#Amman Farmers Market | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

andnowanowl · 3 months

Text

Since "Palestine Speaks: Narratives of Life Under Occupation" is suspiciously not available in the US in the form of an e-book, I purchased a physical copy and wanted to share it here for anyone else also unable to get access.

IBTISAM ILZOGHAYYER

Director of cultural center, 54

Born in Battir, West Bank

Interviewed in Bethlehem, West Bank

During our dozen or more meetings with Ibtisam Ilzoghayyer in her office, her black hair is either pulled back into a slick ponytail or falls to her shoulders in tight curls. She speaks with us in English, and she has a distinct accent influenced by her time studying at Newcastle University in northern England. When she stands, she adjusts a clamp on a knee brace in order to walk. This is due to a childhood bout with polio, which she contracted when she was two years old.

Ibtisam is the director of the Ghirass Cultural Center, which she helped found in 1994. Ghirass, which means "young trees" in Arabic, serves more than a thousand youth annually in the Bethlehem region through enrichment programs in reading, traditional Palestinian arts, and more. The center also provides literacy programs for women - generally mothers who are learning to read so that they can take a more active role in their children's education.

The walls of Ibtisam's office are decorated with awards and framed drawings by children who have passed through the center. Throughout her day, children stop by to share their successes - an improved test score or a list of books read during the month. Ibtisam takes time with each one to congratulate and encourage them, and to laugh with them. She spends most of her time at the center she works five or six days a week, though she can often be found at the center on her days off as well. When she isn't at the center, she is likely to be at home with her elderly mother, tending a large garden of fruit trees, flowers, and vegetables.

I was born in 1960, in Battir.¹ Life in the village was simple. Most of my neighbors were farmers, and when I was a child, people from Battir would all travel into Jerusalem to sell produce in the markets there. My parents had some land that they farmed, and my father was also a chef. When I was very young, he worked at a hotel in Amman, Jordan, and we'd see him on the weekends.² Then, after 1967, he began working as a chef at the American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem.³

My mother stayed home and raised me and my siblings - there were nine of us. We didn't have TVs, and there were no computers and no plastic toys to keep us distracted. I think we were lucky to have those things. Instead, we used nature. We'd play in the fields, climbtrees, make toys ourselves out of sticks and stones. It seemed then there weren't divisions then between neighbors, despite religion or other differences. We were all part of one culture in many ways. I remember my mother coloring eggs every Easter. It was something that had been passed down for generations - it wasn't a Christian thing or a Muslim thing, it was a Palestinian thing to mark Easter that way.

I must have joined in all the games when I was very young, but then I developed a disability as an infant. When I was two and a half years old, my mother was carrying me past a clinic in town one day. A clinic nurse stopped us and told my mother she should come in, that she should get me the vaccine for polio. So I was given a vaccine. That night I had a fever, and I couldn't move my right arm and left leg. Over the next few years, I was able to regain function of my limbs, but my left leg grew in shorter than my right. At age four, I started wearing a brace to help me walk. It was just bad luck that we walked past that clinic.

I had to get used to people treating me differently because of my disability. Even people's facial expressions when meeting me were different they didn't react to me as if I were a normal child. When I was at school, I was excluded from physical education activities, and some field trips that required a lot of walking. That was really difficult.

I also had learning disabilities. My teacher beat me once in fourth grade because I was nearly failing all subjects. Education was important to my parents, so they were unhappy that I was struggling. My father had only gone through fourth grade, so he could read and write. My mother had never been to school. But they wanted more for their kids. Especially me. Because I had a disability, they wanted me to do well in school so that I'd be independent when I grew up, and not need to rely on anyone.

Then in the fifth grade, I succeeded on an exam, and the feeling was very strange. The teacher handed back the paper and said the work was "excellent." I couldn't believe I'd done anything that would make her say that. I couldn't believe that it was my paper that was excellent. I thought she'd made a mistake. I think that's common for children who aren't used to success-they don't realize it's their effort that leads to excellence. They think it's by accident. But I tasted success just that one time, and I realized I loved it. I just had to convince myself it wasn't a mistake! Then I continued to try hard at school, and I started to realize my potential.

In 1977, I was accepted into a boarding school in Jerusalem. It was actually right next to the American Colony Hotel, so I could see my father sometimes. I'd also go home on holidays. It was still relatively easy to travel into and out of Jerusalem then.

I did well enough in high school that I got accepted into the University of Jordan in Amman. I started there in the fall of 1979, and I studied economics. I loved university, and I wasn't lonely. Other than college students who became friends, I had a lot of family living and working in Amman. But I still felt homesick sometimes, and I started to understand what made Palestine feel special. In my last year at university, the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish came to read at a theater on campus. I got tickets to go, but when I arrived, the theater was absolutely packed. And the streets outside were full. There were so many Palestinians in Jordan, and we all wanted to hear this poet remind us what it meant to be Palestinian.

IT RAISED A LOT OF EMOTIONS FOR ME

I returned home in 1984, and I had one of the hardest years of my life. I had just spent many years working extremely hard to make something of myself, to become independent from my parents - economically, emotionally, socially so that I wouldn't be a burden to them. Then I returned to Palestine and found I couldn't get a job. Because of my economics degree, I wanted to work in a bank, but there weren't any jobs in that field available, and I couldn't find any other sort of work. So I lived with my parents for a year and they supported me. I was very depressed during that time.

Then one day in 1985, I read a classified ad put up by the BASR.⁶ They were offering to train workers in a field called community-based rehabilitation, which was about helping people with disabilities overcome them by working with the family - the whole community, really - to integrate the disabled into daily life. At first, I wanted nothing to do with that sort of work. I had an economics degree, and I had spent my whole life trying to get away from any limitations imposed by my own disability. I simply didn't want to think about disabilities. But I desperately wanted a job, so I applied.

I trained with the BASR for a year. It was hard. I worked with children who had hearing issues, blindness, mental health issues. The work brought up a lot of emotions for me, and it took some time to become comfortable around the children. But I kept receiving praise from my supervisors, and they made me feel like I was useful. In 1986, I began working in some of the refugee camps in Bethlehem as well, and that helped open my eyes. I got to see some of the real traumathat was happening in the community. That same year, BASR opened a community center for people with mental health disabilities, and I helped to run it. It was a very busy time for me.

Then the following year, in 1987, the First Intifada began. I remember it started just after I got my driver's license. I bought an old used car on November 30 of that year, and I was really proud of myself. I was starting to feel quite independent. Then I set out to drive to work for the first time on December 6, and I ended up driving through streets littered with stones and burning tires. It was the first day of the Intifada, and I couldn't make it to work that day - there was too much happening in the streets. So I spent the day listening to the news with my family.

THINKERS BEFORE FIGHTERS

The idea of starting a community center came to me in 1990. It was the middle of the First Intifada, and the streets were dangerous places to play for children. Aside from the threat of getting caught in fighting, children were sometimes targeted by soldiers. Sometimes children threw stones at soldiers, but other times soldiers would find children simply playing traditional games with stones. Many children, even young children, were arrested by soldiers who saw them playing these games. So the idea of the center started as a way to give children a safe place to play.

Also, at that time many schools were frequently closed by military order, so children had to stay at home for long stretches of time. Sometimesthe Israeli military would even use schools as checkpoints to control the area. The school in Battir was used as a military camp. These realities came together to make us want to start the center.

The BASR was able to establish the Ghirass Cultural Center in Bethlehem in late 1993, early 1994. In the West Bank at that time, the school curriculum was Jordanian. In Gaza, it was Egyptian.⁸ So when I went to school, I studied a Jordanian curriculum. We never studied anything about Palestine or its history. We never saw a Palestinian map. We studied the history of Jordan, of China, of Germany, of England - I remember learning about all the families who ruled England-but nothing connected to our history, nothing connected to our geography, nothing connected to our culture.

When we started the center, we wanted to educate children about Palestinian culture, Palestinian music, Palestinian poetry. We have famous poets like Mahmoud Darwish, but it was forbidden for us to read from them or read other Palestinian writers. If the Israelis caught us with a book from certain Palestinian writers, we might end up in jail. We couldn't have Palestinian flags, political symbols, anything considered propaganda for a Palestinian state-everything could get us into trouble. My family, like most in the West Bank, had a hiding spot at home. For us, it was at the back of the cupboard. When we heard there were going to be raids on houses, we'd quickly hide our forbidden books of poetry or flags or whatever behind a false wall at the back of that cupboard.

With these restrictions in mind, one of our first goals at the center was to provide a sense of Palestinian culture to children. We wanted the center to be inclusive, so we didn't allow any religious symbols or symbols of any specific political parties in the center. We had children from Christian communities and Muslim, urban and rural, from refugee camps and from relatively well-off neighborhoods. I also continued to work with children who had disabilities, but we integrated them with other kids in the classroom, whether they were blind or hearing impaired or had learning disabilities. They were all integrated.

After working this way in the cultural center, I even began to forget my own disability completely. I had other things to worry about or work on. One day, I saw myself in a reflection in a window while in the street, and I remembered I didn't walk as other people do - I had simply forgotten for a time that I had any disability at all. And I was happy for myself! Overcoming my own disability was no longer my focus.

In the center, I tried to make students thinkers before fighters. I did everything I could to keep them in the center, or make sure they went straight home to keep them from dangerous interactions with the soldiers. We lost some children - some had a strong feeling that they wanted to fight. It was very difficult. Of course, they didn't always understand what they were doing. But they weren't just imitating other people who were fighting in the streets, they were expressing their own anger from experiencing humiliation and violence.

Not long after the center was established and I had begun working there, I had the chance to travel abroad for the first time. I went with a friend to help her apply for a scholarship offered by the British consul to study in England. While there, I applied myself, sort of on a whim. But it turns out I won the scholarship. When I got the call that I had won, the consular office gave me two weeks to get ready for travel. So for the first time, I got to leave Palestine - other than my college years in Jordan. I studied for a year at Newcastle University⁹ and learned administration and counseling. It was a good experience, even though it was hard.

I felt homesick from the moment the plane took off. I was away from home from the fall of 1994 to the spring of 1995. I got to travel a lot throughout England, and that was interesting, but I wanted to go home the whole time. I remember I had very little money, and what I had I'd use to call my family. I'd spend hours asking my brothers about neighbors I barely knew - old men who hung out on the street that I never talked to, for instance - just because I wanted to know everything that was happening at home. When I completed all my coursework, I was expected to stay for the graduation ceremony and some parties. But I told the school administration I didn't want any parties, I just wanted to go home and see my family!

CHILDREN SEE THAT THEIR PROTECTORS ARE SCARED

The Second Intifada began in 2000.¹⁰ During that time, I had to get around a lot of crazy obstacles just to continue my work. From late 2000 to 2003, I used to practically live in this office because I couldn't always go back home. I remember the first time I tried to go home to Battir from Bethlehem in 2000, just after the Intifada started. It was just a couple of miles, and the checkpoint was closed. Nobody could cross to or from the five villages on the other side of the checkpoint. The soldiers refused to let anyone go back home. Children, old men, workers - imagine, all these normal people who wanted to go back home at four p.m., the end of the working day. Hundreds of people! We were surrounded by soldiers, and I remember thinking that nobody had any place to hide if shooting started. I waited that day from four p.m. to seven p.m. At seven p.m., I was so angry and depressed I started talking to myself. I said, "God, are you there? And if you are there, are you seeing us? And if you are seeing us, are you satisfied with what is happening to us?" Finally, a little after seven p.m., I gave up and came back to Bethlehem and stayed at the center.

