Leaving Tomorrow (Inshallah)

Just a quick post before I go to bed, completely ignoring the packing that I haven't done despite plans over three days. Must leave in the am at 10, film half finished, my voice over star won't be in the UK of course, so !/1/?

Had 'final' meetings with senior Education Ministry Staff, anxious to make sure that I don't forget that they need 5000 computers (can be done for £250,000,peanuts, really), and wish to see me again with Portakabins for overflow schools which can be wedged into small spaces. You'll already know that most schools here, in the state sector, operate in two shifts, each one rammed full, class ratios being anything over forty:one, but most normally nearer to fifty. Well, we'll set up an appeal, and we'll think about transport. Anybody on the convoy want to share some of this workload? You can't take computers in through Rafah in the current rules, but......

As regards my first priority, the Art Van Exhibition Tour, I have posted a video of the first school that I worked with, including a rather pompous speech by me, but with a few nice pictures, mostly by girls not personally affected by deaths from the Israeli Attack. You'll find it in the right hand side bar, scroll down to it. It's the film at the top, at the date of posting. Or go to my channel THETRUTHOFPALESTINE on Youtube, and watch 'Art'.

See you all in Blighty, and I actually might have more time to write this blog, catching up on all the things that I meant to say about Gaza, but never got round too.

On the other hand, I could be back in my hotel with a sakhlab, (or some similar name) a nourishing milk and nuts drink that I can't begin to describe, but could devote a lot a waiting time to trying.

This is the Young Press Club. These beautifully turned out young girls interview edit and publish video, radio and press pieces, under the supervision of Ghassan, the man on the right. The back row from the left is The man in charge of the British Council, Me, The  British Consul. The club operate out of premises near Tal Al Howa, where there was a major incursion of tanks, and cold blooded murder, and many of them come from there. In fact the four girls on the left of the front row are all the victims of multiple murder, of which they are the sole survivors (well two are sisters). Although I suspect that they are like swans, serene on top but paddling madly underneath, their composure is remarkable just three months after such a huge trauma.

We'll be hearing more about them, and about the others that I haven't had time or organisation to write about, I promise.

There was a suggestion that the British Government actually supported this project, but they don't. I asked Ghassan whether he thought that his project was the best way they could spend their money to improve the psychological health of the kids. He said that the best way to improve the health of kids in Gaza was to disarm Israel. Everything else is just shuffling chairs on the Titanic.