Just as is the case anywhere, children here in Palestine look for things to do when they are on holiday. While I've been in Hebron and At-Tuwani this visit I've been fortunate enough to share their fun.
In Hebron a local woman devotes much of her time to working with the local community; she lives on the same staircase as we do. After negotiation with the Israeli soldiers she has had painted on the street outside our apartment a (very narrow!) football pitch.
There are proper small goalposts set up. Three teams of Palestinian boys play football here every day with great enthusiasm. One of the teams is called, rather grandly, Heroes of the Old City. Then today there was a party for young children. Masks were made for them to wear and scare those of us of a nervous disposition. Then they each got a hat. These were made of card covered in crepe paper. They looked like a fez with a pompom on top. To join in the fun my friend Mary and I each had an orange one with CPT written on it. We wore them through the market on checkpoint patrol instead of our red CPT caps.
It was good to see other internationals helping out as well as the local YMCA representative. But most of the work was done by local young men and women who want to bring some life to their community. In At-Tuwani there was a three-week long summer camp for the local children. In the past this has been run by Ta'ayush, an Israeli human rights group. This year the villagers decided that they wanted to run it themselves. Ta'ayush gave some financial assistance, as did the European Commission. CPT and our Italian colleagues gave a bit of help but largely the different generations of villagers organised it and ran it. The kids enjoyed all the activities of art, music and dancing; they loved having the older women coming to demonstrate the ancient village crafts; but most of all they had a great time when the Tuwani team beat the Yatta team at football! One highlight of the summer camp was that on some days Israeli peace activists brought their own children from Jerusalem to take part with the village children.
So, what have I learned from all this? Well, I've learned that despite the presence of heavily-armed Israeli soldiers watching from the roof above kids can enjoy themselves. I've learned that communities with very little can work together to make things happen. Oh, and I've learned the Arabic word for 'referee.'

Maureen Jack, who has sent many equally thought-provoking reports from the Occupied Territories of Palestine, is working with the Christian Peacemaker Team in Hebron. Visit their website at www.cpt.org to find out more about their activities and a substantial gallery of photographs, like the picture above of the Tuwani football team.