Another time that same year, I tried to walk home past the checkpoint. The Israelis had blocked the road with large stones. I wanted to go around the stones, because I couldn't climb over them with my leg problems. It was also slippery, because it was wintertime. But a soldier, a man less than twenty-five years old, stopped me from going around. When I tried to explain, the soldier said bad things to me - nobody in my life has said these things to me. He called me a prostitute. I can't repeat all the things he said. I became angry and I started to argue, and at that moment, a young man, Palestinian, tried to calm me down and asked me to stay quiet. He took my hand and helped me pass the checkpoint. At that moment I couldn't talk. I passed the checkpoint, and my brother was waiting for me on the other side. He took me by my hand and led me to his car, where my nephews and nieces were waiting. Normally I would talk to them, but I couldn't say a word. I knew that if I spoke, I'd start crying, and nobody would be able to stop me. I reached home and I threw myself on the bed. I felt I was paralyzed completely.

I saw the soldier the next day. I had a feeling that if I'd had a gun, I would have killed him. You know, I can't kill an insect, but in that moment, I felt my anger was more than it's been at any time. When he saw me, he began swearing at me again. It was very humiliating. I saw that soldier many times-usually soldiers would stay one week or ten days before they changed the group of soldiers at the checkpoints. I had to see him every day. And every day I looked at him and wished that someone would kill him in front of me. I wanted him to suffer.

One more occasion stands out from that checkpoint during the Second Intifada - I'm not sure exactly when. I remember a little girl was crying. She needed to get to school to take exams, and the soldier wouldn't let her. It's not guaranteed that a child is able to go to school. And it's not guaranteed that the child will be able to come back. Of course, this kind of helplessness has a psychological impact on kids as they grow up. Many parents have told us that their children have nightmares and achievement problems. Children look to us adults as people who can protect them, and when we can't - in many situations, we're scared! To see the child recognize that his mother is scared, his father is scared-it's not an easy thing.

When you move around Bethlehem, it's very restricted. We don't travel long distances. When you face a checkpoint or a wall, you might need to travel only a mile or two as the crow flies, but your destination is far away behind the wall. The children I teach don't have a good sense of distance because of the restrictions. They might say they live "far away," and I'll ask, "How far?" And it's a ten-minute car ride away, if not for checkpoints. That's far for them, because that fifteen minutes might actually be an hour or two most days. Sometimes I try to put all the obstacles in the back of my mind - the checkpoints, the harassments - to try and keep up my energy for my work, to keep my optimism for the future. But when I'm waiting at checkpoints, I have to face the hard realities of our lives. And the children I deal with they also have to face these realities, and before they're even fully grown they have to face them without guidance, without someone to protect them.

THE SIGN JUST SAID "OTHERS"

Back in 1994, just after we'd started the center, we used to take students to Jerusalem for trips, to spend the day in the city. It was possible then. Since the Second Intifada, it's not possible to take the class to Jerusalem.

I think this is the first generation of Palestinians that isn't able to see Jerusalem easily. Now we only talk about Jerusalem. At the center, when we ask the children, "What is Jerusalem?" they only know about the Dome of the Rock.¹¹ That's all Jerusalem is for them. They've never experienced the city - to see it with true senses, to feel it, to smell it. They only know it through photos. I think it's really demoralizing that this experience, something that used to be essential to being Palestinian, has vanished. I think the Israeli government wants other parts of Palestine - Gaza, Jerusalem - banished from our minds. The new generation, these children might never come to Jerusalem. After years, how will it be in their mind? They won't think of it as Palestine.

Here in the center, we try to keep students connected with the different parts of Palestine, even if it's only through photos, movies, films anything. For instance, I want our students to understand that Gaza is part of Palestine. This is my hope for all Palestinians in the West Bank, that if they have the opportunity, even if it takes a lot of effort, to go and visit Gaza. I think it's our duty. Many people have lost their lives to keep Gaza and the West Bank one land. I'm not losing my life, but I have put in some real effort to go there.

In 2011, I went to Gaza to facilitate an outreach program. I was with a German colleague who worked for a German NGO that addressed international development projects. The German NGO was trying to fund a cultural center in Gaza that used our center in Bethlehem as a model. The Israelis keep a tight control on who gets into Gaza, so the permits to visit were not easy to get. I had to go through a lawyer and the court to get the permit. First, the Israeli military rejected my request for the permit, but I was able to appeal and get permission from the court to go for one night. It took me some time to get permission. But even then, I had to go through checkpoints - a checkpoint to get out of the West Bank, and then another checkpoint to get into Gaza.

To get to Gaza, we took the car of my German colleague. When Palestinian workers in Israel talk about the checkpoint, you can't imagine - you hear about it, but you need to live the experience to understand it. We went through the checkpoint nearest Hebron, because from Bethlehem it is the most direct route to Gaza.¹² It was the first time I was at that checkpoint. I can't imagine the mind that designed that checkpoint. It's a kind of torture. We tried to pass through the checkpoint in her car. We thought we might have an easier time in her car since she was an international. She passed right through in her car at first, but then a soldier stepped into the road and stopped us. They checked my ID, saw that I was Palestinian, and I was made to get out of the car and walk back to the checkpoint building a fifteen-minute walk! It was difficult for me to walk all that way with my brace. When I got back to the checkpoint, I was put in line with the rest of the Palestinians. It was around seven a.m., so most of the people there were workers. We were herded in lines through cages, and all around us were young soldiers with guns. There were only three or four other women in line, and they all passed through with no extra delay. But not me.

All the Palestinians have to pass through metal detectors. I failed the detector because of my metal leg brace. The soldiers had to examine me personally because I couldn't just take off the metal and pass through the detector. Soldiers behind security glass told me that I'd need to be taken to a special cell. The whole time I was at the checkpoint, I hardly ever talked to a soldier directly - it was through microphones, since they were always behind glass.

I was taken to a cell with no chairs. The walls were all metal with no windows, and I couldn't see anyone. I stood waiting for half an hour. I thought they might have forgotten about me. Because of my disability, it's difficult for me to stand for long periods of time. I knocked, and nobody came. Later, I knocked several more times, to remind them that there was somebody here.

Then I was taken to another room, also like a cell - just five feet by five feet. Here there was a soldier behind security glass. She was young, in her twenties. Otherwise I was alone in the room. The soldier was dealing with me as if I didn't exist. She ignored me and didn't bother to explain what would happen next. She just sat there behind the glass. From time to time I would knock, or ask her to please search me so I could leave the cell, and she'd say, "I'm just waiting for someone to come." For an hour she left me standing there.

Then another soldier joined her behind the glass. They told me to undress. I said, "I can't, there's a camera." She looked at it and said flatly, "Yes, there's a camera in the room." Every checkpoint has a Palestinian mediator, someone to translate and do chores for the soldiers, and I made them get him for me. This took a long time. Eventually, he arrived and I talked to him. He put his jacket on the camera and then brought me something to put on. I got undressed and then the soldiers told me how to move so they could examine me. Then I put on the clothes the mediator brought while he took my other clothes for them to examine. More waiting. After everything was over, the mediator took his jacket and left, and then I was taken to pass through the metal detector again.

The whole time, my colleague was outside in the car waiting for me. It had been hours. Then, once we made it to the Gaza border, it was the same procedure. My German colleague was allowed to pass quickly through the checkpoint, while I had to go through procedures strictly for Palestinians, not for foreigners. At the Erez checkpoint, we were not in the car.¹³ We had to park, and after you pass through the checkpoint, everyone has to walk through a mile-long tunnel to where the taxis are.

The tunnel was an open-air tunnel, with fencing on both sides. It was narrow-not big enough for a car to drive through. Outside the fence was a barren, treeless security area. My colleague had waited for me so we could walk the tunnel together, but a mile is very far for me to walk. I had to sit on a luggage cart of another Palestinian who pushed me the whole way. It was a struggle for me. I like to think of myself as strong, independent. I do things on my own. It's not easy for me to sit on a luggage cart and be pushed!

We finally made it to Gaza after hours going through the checkpoints. We went directly to the organization because we couldn't waste time. They only issued me a permit for one day! It's ridiculous to not be able to visit your own country. We can move freely in other countries, but not in our own.

After I finished my trip to Gaza, I had to go back through screening at Erez. This time, at the start of the checkpoint, I saw the two signs-one for "Israelis and Foreigners," and the other just said, "Others." You know, it's like they want us to feel that we belong to nothing. They could write "Palestinians," they could write "Arabs," but "Others"?

Going through the tunnel, there were open-air cells along the way. They were more modern than the Hebron checkpoint, but the same principle. The soldiers were all on high scaffolding with guns. They looked down on us from up high and talked into microphones. They would say things like, "Open gate number 2. Open gate number 10." And they'd tell us to move along. The whole time, we could see soldiers on the scaffolding, but we could never see exactly who was talking to us and ordering us onward to the next cell. The last cell had a ceiling and a grated floor. A soldier behind the glass was there. She asked me to take off my clothes. We negotiated what I could take off and leave on. I took off my trousers and my brace and put them on the conveyor belt. She checked them and then put my things back on the machine to send back to me. I waited for them to contact the people who got me a permit. It took a long time. I thought I had already negotiated all the permits I needed, so it would be fine, but no. They made me wait anyway.

I've spoken with some friends and some people at the Bethlehem Arab Society for Rehabilitation. They go through the same thing, the same conditions. They have the same procedure. It's not because of me - they target Palestinians anyway - but they could show more understanding. They could not make me wait so long, or bring me a chair to sit on, to be humane. I understand they need to check, but they could do it without humiliating the person. If this were just about security, they wouldn't need to humiliate Palestinians and not others. It's to show that we're a lower class of people. The Israelis and foreigners are first-class, the Palestinian people fifth-class. And people don't understand why we are fighting. I want to be equal! Equality! Not one of us is better than the other.

Someday I want to go back to Gaza to keep working on developing a cultural center that is like Ghirass. But by then I hope I can find an easier way to get there than through the Hebron and Erez checkpoints as they are now. Still, I'm happy that I passed that experience, really. Now I know what it's like for Palestinians who have had to travel through the checkpoints day after day for work.

ALL THINGS INDICATE THAT THE FUTURE WILL BE MORE DIFFICULT

I am very proud of being Palestinian. I have never thought of living in another country. I've traveled across Europe, but I prefer to live in Palestine. When I was abroad and something bad happened in Palestine, it would be very difficult for me to sleep. If people I love die, then I want to die with them; if they live, I want to live with them. If they face a difficult situation, I want the same thing to happen to me. I want to be a member of this society. When I think of Palestine, I think of the struggles we've had. We have to keep struggling for our rights, and there's no end to the struggling for me - some days it's for rights, some days it's to improve education. We are all fighters. When I do work with the children at the center, that's fighting. When I work to improve their quality of life, that's fighting. And working against the occupation, that's fighting as well.

Day by day, it becomes more difficult. All things happening in Palestine indicate that the future will be more difficult. Twelve years ago we did not have the wall, the settlements were fewer, the harassment was less. Everything bad is increasing. Usually I avoid going to the checkpoints, because it makes me sick - physically, emotionally, all kinds of sick. It usually takes me time to come back to normal.

My goal now is to expand the center - to extend it and spread it to other places. We're working on outreach programs, to reach schools and other communities that are struggling just to continue to exist. Some villages are surrounded by Israeli settlements and are cut off from important resources. We are looking to support these communities and improve the quality life through education. I believe a lot in education if you want to rebuild the nation.

At the cultural center, we try to keep our students as children as long as possible, to protect them. When they reach a certain age, we can't protect them anymore, they have to face the reality of the streets by themselves. And this is very sad. I can think of many times I've been out walking with my nephew, or with other young boys and girls who are nearing the end of childhood. Suddenly I would get very sad, because when they reach fourteen, fifteen years old, they are children under international and national law, but the soldiers don't think of them as children. They deal with them as adults. And it doesn't matter if they're following the law or not. How they're treated depends on soldiers' moods. I use many strategies to manage. My strategy is that I love life. I want to protect my life, and the lives of others, as much as I can. Life, even with all these difficulties, deserves to be lived. And I like to look for nice things. Even the smile of a child, or flowers-I try to find something.

