  She had to change vehicles eight times on the journey from Homms to Lebanon.   After that she had to take a boat to Iskenduren, Turkey to be able to arrive on a protective residence visa.  After her visa was granted she continued the journey to Gaziantep to meet up with her family.  She has only just moved into her own apartment with her kids and we were fortunate to meet her husband.   He had come to Turkey for Eid. He wasn’t sure when he was returning to Homms because his journey is extremely dangerous. Once he reaches the Turkish/Syrian border he walks or travels on a donkey for 6 hours back to Homms. He does not use any vehicles because he says that makes him an easy target and he needs to survive to keep doing his job.

This is just one of many stories we heard. It is amazing to me how these people have the strength and tenacity to rebuild their lives and continue to be so positive and happy.  I learned a lot about human nature from them.  Thank you to all.

10-13 July, 2017

We returned to the organized chaos of New World Academy on Monday refreshed and ready to continue our teaching quest. I was amazed at what these kids found valuable to them and hung onto that.  We would generally assume it would be textbooks, pencils, crayons, and books, but it wasn’t. It was the little things like the friendship bracelets they spent hours making, which I must admit I am very proud of being able to teach them how to make those.   The little click clack crocodile clips that made sounds, the plastic covered maraca bottles made me think that perhaps those are the things they miss the most. Having something simple, and what we think may view as irrelevant, to be able to call their own.

I learned that just showing up and caring, taking a minute of your time to stroke the arm of a distressed child who cannot handle the noise of another screaming child, meant the world to these children.

The thank you we received at the end of the week was overwhelming and brought tears to many, that made up for all the other frustrating events and language barriers which there were plenty of.

Finally:

We are always all so busy and caught up in our own lives, that our problems seem to be the only ones in the world, then you have an experience like this and realize how spoiled and privileged most of us are.  

I want to make an effort to continue helping those in real need.  I may not be an educator with all the necessary degrees required these days to be able to help those in need, but I am a mother and a grandmother and love and caring just comes naturally.  I’m sure I will be able to add the other things to my repertoire like learning more arts and crafts!!!!

Thank you Naima for giving me this opportunity to work with you and the team in Gaziantep 2017!