Looking for Trouble

Tuesday in Gaza by Gerri Haynes

(For the next week or so, I will be running a guest blog by Gerri Haynes, a former president of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility. Gerri, a nurse from Kirkland, Wash., is in Gaza with 11 other people in an effort to help the people there and also to better understand the situation.)

Our humanitarian/human rights group met with human rights experts in Gaza this morning, then visited an elegant activity center for children. The director of this center is an inspiring young woman who was educated in and beyond Gaza. She has chosen to serve the children of her homeland in the most loving way she can imagine – with creativity and safety.

The physicians in our group continue to serve patients in Al Awda Hospital, in clinics and in our hotel. A radio announcement telling of our presence in Gaza resulted in many more patients seeking care.

The sister of the wonderful man who is organizing our itinerary runs a neighborhood school – teaching children who are able (because of extreme crowding in classes) to attend regular school for only half of the day. I visited her and witnessed the overwhelming courage of a young woman whose husband is no longer able to work; the wounds he received in an Israeli attack have permanently disabled him. With teachers specializing in such areas as English and mathematics, this bright and cheerful woman is making extended education available to children in her neighborhood for a minimum fee (less than $20/month) – and working in an environment of many needs and great resourcefulness.

In the classes I am teaching, I heard today from a treating psychologist the story of a six-year-old boy who witnessed his neighbor being “cut to pieces” by shrapnel from an Israeli bomb. The child, horrified by what he witnessed, picked up the pieces of his neighbor and placed them in a nearby car. Solemn and purposeful as he retrieved each part, he said little to his parents about what he had done – but the fears that have since directed some of his behaviors signify a persistent trauma. He is one among many, many thousands of the citizens of Gaza who suffer from the psychological injuries of being attacked in the prison that is their homeland.

Again and again, I am humbled by the courage of mental health professionals in this land – each one knows personal trauma and still they continue to offer care to their fellow citizens.

Soha, a Palestinian friend who knows we are in Gaza sent this poem by Rainer Maria Rilke to me today…

Only in our doing can we grasp you.
Only with our hands can we illumine you.
The mind is but a visitor:
It thinks us out of our world.
Each mind fabricates itself.
We sense its limits for we have made them.
And just when we would flee them, you come
and make of yourself an offering.
I don’t want to think a place for you.
Speak to me from everywhere.
Your Gospel can be comprehended
without looking for its source.
When I go toward you
it is with my whole life.

One of many demolished homes in Gaza.