I'm not optimistic about the future for Palestinians. Israel is strong, and the Western powers give them their support. On the other hand, I don't think Israel can continue this forever. The world will not support Israel forever with all their behavior towards Palestinians. One day, changes will happen - history proves this. One day, sooner or later, the Palestinians will have their rights.

When the world looks at Palestine I do not think they see the full situation. If people want to see the reality of the situation, they will see. If they want to hear the reality, they will hear. But if they don't want to know the reality of the situation, they won't, even if it's right there in front of them.

---

Footnotes

¹ Battir is a village of around 4,000 people located four miles west of Bethlehem and three miles southwest of Jerusalem. It is a site of ancient agricultural terraces and was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2014.

² Amman, the capital of Jordan, is a city of over 2 million residents. Jordan administered the West Bank between 1948 and 1967, and many Palestinians worked in Amman during this time.

³ The American Colony Hotel is a luxury hotel in Jerusalem. It was built in the 1950s on the site of a former utopian Christian community started by an American couple from Chicago in 1881. The hotel is well known as a gathering spot for influential people from diverse political and religious backgrounds.

⁴ The University of Jordan is considered one of the most prestigious universities in the Arab world. It was founded in 1962 and currently serves over 30,000 undergraduates.

⁵ Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008) was considered Palestine's leading poet and helped lead a movement to promote Palestinian cultural heritage. Darwish was also a leader of the Palestinian liberation movement and part of the executive committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) from 1973 to 1993.

⁶ The Bethlehem Arab Society for Rehabilitation (BASR) was originally founded in 1960 as part of the Leonard Cheshire Disability project, a major charitable organization in Great Britain dedicated to global disability care.

⁷ The First Intifada was an uprising throughout the West Bank and Gaza against Israeli military occupation. It began in December 1987 and lasted until 1993. Intifada in Arabic means "to shake off."

⁸ Jordan administered the West Bank and Egypt partially administered Gaza until 1967. Textbooks developed during those administrations were used even during the Israeli occupation after 1967, but when the Palestinian Authority assumed administrative control of the West Bank in Gaza after the Oslo Accords, it developed its own educational texts.

⁹ Newcastle University is a public research university in northeast England. It serves over 20,000 students.

¹⁰ The Second Intifada was also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada. It was the first major conflict between Israel and Palestine following the Oslo accords, and it lasted from 2000 to 2005.

¹¹ The Dome of the Rock is an Islamic shrine built on the site of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

¹² From Glossary -

checkpoints: Barriers on transportation routes maintained by the Israeli Defense Forces on transportation routes within the West Bank. The stated purpose of the checkpoints in the West Bank is to protect Israeli settlers, search for contraband such as weapons, and prevent Palestinians from entering restricted areas without permits. The number of fixed checkpoints varies from year to year, but there may be as many as one hundredmthroughout the West Bank. In addition, there are temporary roadblocks and surprise checkpoints throughout the West Bank that may number in the hundreds every month. For Palestinians, these fixed and temporary checkpoints-where they may be detained, delayed, or questioned for unpredictable periods of time-make daily planning difficult and can make cities or villages only a few miles away seem like distant points on the map.

crossing points: Crossing points are the gateways into Israel from parts of Palestine, or between Palestine and neighboring countries such as Egypt and Jordan. There are currently five crossing points by land into the Gaza Strip, and most of them have been closed or significantly restricted since the Israeli military blockade was imposed in 2007. There are seventy-three barrier-gate crossing points from West Bank into Israel, and Palestinians with permits have access to thirty-eight of them.

¹³ As of 2014, the Erez crossing is the only remaining crossing point between Israel and the Gaza Strip accessible to Palestinians. The crossing is tightly restricted since 2007, and special case-by-case permits granted by Israel are needed.

#palestine speaks #palestine #palestinian voices #strike for palestine #part 1 of 16 #there are sixteen interviewees #book exerpt

4 notes · View notes

subikshafoods · 1 month

Text

Beyond the Supermarket: A Local’s Guide to Buying Tasty Curd in Madurai

In the busy streets of Madurai, finding the right curd goes beyond the supermarket aisles. Locals know that an exploratory trip will yield the most delicious curd, visiting traditional dairy shops and local markets. I am glad to welcome all curd lovers to this blog. Straight from the heart of Madurai, join us on a guided tour of Madurai as we reveal the secrets of choosing to buy tasty curd in madurai. So let’s get started.

Explore local dairy stores:

Enter the world of Madurai’s local dairies, where the aroma of freshly churned Curd fills the air. Family-owned for generations, these companies pride themselves on producing Curd with authentic taste and texture. Explore neighbourhoods like Chokkikulam, Simmakkal and Kamaraj Road to discover the hidden gems that provide the city’s creamy curd.

Visit traditional dairy outlets:

For an authentic curd-buying experience, visit the traditional dairy stalls spread across Madurai. Here, you can find farmers selling fresh milk and curd directly from their farms, ensuring the highest quality and freshness. Strike up a conversation with the vendors to learn about their production methods and secrets to their delicious curd.

Check out local markets:

Find a variety of curd options at the vibrant stalls of Madurai’s local markets, such as the Meenakshi Amman Kovil Street Market or the Gandhi Market. Local vendors offer curd in various forms, from freshly made to thick and creamy varieties. Explore the market stalls and sample the different curd offerings before making your choice.

Ask for recommendations:

When in doubt, don’t hesitate to ask locals for recommendations on where to get the best curd in Madurai. Strike up a conversation with shopkeepers, vendors or fellow shoppers to gain insight into the best places to buy curd. Madurai locals are known for their hospitality and for sharing their favourite delicacies with curious visitors.

Consider direct farm purchases:

For fresh curd, you can buy it directly from local dairies on the outskirts of Madurai. Many farms offer the opportunity to visit, buy fresh Curd, and watch the curd-making process. Not only does this ensure quality and freshness, it also offers a unique farm-to-table experience.

In Madurai, the quest to buy tasty curd in madurai is a journey of exploration and discovery that stretches beyond the supermarket shelves. Discover a world of creamy delights waiting to be tasted by visiting local dairy shops, traditional milk stalls, bustling markets and farm-direct purchases. Embrace the local culture and culinary heritage of Madurai and begin your quest to discover the city’s delicious curd.

Find us inside Subiksha Foods at No 110 A, Bypass Road, Bethaniyapuram, Opp Babu Sharkar Marriage Mahal, Madurai — 625016, or call us at +91 80567 44906. You will be able to browse our website at https://subikshafoods.in/ for details.

#InstantChapatiMadurai #InstantPooriMadurai #InstantParathaMadurai #WholeWheatParathaMadurai #IdlyDosaMavunearmemadurai #idli dosa maavu in madurai #Readymade Poori Madurai #Readymade Paratha Madurai #Readymade Whole Wheat Paratha Madurai #Readymade Idly Dosa Mavu near me madurai #Readymade idli dosa maavu in madurai #Readymade Chapati Madurai #InstantChapati #ReadyToCookChapati #SemiCookedChapati #ReadymadeChapati #ReadyMadePoori #InstantPoori #ReadyMadePuri #SemiCookedPoori #ReadyToCookPoori #ReadyToCookPuri #SemiCookedPuri #InstantParatha #ReadyToCookParatha #SemiCookedParatha #ReadymadeParatha #ReadyToCookParota #SemiCookedParota #ReadymadeParota #WholeWheatParatha #ReadyMadeWheatParatha #SemiCookedWheatParatha #IdlyDosaMavu #IdlyDosaBatter #Curd #Thirunagar3rdstop #Thirunagar6thstop #Vedarpuliyankulam #Thirunagar4thstop #Thanakankulammainroad #Thirunagar4thstop #SRVnagarharveypatti #Thirunagar #Mahaboobpalayam #Sscolony #Vanamamalinagar #Nehrunagar #Karimedu #Nearmathitheatre #Melaponnagaram #Neardinamalarofficechockalinganagar #Athikulammainroad #Bankcolony #Iyerbungalowmainroad #EBcolonystreet #Nearkarthiktheatre #survivorcolony #Pudurbusstop #Pudur #Mahatmagandhinagar #Valluvarcolony #Vishwanathapuram #Umatchikulam #Thirupalai #TVSnagar #Jeevanagar #Villapuramhousingboard #Agriniapartment #Avaniyapuram #Subramaniyapurammarket #Palanganatham #Annanagar #Gomathipuram #Karupayurani #KKnagar #Othakadai #Koodalnagar #Sikkandarchavadi #Anaiyur #Basingapuram #Alankulam #Alankulam #Panagadi #Kulamangalam #Palamedu #Alanganallur #Nagamalai #Kochadai #Thenimainroad #HMScolony #Vellichamynadarschool #MKUuniversity #Nearsaravanahospital #BBkulammenambalmainroad #Reserveline #Sellur #bestgheeproduct #bestghee #gheeatitsbestquality #bestqualityghee #bestgheeinmadurai #bestgheeintamilnadu #pureghee #puregheeinmadurai #puregheeintamilnadu #purestformofghee #purequalityghee #bestgheeforfoods #bestgheeforfood #bestgheeforcooking #bestgheeforbiriyani #bestgheeforsweets #puregheeforfoods #puregheeforfood #purgheeforbiriyani #puregheeforsweets #tastiestghee #tastiestgheeinmadurai #tastiestgheeintamilnadu #bestgheeforladdu #puregheeforladdu #bestgheeforhalva #puregheeforhalva #bestgheeformysorepak #puregheeformysorepak #bestgheeforjalebi #puregheeforjalebi #bestgheefordosa #bestgheeforgheeroast #puregheefordosa #puregheeforgheeroast #bestgheeforpongal #puregheeforpongal #bestgheeforhalwa #puregheeforhalwa #halva #halwa #ghee #pongal #dosa #gheeroast #jalebi #cooking #laddu #sweets #purestghee #healthyghee #healthiestghee #gheeatlowcost #lowcostghee #bestlowcostghee #bestgheeforgheeproducts #bestgheeforgheefoods #bestgheeforkesari #kesari #purecurd #bestcurd #bestcurdforcooking #bestcookingcurd #bestcookingcurdinmadurai #tastiestcurd #healthycurd #healthiestgcurd #creamycurd #bestcreamycurd #bestcurdinmadurai #bestcurdintamilnadu #bestcreamycurdinmadurai #tastycurdinmadurai #purecurdinmadurai #bitterfreecurd #bestcowmilkcurd #bestbuffalomilkcurd #flavourfreecurd #offodorcurd #bestflatcurd #bestqualitycurd #curdatlowcost #lowcostcurd #bestlowcostcurd #bestcurdcompany #bestcurdcompanyinmadurai #bestcurdproductinmadurai #bestcurdproduct #bestcurdsupply #bestcurdsupplyinmadurai #bestpaneer #bestpaneerinmadurai #bestqualitypaneer #bestpaneeratlowcost #tastypaneer #tastiestpaneerinmadurai #bestpaneerproduct #bestpaneercompany #bestpaneercompanyinmadurai #bestpaneerproductinmadurai #bestpaneerproduct #bestpaneersupply #bestpaneersupplyinmadurai #bestpaneerintamilnadu #unsaltedpaneer #bestunsaltedpaneer #bestunsaltedpaneerinmadurai #bestpaneerforpaneerbuttermasala #bestpaneerforpaneertikka #paneerbuttermasala #paneertikka #paneerpulao #bestpaneerforpaneerpulao #purepaneer #purepaneerinmadurai #purequalitypaneer #purequalitypaneerinmadurai #bestpaneerforcooking #bestpaneerforfoods #bestdairyproducts #bestdairyproductsinmadurai #subiksha #subikshafoods #subikshadairyproducts #dairyproducts #PureGheeInMadurai #BestPaneerInMadurai #FreshPaneerSupplierMadurai

#idlydosamavunearmemadurai #wholewheatparathamadurai #instantpoorimadurai #instantparathamadurai #instantchapatimadurai #instantchapati

0 notes

travelless · 5 years

Photo

Market in Amman

#olive #market #for sale #variation #market stall #farmer's market #menerbes #jordan #amman #capital #colour

1 note · View note

jordanianroyals · 3 years

Photo

Queen Noor Interview with Prestige issue 34, March 1996

Interviewed in Amman by CHRISTIANE Obeid | © Prestige / Bassam Lahoud

She captivates you with the strength of her charisma. Fascinates you by the scale of her projects. Meeting with Her Majesty in Jerash.

Amman Airport. Literally a welcoming committee, two people waiting, sent by the Royal Palace of Ma’wa, a third one by the Lebanese Embassy in Jordan. A first impression of Jordan: courtesy, discretion. Outside, the lights of a city that does not sleep. Alive. With white stone houses, architectural treasures. No skyscrapers but a latent desire for immensity. The next day, the same person, taciturn and kind, leads us to our first stop: Iraq Al Amir. An archaeological reconstructed village, restored, half an hour from Amman but already deeply immersed in tradition.

We have not yet met the Queen, but her work is marked everywhere. (Source)

Inside each house, a beehive of activity and a delicious freshness. Our mentor: Awni Quandour graduate of States and director of the center. Here, we weave with happiness, the millenary production of parchment paper is recovered…

Ramadan does not slow the activity of nawls under the impetus of the gay village girls. The presence of computers seems incongruous at first, but the tradition and modernity go together well. Our meeting with Jordan’s heritage extends to Jordan Design and Trade Center (JDTC). «Our goal is to continue to create, create every day, something different.» Statement of the director Claude Zumot, also a graduate in management from the States. And the designers of the Centre do not lack ideas. Originality of modern notes intended to complement the heritage of ancestors. Mosaic patterns on multiple works, delicately aesthetic convolutions of a glass, traced vows on Salsal ceramics. We learn, with difficulty, to recognize the different bsat and call them by name because they have a name like any piece of art. From the peasants of Iraq Al Amir to Husseiniyé Bedouins, Jordan awakes to crafts, culture. Who gave the impetus? A queen so dedicated to her work that she offered us, instead of a traditional interview, to accompany her to Jerash. Historic city that has a large craft center. Departure from the Royal Palace of Ma ‘awa, on the hill of Nuzha.

At Jerash, in groups in front and inside of the Town Hall, the crowd waiting for their queen, their benefactress. It is there, fascinated, that we understand the scale of the project, the strength of her charisma, the extent of her love for Jordan, her commitment to the people that came to pay tribute to her.

Majesty, you are an architect; what is the contribution of your major in the successful implementation of your projects? I chose a major in Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Princeton because it included several disciplines that were later a great asset to my work in Jordan. I discovered that in order to build for an individual or a community, we should understand their physical, social and spiritual needs and try to find solutions to those needs. In a sense, you can say that my major at the university helped me to become a «social architect».

«The woman can become a real economical force in her own community».

What distinguishes the Jordanian crafts from other countries? Jordanian designs reflect the richness of our history and are inspired by many ancient and contemporary cultures that flourished in Jordan. For example, the Nabataeans were famous for their fine ceramics they exported across the East. We produce Nabataean pottery style craft at the center of Salt that can be sold to tourists today.

On the other hand, the Bedouin style is very special because it produces «smooth-faced» because dense carpet; their texture is different from other styles. Our designers have also introduced for carpets and ceramic patterns inspired from mosaics. Embroidery items are typically Jordanian, eg Ma’ani point that had almost disappeared until the day the JDTC incorporated it again in its products. Another practice been forgotten and that we have revived the wheat wicker baskets woven by hand. Better, we established at Mukhaibeh a profitable project for the work of wicker wheat, palm leaves and banana …. On the other hand, the foundation provided women with new looms and spinning wheels to increase productivity. We have imposed a strict quality control from raw material to final product.

What are the main lines of craft projects? I would mainly say weaving and embroidery and ceramics, gems and paper.

Is there a contribution of the younger generation of the royal family to the revival of heritage? Several young members of the family support national programs for the preservation and promotion of the Jordanian heritage especially in the Jerash festival for art and culture and the National Music conservatory and projects for the Environment.

Majesty, what is the contribution of craft centers for the protection of historical monuments? Over the past decade, I have encouraged the development of these highly skilled centers in Jordan historic towns of archaeological sites to promote handicrafts and integrate the socio-economic development to tourism. In Iraq Al Amir you visited yesterday, a site dating from BC 2nd century, the Noor Al Hussein Foundation has renovated two farms and began the restoration of ten others. She plans to turn these farms in a craft village that preserve the cultural heritage of the region and would be linked to Hellenistic palace, which will encourage tourism and increase the economic benefit of the community. The foundation aims primarily to improve the quality of life of rural and urban poor communities through Jordan establishing intensive programs in the context of health, education, heritage, environment, volunteering and community involvement. I also encouraged the restoration of historic villages nearby archaeological sites such as Taybat Zaman, ten minutes from Petra. The Foundation and the Ministry of Tourism are working together for the upgrading of craft shops and tourist information centers.

As part of the craft revival, how do you assess environmental issues and what are your achievements in this area? I already mentioned the Mukhaibeh braiding project that symbolizes the effort deployed by the Foundation for integrating environmental issues into development projects. Before the Foundation initiated the project, the farmers there cut down and uprooted their palms, exploring other cultures. We have created a demand and as a result, farmers planted more palm trees! On the other hand, the JDTC working on water recycling project to reuse the water in the wool processing centers and dyeing south of Jordan. The JDTC also initiated profitable projects to the Dana Nature Reserve, in an abandoned village in the south. The historic stone houses have been restored and activities implemented. Currently the JDTC sells jewelry made in Dana, from semi-precious stones in the region.

Have most of the artistic and cultural projects been realized? Has the Foundation Noor AL Hussein realized its initial aspirations? Yes, the cultural activity of the Foundation is in full swing. Just after my marriage, I started with the invaluable help of Jordanian volunteers, the first Jerash Festival, today internationally recognized as a crossroads exchanges which contributed to the rebirth and revitalization of the cultural and artistic heritage. I also began during the early years of my marriage the Arab Children’s Congress, which brings together children from all parts of the Arab world in a climate of understanding, tolerance and solidarity. The National Conservatory of Music “founded in 1986, is the only one to have a children orchestra. Its annual program includes concerts, workshops and conferences as well as recitals that feature local and international musicians. Development project of the National Handicrafts, the JDTC and training center in Salt are three programs of the Noor Al Hussein Foundation. They were able to stimulate the revival of the craft heritage. Another project affiliated with the Foundation: the first Museum of Science for children, which helps them understand the ecological and scientific cycles of life. Children can touch and handle the exhibits to learn more on the development of Man through the ages, the natural history, geography, science, the environment, space and cultures in the world. We have also set up a museum of science, mobile, for children in rural areas. It focuses on health and hygiene, Science and Environmental Protection and the History of Jordan.

Your Majesty was there a few months ago at an international conference in Paris. How does the Foundation works as an intermediary between international and Jordanian institutions? We are associated with many UN and other organizations in the fields of education, the development of women and the community, the health, well-being of children, culture and heritage. The Foundation works with 30 different national and international non-governmental organizations to help them develop their plans, assist in attracting international funds and put their products on the market, especially abroad. Any foreign funding received by the Foundation is paid to the organization to which this fund is for.

At international carpet competition, a Jordanian rug Hweitat won first prize

Does the JDTC take part in major international exhibitions? Yes, the JDTC has exhibited its products in Europe, Paris and Frankfurt, and exposes once a year in Atlanta where one Hweitat rug has won the first prize at the International rug Competition. And twice a year in High Point, North Carolina, the largest furniture and decoration market of the United States.

Will handicraft be able one day to become a self-sufficient industry that will promote Jordanian art in the world? Craft centers are already self-sufficient. In addition, through its international exhibitions and marketing, JDTC has already introduced the Jordanian crafts in the world. The JDTC is primarily a national design and trade center that is not charged solely to promote the foundation products but also the works of various craft projects throughout the country.

Who oversees these centers? What is the common denominator? Is there not a danger of competition between different centers? Jordan is fortunate to have a wide variety of public and private craft centers with which JDTC works closely, either from a training perspective and product development or local or international marketing. The JDTC deploys every effort to reserve the rights to create products and designs to protect artisans. As for the craft centers of the Foundation, all of their directors are men or women from the same region, that the JDTC has recruited and trained to manage these centers. Those tend to specialize in different product lines at a time when the JDTC is creating «model centers».

To be engaged, should women initially have some skill? How the proposed development of the woman makes her a decision-maker? If a woman already has skills, it is more an asset but it is not a prerequisite for recruitment. The most important quality is the commitment, motivation. In addition, JDTC provides the necessary training, technical or managerial, and in that sense, the approach of the Foundation differs from the traditional and often ineffective approach, which merely provides material assistance to women.

The introduction of cost-effective programs, geared toward local and international markets, allows women to become a real economic force in the community. Her status and influence increase as well as the overall quality of life of the community, because a woman will often communicate her knowledge to her family. The training of women is therefore the fastest way to achieve positive change in development.

How are workers paid? Most artisans are paid according to the piece they realized, weavers are paid by meter and embroiderers per piece. As for center directors and some workers, they receive a monthly salary.

Which project of JDTC won the most of success? The projects of Nurha and Rimoun employing between 150 and 200 people are probably the most successful because both are completely independent. The JDTC initiated projects from scratch, providing all the training.

At present, the centers are self-managed and operated. Nurha, an embroidery center, has three other centers under its supervision. As the center of Rùnoun, it was established by the JDTC to help these women to acquire the skills and improve their standard of living while revitalizing the Jordanian crafts. The JDTC has also introduced an innovation: a 2 meters long loom which produces carpets covering a room previously almost non-existent in the Jordanian market.

How many people work at JDTC? Since its founding in 1990, 3,000 women and their families have benefited.

Do you have a special program for young people even not gifted in rural areas? Is university free of charge in Jordan? University is not free in Jordan, but the school is free up to college. The project that is particularly dear to me is the Jubilee School, high school for scholars from all parts of the country, particularly disadvantaged. It is dedicated to the development of intellectual potential of Jordanian students by providing a unique study method and curriculum based on their own needs, abilities and experiences. This school, in collaboration with private and public institutions, sponsors several courses and workshops for teachers and students throughout the country. Another project I have already mentioned is that of Salt which offers free training for three years in weaving, pottery and ceramics production, silk weaving, decoration and refresher courses for trainers. On the other hand, the SOS homes for boys and girls offer Vocation courses for children and, in collaboration with the SOS villages in Amman and Aqaba, creating a warm family atmosphere for orphans and abandoned children.

«My studies at Princeton University helped me to become a social architect»

Regarding the educational projects for children in rural areas, in addition to the mobile museum that I have already mentioned, the Foundation works closely in partnership with local authorities and private voluntary groups to establish clubs for children across Jordan. They meet the recreational, cultural, artistic needs of the younger. The Foundation also supports the creation of child care centers and nursery in the villages where these «quality of life» projects are implemented.

Majesty, your dream is the children’s hospital. What steps have been taken for its realization? The National Hospital for Children is a project that the people of Jordan have long dreamed of. Once completed, we hope that this hospital will be the first of the Kingdom to provide for tertiary medical care, secondary and some primary care for children aged 0 to 16 years. This establishment will be accessible to all economic classes of the population. The hospital will not only be a pediatric center but also an educational center for pediatric, surgical, dental hygiene and combined scientific disciplines. It will also include a center for the evaluation of child development and treatment of cerebral palsy and also present an extensive program guide for the family. The Institute for Health and Child Development is the first and only local specialized in assessing and monitoring the growth and development of the child. It will be affiliated with the hospital and serve the local community.

Majesty, you like to photograph. Have you organized an exhibition of your work? Unfortunately not, but this is a project that deserves reflection!

#Queen Noor #interview

9 notes · View notes

42soul · 5 years

Photo

Market in Amman by szirazabierowski

#IFTTT #500px #olive #market #for sale #variation #market stall #farmer's market #menerbes #jordan #amman #cap

0 notes

roadjanus · 5 years

Text

The AMAZING RACE

THE AMAZING RACE

And on to the next country! Simmy says that it sounds like we are on the Amazing Race. The countryside is not too auspicious as we leave Hungary. Scrubland. Some market gardening. Does not look too prosperous. Then ROMANIA! Where we came upon a LONG, LONG Line OF trucks ...miles of them trying to cross over to Romania, and an equally long line trying to get into Hungary. Maybe 5+ km of trucks both ways. Must be a very slow crossing. We went in the car line of course. They checked our car credentials and our passports. But we were over. We zipped along to our little village Pension. In Giarmata It was darling. Newly built. Called Kevin & Jessica Guesthouse - after her children! The hostess spoke very good English. She had lived in Spain for a long time. Rooms were very fresh and clean. We are actually amazed at how pristine these little places are. We haven’t encountered any questionable rooms since maybe Amman Jordan. Have to say that this lady was the friendliest since we came into the Balkans. Have to say that the people all along have been rather grouchy. Grim. Maybe it is really the way. We haven’t seen very friendly people since Jordan. Why is that? Maybe that is just their demeanour. Anyway, more on that as we move through Romania.

Romanian leg of the Amazing Race for Seniors...OMG. Here we see some pretty poor land and pretty poor people. Some are still plowing with horses. You don’t believe that...but it is true. And stooking by hand. Hay wagons pulled by horse. Some of the sheep have long and dangly hair. Most cattle are dairy. But to tell you the truth we sure haven’t seen very many cattle, or pigs for that matter. On the entire trip. So far, we are traveling through very rough places. They seem to be strip farming as you can see in the picture. As these farmers farm above them lie the ruins of fortified castles. Many of them along the way. Makes you wonder what happened here. Of course those Ottomans were raiding and taking over all the way. The people look like they have some Turkish heritage. The food is delicious and plentiful. the man had a rack of ribs that seemed to have been cooked slowly over an open fire. Good pickles. Polenta is always available. Very creamy and tasty. Maybe at Brasov there will be a different level of success. After all, Dracula...draws in those tourists

#romania #timisoara #giaramata #second childhood #retirement

1 note · View note

natalie-janelle · 4 years

Link

The Amish is a tight knit community shut away from the outside world, with few things being known about them. The Amish church was created in 1693 by Jacob Amman during a schism in Switzerland within a group of Swiss and Alsatian Mennonite Anabaptists. The Amish are known for simple living, plain dress, and are slower to adopt many conveniences of modern technology, with a view to not interrupting family time, nor replacing face-to-face conversations whenever possible. In Amish culture, families are limited to the use of modern technology, however, they make use of many modern technologies such as batteries, farm equipment, and landline telephones (though the telephones are often kept in a shed outside of the house). With their limited technology, the new stay at home order that closed non- essential businesses has threatened their way of life. In this article, an Amish dairy farmer, located in New York, often sells his products — a variety of artisan cheeses, raw milk, beef, pork and eggs — exclusively at a cozy store onsite and the Cooperstown Farmers' Market. But with many of his customers being from New York City and coronavirus’ impact on New York forcing strict measures, he has had to switch to alternative methods of selling his goods. He has switched to an online store, without using the internet. He does this by having his farm manager print out the orders and bring them to him. He then fulfills the orders and packages them to be handed out at the Cooperstown Farmers market. This way he can continue practicing his religion and upholding his values without suffering financially. Despite the Amsih maintaining their distance from the world, they have put new measures in place to protect their communities. They have stopped church services and all social gatherings in their community. For example, they are stopping weddings, funerals, and baptisms. The Amish families are quick to protect themselves as most of the Amish continue to have six or seven children. This means that if a member of the community were to get coronavirus, it would likely spread faster between families due to larger than average family size. This makes their community more vulnerable than ever, and with limited technology, it could end disastrous if they do not have the needed medical supplies and/or run out of medical supplies if they number of infected increases.

However, the Amish typically wear home sewn clothes which provides a useful skill amongst a shortage of masks. Almost overnight, a group of local industry, community and church leaders has mobilized to sustain Amish households by pivoting to work crafting thousands of face masks and shields, surgical gowns and protective garments from medical-grade materials. Despite being known for distancing themselves from mainstream America, the Amish church has come together to provide useful resources in order to help during uncertain times, showing that you can help and still hold onto your beliefs. A community known for being distant has gotten close to mainstream America to help save lives during the Pandemic.

#rel390b #390b

0 notes

oselatra · 5 years

Text

2019 Arkansas Times Academic All-Star Team

Meet the best and brightest high school seniors in the state.

The 2019 Arkansas Times Academic All-Star Team, the 25th team the Times has honored, is made up of coders, musicians, scientists and championship athletes. There's rarely a B on the transcripts of these students in not just this, their senior year, but in any year of their high school careers.

Back in 1995, the Times created the Academic All-Star Team to spotlight what we then called "the silent majority — the kids who go to school, do their homework (most of it, anyway), graduate and go on to be contributing members of society." Too often, we argued then, all Arkansans heard about young people was how poorly they were faring. Or, when students did get positive attention, it came for athletic achievement.

As you read profiles of this year's All-Stars, it should be abundantly clear that good things are happening in Arkansas schools and there are many academic achievers who deserve to be celebrated. You should get a good idea, too, of how these stellar students are busy outside school, with extracurricular activities, volunteer work, mission activities and more.

They'll be honored April 26 at a ceremony at UA Little Rock's new River Market campus with plaques and cash awards.

Many college plans listed here are not set in stone, as students await information on scholarships and acceptances.

MOHAMMED ABUELEM Age: 16 Hometown: Little Rock High School: Pulaski Academy Parents: Tarek Abuelem and Shireen Khalaf College plans: Harvard University

What accomplishments can a 16-year-old lay claim to? Mohammed Abuelem has earned prizes in competitions in science, essay writing, History Day projects, Spanish, math. He's studied DNA sequencing at Harvard; researched the effect of radiation on soybeans; aced all his classes at Pulaski Academy. But this teenager, two years younger than his classmates and fluent in Arabic, can also point to work with Syrian refugees in camps in Jordan for two summers running. After his sophomore year, Mohammed volunteered at the Zaatari refugee camp in the northern part of Jordan, where 60,000 people have taken refuge. There, he interviewed families and visited the medical clinics. He listened "to their stories and how their life is at the camp. ... I got the chance to see how medicine is practiced toward people who are part of a diaspora." He returned to Jordan after his junior year and distributed food and supplies to Syrian refugee families in the capital, Amman. "So many of the refugees are relocated toward urban areas, and don't get as many benefits" as those in the camps, Mohammed said. Mohammed decided to bring the lessons of the crisis home: "I wanted to involve local people here." So, he organized a benefit piano recital where he and others played (he performed a piece by the Greek composer Yanni) and raised $5,000 from the audience. Half the sum went to the Syrian Emergency Task Force and the other half to his Boy Scout Eagle project, building first-aid and hygiene kits for Syrian refugees. Because the Middle East is his passion, his senior thesis (in an elective class at Pulaski Academy) is on the Arab Spring and, because he is fluent, he was able to use primary sources in Arabic. As he heads to college, Mohammed is unsure of exactly where he'll put his considerable brain power to work. Though keen on many subjects, Mohammed's favorite is biology. His father, a neurosurgeon at CHI St. Vincent Infirmary, "has emphasized that he wants me to choose the right path for me," rather than mirror his father's career, Mohammed said.

CHLOE BOWEN Age: 18 Hometown: Fayetteville High School: Springdale High School Parents: Yancey and Ginger Bowen College plans: University of Arkansas at Fayetteville or University of Alabama

The last thing most high school students want to do just a few weeks before the start of their senior year is switch schools. For Chloe Bowen, though, the decision to transfer from Fayetteville High School, where she'd gone since ninth grade, to Springdale High School for her final year wasn't particularly difficult. Many of her friends had already graduated, and Chloe's burgeoning interest in engineering drew her to Springdale High's Engineering and Architecture Academy. "I was ready for a change — [a] new challenge," she said. She's certainly found it. Chloe signed up for four engineering classes, one of which has her working with a group of engineering students from the University of Arkansas to design a device that will allow one of Chloe's classmates, who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, to walk across the stage at graduation. "Getting to collaborate with them has been a really great experience," she said. Chloe traces her interest in engineering to a human geography class she took in ninth grade, where she learned about urban development and city planning. She's not sure what type of engineering she'll settle on — for now, it's all about exploration and learning about a career that will draw on both her math-loving analytical side and her artistic interests. Chloe has flourished in Springdale's engineering and architecture academy. She's a National Merit Finalist, ranked first in her class with a 4.27 GPA, and she's developed a tight-knit group of new friends who share her interests. She recently helped run a STEM day for younger students and has represented the engineering and architecture academy at area junior highs.

Chloe is also active in her church youth group and has a part-time job working in another church's nursery. That doesn't leave much time for other hobbies. "I used to play volleyball, but I don't anymore," she said. "I've been pretty busy with homework and projects lately."

JORDAN ERICKSON Age: 18 Hometown: Hot Springs High School: Lake Hamilton High School Parent: Mandy Farmer College plans: Baylor University

Jordan Erickson is the big man on Lake Hamilton High School's campus. He's the class president, the valedictorian and a National Merit Semifinalist. He's also 6-foot-10 and was the captain of the basketball team, which went 25-3 and won its conference. "It meant a lot [to be captain] because I'd been playing basketball with these guys since fifth grade," Jordan said. While this season marks the end of his basketball career, look for him in pick-up games at Baylor University, where he'll be a University Scholar, a competitive program that generally accepts fewer than 2 percent of incoming Baylor students. The Scholars program will allow him to pursue an individualized course of study. Jordan is planning on studying one area in science, likely biology, and one in the humanities, likely Spanish. He plans to be a doctor and figures that knowing Spanish could be beneficial. He doesn't know what sort of doctor he wants to be, but has gotten some experience working with seniors with neurodegenerative diseases as a volunteer with The Caring Place, a day center for patients suffering from Alzheimer's and dementia. "The people there were just absolutely loving and caring, the staff as well as the patients," he said. "It was heartwarming and heartbreaking as well." Jordan's mom, Mandy Farmer, is a nurse practitioner. He resisted following in her footsteps for years, he said, but as he's gotten older he's realized what an inspiration she's been. She instilled in him a motto that he's obviously applied: "There is no penalty for overachievement."

KATE FREYALDENHOVEN Age: 18 Hometown: Conway High School: Conway High School Parents: Tim and Mary Ann Freyaldenhoven College plans: Rhodes College in Memphis

Kate Freyaldenhoven is competitive. Ranked second in her class at Conway High School, she said she was driven to "achieve the highest grades" in all her courses by the same ambition that earned her spots on the school's varsity cross-country and track teams. She has a 4.42 grade point average, and she said it's this "kind of tenacity" that earned her the perfect score of a 36 on the ACT. After two attempts that earned her a 33 and a 34, Kate said, "I pushed myself to do the best that I can do, and I'm very glad that I took it again." She's taking this tenacity to Rhodes College in Memphis, where she recently signed to run on its cross-country and track and field team. Kate said she decided on Rhodes because she knew she wanted to run in college, but her education was most important, and she wanted to go to a school that "was great with balancing academics and athletics." She said Rhodes felt like a "great fit" for her, and she'll be able to grow "not only as a student, but as an athlete." Another crucial part of her decision to attend Rhodes is the "plethora" of community service organizations the school offers. Kate said that as a kid, her mother took her along when doing service work for nonprofits, and since then, volunteering has been "a really big part of my life." Two summers ago, Kate also participated in the Community Health Applied in Medical Public Service program at Conway Regional Hospital, where she "witnessed firsthand different aspects of working in the medical field." She said she's interested in pursuing a medical career, perhaps as a physician, so she can use her "passion for science and math to contribute something beneficial." Kate said she's looking forward to research and internship opportunities in Memphis and to the "close-knit community" she said she felt on Rhodes' campus.

MARY JIA Age: 17 Hometown: Stuttgart High School: Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts Parents: Melissa and Yulin Jia College plans: Undecided

Mary Jia knows what she wants to do, and what she wants to do is study rice. "Rice is so amazing!" she said, with an enthusiasm so genuine she'll make you excited about rice, too. She said it's a model genome to study in plant science, and she's particularly interested in the "biological sciences and the numerology behind rice." Mary has applied to 16 different schools, but her top choice is the California Institute of Technology, where her favorite physicist, Sean M. Carroll, works as a professor. She said she plans on studying rice by pursuing an M.D.-Ph.D., a combined doctorate of medicine and philosophy, which can take between seven and nine years to complete. "With an M.D., you learn a little bit of everything, which is basically my goal in life," Mary said. "And a Ph.D. is more specific." Mary's research at the Harry K. Dupree Stuttgart National Aquaculture Research Center earned her a semifinalist spot in the Regeneron Science Talent Search. She's the only finalist from Arkansas. Her project studied the blast disease resistance of three strains of rice, a process through which Mary said she hopes to find "resistance genes" to help keep farmers from having to use fungicides on their rice crops. During a recent trip to visit family in China, Mary was able to appreciate the opportunities she's had to study her passion. "I really want my family to one day be able to enjoy the same things that I do, to go out in the world and realize they can be whatever they want," she said. Ranked No. 1 in her class at Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts, Mary is also a member of the school's Grandma Club, which teaches "relaxing" skills such as knitting — Mary's specialty — and origami to the "future grandmas of America."

ISABELLE FLORENCE JONES Age: 18 Hometown: Jonesboro High School: The Academies at Jonesboro High School Parents: Robert and Mary Kay Jones College plans: Boston College

Isabelle Jones has been called "Dizzy Izzy" since she was a little girl, thanks to the energy she displayed in trying to keep up with her two big sisters. But Izzy, as she likes to be called, could also be called "Busy Izzy" because of the many school leadership positions she holds — student council president, National Honor Society treasurer, Spanish Honor Society president, to name a few — and other academic honors. She's No. 1 in her class. She swims, she runs cross-country. She volunteers at St. Bernards Hospital and the Hispanic Center. She's known, she said, as "that liberal person" at school because of her progressive views on gun control. Izzy said the most significant achievement of her high school career was organizing, as head of the local Students Demand Action chapter, the March for Our Lives last year. Calling "Show me what democracy looks like!" into her bullhorn, Izzy and other organizers led 200 people from Jonesboro High to the courthouse. The speakers included a survivor of Jonesboro's Westside Middle School shooting in 1998, in which two boys shot and killed five people and injured 10 others. Izzy spoke, too, about those who would shift the conversation away from guns and onto mental illness. "I spoke to the fact that someone who suffers from mental illness is more likely to be a victim" of gun violence than to cause it, she said. "People use it as a scapegoat." Because the Students Demand Action members were too young to get a permit for the march, the local Moms Demand Action helped out. "The Moms were so amazing; they let us take control of what we wanted to say," Izzy said. If you are an activist in a "big city," Izzy said, you can "talk to your elected officials and not get the door shut in your face. Here, to talk about gun control, it's a nonstarter, because people think it means you're going to take their guns away." So, Izzy's group focuses on having a community presence, participating in fairs and writing letters. Izzy is ready for big-city life and wants to pursue studies in global health, which is why she applied early decision to Boston College, which plans to offer a major in the field. Boston College has offered Izzy a Gabelli Presidential Scholars scholarship, which is a full-tuition award and goes to only 15 incoming freshmen every year. After college, the plan is med school and, someday, travel to help people in need of medical care with Doctors Without Borders.

JEREMIA LO Age: 18 Hometown: Fayetteville High School: Fayetteville High School Parents: Hsiaowen Cho and Wenjuo Lo College plans: Undecided

Jeremia Lo found her high school niche with Connotations, Fayetteville High School's annual literary magazine, where she serves as design director. When she joined the staff as a junior, she discovered a community of people who enjoy writing, art and photography as much as she does. Digital art has been a passion ever since her dad installed Adobe Photoshop on the family's computer when she was 10 years old. "Years of practice — setting aside time on the weekends to do photostudies and learn color theory — eventually turned jagged lines and irregular proportions into realistic portrayals of faces and creatures," Jeremia wrote in her Academic All-Stars essay. "Via the versatility of digital art — a medium that easily allows me to dabble in design, animation and drawing — I've been able to practice my communication skills by analyzing how details and the big picture work together to convey meaning to viewers." In the short run, thanks to those skills, she's made some spending money doing commissioned portraits and seen the designs for clubs and classes that show up all over the school. Longer term, she's considering a career in UI/UX (user interface/experience) design. To that end, she's planning on majoring in cognitive science or psychology to help her think about how people process design. But art isn't her only passion. While maintaining a 4.37 GPA and a No. 1 rank in her senior class of more than 500 students, she also found time to serve as publicist for the World Language Club and to co-found the Fayetteville High School History Club, realizing "that there are many important events in history that are often overlooked in our curriculum." She grew up in a Mandarin-speaking family, has taken five years of German and is studying Japanese on her own. Spanish, French and Korean are on her to-learn list.

TYLER MERREIGHN Age: 17 Hometown: Greenwood High school: Greenwood High School Parents: Ty and Josie Merreighn College plans: Undecided

When Tyler Merreighn auditioned for "Jeopardy!" last summer, he was coming in with over seven years of trivia experience: He's been on a Quiz Bowl team since he was in third grade. He's now captain of Greenwood High School's team, and in 2018 he led it to a second-place finish at the 6A Arkansas Governor's Quiz Bowl Association. While he didn't make the final cut for the game show, he said he would definitely try out again, and next time he'll be "a little more prepared." He'll have to find time to do that while majoring in biomedical engineering on a pre-med path. He hopes to attend the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, where he's applied for the prestigious Bodenhamer Fellowship, which awards a select group of students $70,000 scholarships over the course of their education. During an educational trip to Peru with his high school in the summer of 2017, Tyler said he visited a community in Cusco and loved "seeing [the children's] faces light up when you could do something so simple for them," like playing a game of soccer. This experience helped him realize that "whatever I do, I definitely want to be able to help people." Last summer he attended the two-week Medical Applications for Science and Health program at Baptist Health in Fort Smith. MASH requires participants to complete 40 hours a week of shadowing in a hospital. Tyler said the experience affirmed his desire to become a physician, as he "really loved the atmosphere of the hospital." He took the ACT seven times in order to get a perfect score because "I just felt like I could do it, and if I didn't get [a perfect score], then I just felt like I was letting myself down."

KENDON MOLINE Age: 17 Hometown: Conway High School: Conway High School Parents: Rebekkah and Corey Moline College plans: Brigham Young University

Kendon Moline said he has always liked learning how things are built, and as a child, he once spent an entire afternoon watching his neighbors get a new roof installed. A self-described "musician, math nerd, bowler and engineer," he's now third in his class at Conway High School and plans to attend Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, in the fall to study civil engineering. He's particularly interested in transportation planning, so civil engineering "falls right in line" with that passion. Kendon is so interested in engineering that he received the top possible score on his AP Physics C exam — a class his high school doesn't even offer. While he said he's "not the best at studying," he put in "a lot of effort" for the test because "if it's something you're passionate about, you'll commit to it." Kendon is also committed to his faith, as he'll only be attending BYU for a semester before he leaves to take part in his two-year mission as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He's looking forward to his mission, during which he'll be able to "share my beliefs, the Gospel, to help others and to grow." While many young men begin their missions immediately after high school, his parents encouraged him to do a semester of school first in order to "get out of the house and be more independent," so he's not "too shocked" when he does venture out on his own. He said he plans on returning to school after his mission. Kendon also plays the trombone in his school's marching band, bowls for the school team and is working toward earning his Eagle Scout badge.

ANNA OPPENHEIM Age: 18 Hometown: Jonesboro High School: Bay High School Parents: Tim and Lisa Oppenheim College plans: Columbia University

A conscientious leader, Anna Oppenheim uses her voice to make fellow Bay High School students heard. Her community-driven work ethic has come through in her service as student council president and senior class president. She's also used her voice as editor of the school newspaper to connect students and tell their unique stories, such as the feature she wrote about an eighth-grade boy who rescued his family — including his young siblings and stepmother, who had a broken leg — from their burning house. As a learner, Anna has always been interested in taking things apart and reassembling them. As a child, she was fascinated with the human skeleton and memorized every bone. "I know that sounds weird," she said. But her natural aptitude for science and medicine blossomed at an orthopedic surgery program through the Perry Initiative for women in medicine, where she performed a mock orthopedic surgery. After being handed a bone model, a bone saw and a few screws and rods, she was told to break the bone model, then figure out how to put it back together. Anna credits her success in that orthopedic exercise to her background in art, explaining that her artistic disposition helped her creatively place the rods and screws into the bones. Anna hopes to become a doctor, but said art will always be a part of her life. "Throughout my life, art has been a unifying thread, and I never want that passion to die," she said. She's auctioned her artwork to benefit various charities, like the Northeast Humane Society, the American Heart Association and the St. Bernards Health and Wellness Institute.

FELIPE MORALES OSORIO Age: 18 Hometown: Little Rock High School: Parkview Arts and Science Magnet High School Parents: Felipe and Norma Morales College plans: Undecided

Felipe Morales Osorio has a knack for learning on his own. He taught himself pre-calculus, so he could skip straight to calculus. When his world history teacher became ill and had to leave the class mid-year, he worked on the subject independently to earn a 4 (out of 5) on the World History AP exam, meaning he's likely to receive college credit for the course. He's made a habit of turning to Khan Academy, the online collection of free academic courses, to augment or supplement his studies, and it shows: He has a 4.42 GPA and is No. 1 in his class at Parkview. Perhaps his proudest learning achievement came during a Central Arkansas Library System JavaScript coding class he took when he was 12, considerably younger than most of his classmates. He struggled, but studied hard and by the end of the summer he'd created a small version of the original Nintendo "Legend of Zelda" game. He's done grander coding projects since then, but the flash drive that stores that game sits on his bedside table as a reminder of what dedication and perseverance can mean. Felipe is considering computer science as a career path, but he's been leaning toward becoming a research mathematician. "I think math is very beautiful," he said. "There's math everywhere around us. It's in the weather. It's in the seashells. It's in almost everything. It's useful in a wide variety of fields. Science is always changing. But in math, it's more concrete and more absolute. When you prove something, like a theorem, you're proving it using logical arguments. Once you prove it, it's absolute. That really appeals to me, that it has a solid foundation."

JACKSON PARKER Age: 18 Hometown: Paragould High School: Paragould High School Parents: Melanie Parker and Jonathan Lane College plans: University of Arkansas at Fayetteville or Yale University, undecided

Jackson Parker speaks in a measured and self-assured tone that usually only comes with older age. He's good under pressure, evidenced by his many performance-based academic accolades, including scoring a perfect 36 on the ACT, winning the Arkansas State Spelling Bee in 2015, and earning Most Valuable Player in the Arkansas State Quiz Bowl in 2016. Concentrating for long stretches of time will serve him well as a heart surgeon, which he hopes to become one day. "I like the hands-on approach of surgery," he explained. It's an approach Parker has taken to further many of his interests, including his favorite subject, chemistry (he's an alumnus of the summer health program at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences); music (he plays flute in the high school band and is a student of music theory), fine art (he draws inspiration from 19th century American landscape painter Thomas Cole) and architecture (American Gothic is his favorite style). "I want to apply myself toward everything I care about like a true Renaissance man," Parker said, adding a personal philosophical view that the arts and sciences, when paired, are fundamental to "understanding the greater physics of the universe." He is a burgeoning Renaissance humanist: While many high school students would rather follow the norm, at least socially and politically, Parker doesn't hesitate to sit at the empty table. Inspired by his grandmother, he's been active with the Greene County Democratic Party, which is so small, Parker said, "it can be hard to feel like you're making a difference." He continues to volunteer with the party because "it's important to start somewhere. You need to have the other side of the moral compass present." In fact, Parker expects to have a career in politics in some way, although he's not sure how. He just knows that "politics affect our lives daily, and if we want our problems to be solved, we have to play an active role."

NOAH BLAKE RABY Age: 18 Hometown: Newport High School: Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts Parents: Jennifer Raby, Angela Lawson and the late Jerry Raby College plans: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Last summer, Noah Raby spent six weeks in Chengdu, China, as part of a National Security Language Initiative for Youth program. He'd decided to take Mandarin at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts because, of all the foreign language options, it was the one he "was most uncomfortable with." That willingness to throw himself into the unfamiliar served him well while living with his host family and being served rabbit skull, with its brain, tongue and tendons that hold the jaw to the rest of skull still intact. "Despite how disgusting that might sound, it was actually pretty good," Noah said. Still, eating in the famously piquant Sichuan province wasn't a picnic for Noah, who describes himself as "not really a man of spiciness." Noah plans on minoring in Mandarin at M.I.T. while he's majoring in computer science. The combo could allow him to score a computer-engineering job with a Chinese company down the line. He got his love for computers from his late father, Jerry Raby, a longtime cable installer for Suddenlink who died of cancer just before Noah enrolled in the ASMSA. Noah remembers spending weekends with his dad working on tech projects: fixing a broken Xbox, making flammable thermite from material they bought on eBay, and doing various computer science projects. Noah built his first computer at age 11. His computer-related innovations have made an impact on ASMSA. His science fair project on texturizing ceramic additive manufacturing inspired the school to buy its own ceramic 3D printer.

ADAM SIWIEC Age: 17 Hometown: Rogers High School: Rogers Heritage High School Parents: Ashley and Tomek Siwiec College plans: Stanford University or University of Arkansas at Fayetteville

Adam Siwiec knows there's power in language. When he sits at a computer, coding language lets him create websites, software testing metrics and a laundry list of other things most of us have never heard of. When he sits at his typewriter, though, the language of poetry lets him explore a whole other world — where nature, consciousness and inner reflection dominate the landscape. Adam has pursued both languages with an ambitious determination. He's a National Merit Semifinalist, ranked first in his class, is the All-State Programming Champion, placed second at the University of Arkansas Hackathon and founded his school's computer science club. He's also self-published two books of poetry, the most recent through Amazon's publishing service. "That was a really big deal for me," he said. "I got a box of a hundred books with my name on it sent to my door, and I didn't know what to do with them. So I started handing them out, then selling them. That was fun, adding in the business side of it, too." After he read an article about internet censorship in China, he combined his two interests to create a website that pulled in the poems he had published on Instagram so that people in China, who are not allowed access to the social media site, could read his poetry. Adam plans to study computer science in college and minor in creative writing. He already has some professional coding experience under his belt from spending last summer in Poland working with his uncle's digital services agency. "I think that being a writer, it's really hard to succeed if you're not a New York Times bestseller," he said. "I really want to work for a large company like Google or Apple and do poetry as a hobby."

CLAUDIA SMITH Age: 18 Hometown: Little Rock High School: eStem Public Charter School Parents: Will and Sara Smith College plans: University of Arkansas at Fayetteville

Finding a balance between academic priorities and sports can be tricky, but Claudia Smith manages to do this and advocate for her fellow students at eStem Public Charter School. In addition to competing on the school's soccer and cross-country teams, Claudia and a friend started the Gender and Sexuality Alliance during their junior year at eStem. She did so because she wanted to "have a place for people to meet and feel like they had friends that are facing the same kinds of problems" as they are. The Alliance also works to help the community: It recently finished raising $400 for Lucie's Place, a nonprofit that provides resources and housing for homeless LGBTQ youth. No. 1 in her graduating class, Claudia is heading to the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville this fall, where she plans to study engineering. While she's "really into math" and it's her favorite subject in school, she said the engineering program will allow her to do more "hands-on" work. Because eStem is a small school, she's looking forward to being on the UA's large campus with "a wider variety of people and opportunities to pursue [that] will give me more to get involved in." Claudia said she recently took a tour of the campus and was told that the school has several noncompetitive running groups, which she plans to join to keep her cross-country skills up to speed. She said her interest in politics will travel with her to Fayetteville, and she looks forward to getting involved with social justice organizations on campus.

CHASE MARIE SWINTON Age: 17 Hometown: Sherwood High School: Sylvan Hills High School Parents: Rick and Germaine Swinton College plans: Considering Vanderbilt University

Chase Swinton, who plans on studying neuroscience in college, has gotten just about as much hands-on experience in the field possible for a high school student. She learned about neurodegeneration in a project-based learning summer class at Washington University in St. Louis during the summer after her sophomore year. Last summer, she interned with Dr. Antiño Allen at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, working on NASA-funded research concerning "oxygen space radiation affecting hippocampal-dependent memory and cognitive function," as she described it in her All-Stars essay. In October, she was accepted to attend the Harvard Science Research Conference, where she learned about "computational advances in axon and neuron imaging." She's usually been the only African-American girl in such groups. That can be "difficult and lonely and isolating," she said, but as co-chair of the Principal's Council, a group that mentors middle school students, Sylvan Hills' valedictorian has gotten the chance to be an example for younger black female students. "One of my favorite sayings is 'representation begets representation.' If I'm a model for you, you'll be a model for someone else, and they'll be a model for someone else. That's really important in the black community, especially in STEM and for girls," she said. Chase's commitment to seeing things through shows in her soccer career. She was named all-conference as a freshman, but then sprained a ligament in her knee her sophomore year and suffered other knee injuries her junior year. Because of her UAMS internship, she couldn't have surgery to repair the knee over the summer, so she had to miss playing her senior year. But she's still the manager. "I didn't want to abandon the team," she explained.

ETHAN STRAUSS Age: 17 Hometown: Little Rock High School: Episcopal Collegiate School Parents: Noel and Joan Strauss College plans: Dartmouth College

Last summer, Ethan Strauss got a rare opportunity for a high school student. He interned at Forest Hill Capital, a small Little Rock investment firm, and he didn't spend his time there getting coffee and filing documents. Tasked with modeling the financial growth of a construction materials company to determine its investment potential, Ethan "read through five years of the company's quarterly reports and synthesized its income and cash flow statements and balance sheets," he wrote in his All-Stars essay, and then "linked the spreadsheets and used linear regressions to approximate future share prices." He may continue down that path by majoring in economics at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., but he's also considering international relations. He's been interested in geography since he was a child. He loves learning about different cultures. He's drawn to "the complexity of it all and being able to understand how other people think." He's particularly fascinated by unrecognized countries, areas that are self-proclaimed independent nations "and how it would be to live" in one. Pursuing a career in infrastructure investment could be a way for him to combine investments and international relations. He's sure to maintain a healthy dose of pursuits outside of his studies and work: A tennis ace, he's been half of a doubles team that's won the 3A state championship for four years in a row. He's also passionate about pingpong. His Episcopal counselor, Tricia Morgan, said he blushes when school staffers tell him pingpong "could be his Olympic sport." He's also working to share the sport with others. With the profits from a business he started reselling hard-to-find sneakers, he founded Paddle Together, a program that provides pingpong tables to homeless shelters and community centers.

SHAKIAH WILLIAMS Age: 17 Hometown: Blytheville High school: Blytheville High School Parents: Sharon Harris and Africa Wells College plans: Vanderbilt University

Mississippi County's entire population is less than that of the city of Conway. Shakiah (pronounced "Sha-kai-ah") Williams was born and raised there, in Blytheville. Some would say it's a sleepy town. Williams' high school years, however, have been quite the opposite. After school, she'd report to one of her two major extracurricular commitments: practice for the Blytheville High School cheerleading squad, or to practice and conditioning sessions as part of her membership on the Blytheville Chickasaw GymChicks gymnastics team. Add to that her membership in the school's French Club, FBLA, student council and Student Ambassadors; her time volunteering for the local chapters of both the Special Olympics and National Cancer Society; and her work with the annual Blytheville Christmas celebration "Lights of the Delta." "Honestly, this year it became stressful because of all the work I've had to get done, alongside the sports," Williams said. Part of that work, of course, was preparing to leave the high school nest. "College has always been a stressful subject for me," she wrote in her Academic All-Stars essay. "At one point in time I didn't even have the confidence to apply. I just didn't think I would make it." Her transcript shows how unfounded her fears were: Williams has a 4.22 grade point average. Her ACT score is a composite 30. Her language teacher, Lena Pierce, took her to Nashville to visit her dream school, Vanderbilt University. Williams was subsequently accepted, with just "a few thousand [dollars] a year to get covered," she wrote. "This achievement has helped me take some of the stress off of my mom. She is a single parent and having college paid for is just another weight off of her shoulders."

MICHELLE XU Age: 16 Hometown: College Station, Texas High School: Little Rock Central High School Parents: Joshua Xu and Alice Li College plans: University of Pennsylvania

When Michelle Xu found out she'd been accepted into the University of Pennsylvania, she said it was the happiest day of her life. Last summer she attended the university's Leadership in the Business World program, an intensive four-week curriculum of Wharton School of Business classes, during which Michelle's team created a startup business plan and presented it to their classmates. Michelle said she's "liked being a leader" since she was a child, and the LBW program helped her "[connect] the dots on how as a leader you lead by putting aside your ego." She said she aspires to be a "good leader in the business world," She's the first high school member of the Arkansas Association of Asian Businesses. She's also captain of Central High School's varsity Quiz Bowl team; president of its Future Business Leaders of America chapter, president of the Beta Club; vice president of Mu Alpha Theta, the school's math club; and president and founder of the school's Economics and Finance Club. Michelle said she founded the new club so students could learn about economics, rather than the "pure business" focus of the FBLA club. As valedictorian of her class, Michelle said she uses "a lot of time management" to balance her academic workload with her extracurriculars, and has had to make some sacrifices — she danced competitively until her sophomore year and played piano until her junior year, but quit both in order to focus on her classes and leadership roles. Michelle visits her family in China every three or four years, and she said a recent trip to her parents' hometowns helped her realize that "if my parents worked this hard to get to America, I need to work this hard to show them that I will continue their work."

RAMY YOUSEF Age: 17 Hometown: Little Rock High School: Little Rock Central High School Parents: Ziad Yousef and Muntaha Yousef College plans: Hendrix College or the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville

One glance at Ramy Yousef's transcript makes it clear that he has good study skills. He's ranked seventh in his class of 550 at Central High School, with a GPA of 4.43 in classes as diverse as art, debate and pretty much every AP class ever taught. But it's a question about attending Arkansas Governor's School last summer that really gets him talking about what he loves about education. "You get to learn in an environment where you don't get grades," he said. "Making friends and just waking up and going to learn every day — it was a fun experience." Ramy's motivation to do well in high school has been, he said, simply to get into a good college and pay as little as possible for it. He's got a loftier goal for when he gets there, though: to study chemistry and eventually put that knowledge to work developing new vaccines. Science is a family pursuit. Ramy's dad is an entrepreneur, but his mother is a scientist, one sibling is in medical school and the other is in college studying biomedical engineering. Ramy does science even in his downtime, watching astronomy videos on YouTube. That interest took him to a first-place finish in astronomy at the 2017 Arkansas Science Olympiad. What's so cool about astronomy? "Just the possibility that life can exist on another planet," he said.

2019 Arkansas Times Academic All-Star Team

#2019 Arkansas Times Academic All-Star Team

0 notes

michaelfallcon · 6 years

Text

Booth Beat: Our 5 Favorite Booths From World Of Coffee Amsterdam

Dutch winds blew chilly outside World of Coffee 2018, but inside, at the Amsterdam RAI convention center, June 20th to 23rd were hot-ticket days.

Breaking records this year, nearly 11,000 professionals registered for WOC, according to its organizing body, the Specialty Coffee Association. At a pre-ribbon-cutting press conference prior to the trade show’s official opening, SCA chief events officer Cindy Cohn cited a presence of 271 exhibitors and called it “the best-looking event we’ve put on.” Later, on the competition floor, Agnieszka Rojewska from Poland made history by becoming the first woman in the contest’s 18-year existence to win the title of World Barista Champion.

Visitors to Amsterdam sometimes joke that they can’t remember much from their trips to the famously live-and-let-live city, but these five WOC booths proved unforgettable.

Kees van der Westen

Nothing lights up a Dutch coffee event like the indigenous splendor of the Kees van der Westen brand, and everybody, from everywhere, was getting revved-up to see the debut of the Mirage Slim Jim. Presaged in a 2016 Sprudge interview with Kees van der Westen himself, this new espresso machine is “kind of a mixture” between others in the existing seQries, explained Yvette van der Westen, who oversees marketing for the company that her father heads. “Technically, visually, and price-wise, it will offer users an experience that falls somewhere between the Mirage and the Spirit.”

Unlike the Mirage, the Mirage Slim Jim is a multiple-boiler machine. Available in a Douette or a Triplette configuration, the groups have been given plenty of love and attention, each having its own two-stage progressive pre-infusion cylinder, a shot timer, a thermometer, and a pressure gauge. Other features include a dual hot water temperature knob and a dual volumetric lever.

The Slim Jim Idrocompresso model shares many of the same specs as the standard Slim Jim, but its prominent lever group cylinders have been built to be fully encased in hot water. This produces “a water cushioning effect which takes off a bit of the pressure and it won’t hit you in the face,” said Yvette, explaining that the lever on previous Idrocompresso models was susceptible to shooting up if a barista forgot to load the portafilter.

All four prototypes showed unique details, including interchangeable legs, front and side panels, cup rails, awnings, and knobs, plus various colors and room for customized logos. Still, they all shared a nostalgic Americana automotive design sensibility, so much so that baristas might start pulling out their Pomade and poodle skirts.

Following WOC, the Van der Westen family—all members showed up, including Yvette’s two sisters, now also her colleagues—were due to cruise back to headquarters in Waalre. Their road map foresees a few more technical tweaks, a pre-production series, and finally, the Mirage Slim Jim’s availability by early 2019.

Qima Coffee

At WOC Amsterdam, the launch of Qima Coffee, a London-headquartered company sourcing specialty beans from Yemen, was bittersweet. “The Yemen Coffee Revolution Starts Here” read the slogan on the stand’s backdrop, a lively mocha- and gold-toned illustration of Sana’a’s ancient skyline. Helping lead that revolution is Faris Sheibani, a UK-born Yemeni who founded Qima in late 2016, seeking to do something for his parents’ country of origin, where civil war has killed, wounded, and displaced thousands of people since early 2015.

Booth-side, Sheibani and colleagues warmly received visitors, telling them about Qima’s debut collection. Some 800 smallholder farmers across northern and central Yemen produced about 250 coffee lots, which were cupped and scored by Dutchman-gone-Californian Willem Boot of Boot Coffee. For the expo, Cafe Keppler co-owner Kees Kraakman roasted sample beans and praised Sheibani, a former SCA course student of his, for “how he combines a moral cause with a commercial enterprise.” Some farmers can now earn 20 times more income working for Qima, said Brahim Boukadid, Qima’s commercial manager in the Netherlands. He reported that 10% of profits get reinvested in the farmers’ villages, supporting agriculture and education projects, though above all, he emphasized: “We want to give them hope with this coffee.”

Attendees showed avid interest in Qima, suggesting its commercial prospects in Europe are real. Those glimmers of hope, however, were overshadowed by a conspicuous absence: that of four Yemeni farmers and a Yemeni NGO worker who were expected to be part of the company’s Amsterdam delegation. Their visa requests to visit the Netherlands were denied twice after what Sheibani described in an impassioned video message as an arduous, time-consuming, and humiliating application process filed via the Dutch embassy in Amman, Jordan. The visa denial made headlines and generated social media posts hashtagged #freeourfarmers. Qima has been outspoken about the decision’s unjustness and its irony. In the same video, Sheibani stated: “The Dutch East India Company took—smuggled—seedlings from Yemen, coffee seedlings from Yemen, to Amsterdam to plant them in the botanical gardens in Amsterdam, illegally. Four hundred two years later, we wanted to legally… together with the Dutch, celebrate coffee culture.” Qima has since published a follow-up video, captioned as a “message of hope and coexistence from the farmers of Yemen to the people of the Netherlands and the world!”

At the time of writing, three of the farmers remain in Amman, Sheibani told Sprudge in an email shortly after he returned to the UK. He said that he is helping the farmers apply to other global coffee exhibitions so they can personally represent their coffees. “If they go back empty-handed, it would be a devastating blow to thousands of farmers following the events from Yemen and a significant setback to the Yemeni coffee industry in general,” wrote Sheibani. (For the latest news, follow Qima on Facebook.)

Department of Brewology

It was a sight for sore eyes and some salve for the soul to spot the Department of Brewology making their WOC debut. The dauntless design duo from Austin, Texas, was selling wearables and wall art featuring their Filter Coffee Not People slogan, among others.

“It’s been great, actually. We love coming to Europe,” said company operations manager Brett Cannon, when asked their reception outside the US. New items on show included two coffee blossom pins and mini-prints of their iconic illustrations commingling botanicals and barista tools. Company designer David Salinas also told Sprudge about a new campaign, expected to launch in the coming months. For it, the Department of Brewology is working with The Lucy Foundation, a New Zealand-based organization promoting greater visibility of people with disabilities in the coffee industry. In the same spirit that sees proceeds of the FCNP T-shirt going to the Refugee Services of Texas, the new initiative will help raise funds for The Lucy Foundation. These designs are a collaboration between Floridian illustrator Anna Coleman and Salinas, and will be anchored by their own slogan. Those words are not yet public, but the campaign is geared “to really advocate for coffees that do good as opposed to just coffees that taste good,” said Salinas.

Collezione Henk Langkemper

Not a booth but a veritable buffet table, the Collezione Henk Langkemper snaked its way along one side of the trade floor’s food court. On show were 25 vintage espresso machines and grinders manufactured between 1936 and 1972, and now belonging to Dutch coffee industry vet Henk Langkemper. His entire 110-piece collection of such relics is usually at Espresso Service West, his three-decade-old coffee import and distribution company in The Hague that has become synonymous with supporting Dutch baristas in national and world competitions.

Asked for his most cherished, Langkemper pointed to what he called “any collector’s favorite:” the Rondine, described as the first La Marzocco one-group ever made, in 1953. The journey to get the machines to Amsterdam was tumultuous, said their owner: the idea began hatching at last year’s WOC Budapest, was slowed down by uncertainty about where on the expo floor the display could be accommodated, got called off after Langkemper had a heart attack in November, and then by February, reignited when an ESW customer pledged to provide the display bars. Before long, friends of Langkemper, from Seattle to Hong Kong, pitched in to help restore the machines. And so there they—and their owner—stood, back in shiny working condition.

Coffee Pixels

Winning this year’s Best New Product Competition in the category of food was Coffee Pixels Cascara, one of two edible coffee bars being sold by Latvian cousins Raivis, Andris, and Gundars Vaitekuns. Former specialty cafe owners in Riga, the trio today forms the company Solid Coffee, which started producing Coffee Pixels in 2017. Raivis described it as an idea born from necessity or, more precisely, withdrawal while traveling. Recounting instances when gas station or airplane coffee was their only option, he said they asked themselves “how we can take the quality of experience and the values that we have in specialty coffee truly on the go.”

The 10-gram bars are made from cocoa butter, Ethiopian coffee, coffee cherries, sugar, and salt. The “Milk” version contains 33 milligrams of caffeine and the winning “Cascara” contains 50 milligrams, the equivalent of approximately 30 milliliters of espresso. Sourced by Panama Varietals, the cascara comes from Nicaragua, and its choice as an ingredient reflects “the other part of the drive to build this product,” said Raivis, which is “to really tackle the waste produced in the coffee industry.”

Raivis, Andris, and Gundars Vaitekuns, founders of Coffee Pixels.

Another edible coffee benefit is that it “will be micro-dosing itself within your body,” he said. Because the caffeine is in saturated fat, it takes longer for the body to absorb, with its effect lasting up to four hours, Raivis estimated. He also pointed out that cascara contains antioxidants, so “this clean boost” accompanies the caffeine kick. “It feels like you have more energy in the head.”

And no wonder WOC Amsterdam was full of superlative highs and yet, still so memorable.

Karina Hof is a Sprudge staff writer based in Amsterdam. Read more Karina Hof on Sprudge.

The post Booth Beat: Our 5 Favorite Booths From World Of Coffee Amsterdam appeared first on Sprudge.

Booth Beat: Our 5 Favorite Booths From World Of Coffee Amsterdam published first on https://medium.com/@LinLinCoffee

0 notes

epchapman89 · 6 years

Text

Booth Beat: Our 5 Favorite Booths From World Of Coffee Amsterdam

Dutch winds blew chilly outside World of Coffee 2018, but inside, at the Amsterdam RAI convention center, June 20th to 23rd were hot-ticket days.

Visitors to Amsterdam sometimes joke that they can’t remember much from their trips to the famously live-and-let-live city, but these five WOC booths proved unforgettable.

Kees van der Westen

Qima Coffee

Department of Brewology

Collezione Henk Langkemper

Coffee Pixels

Raivis, Andris, and Gundars Vaitekuns, founders of Coffee Pixels.

And no wonder WOC Amsterdam was full of superlative highs and yet, still so memorable.

Karina Hof is a Sprudge staff writer based in Amsterdam. Read more Karina Hof on Sprudge.

The post Booth Beat: Our 5 Favorite Booths From World Of Coffee Amsterdam appeared first on Sprudge.

seen 1st on http://sprudge.com

0 notes

mrwilliamcharley · 6 years

Text

Booth Beat: Our 5 Favorite Booths From World Of Coffee Amsterdam

Dutch winds blew chilly outside World of Coffee 2018, but inside, at the Amsterdam RAI convention center, June 20th to 23rd were hot-ticket days.

Visitors to Amsterdam sometimes joke that they can’t remember much from their trips to the famously live-and-let-live city, but these five WOC booths proved unforgettable.

Kees van der Westen

Qima Coffee

Department of Brewology

Collezione Henk Langkemper

Coffee Pixels

Raivis, Andris, and Gundars Vaitekuns, founders of Coffee Pixels.

And no wonder WOC Amsterdam was full of superlative highs and yet, still so memorable.

Karina Hof is a Sprudge staff writer based in Amsterdam. Read more Karina Hof on Sprudge.

The post Booth Beat: Our 5 Favorite Booths From World Of Coffee Amsterdam appeared first on Sprudge.

from Sprudge https://ift.tt/2Kr2urq

0 notes