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<br><div><br><div>Begin forwarded message:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "></div><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0"><tbody><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;"><br><br>--- On <b>Sat, 8/21/10, Ridgely Fuller <i><<a href="mailto:rpfuller18@hotmail.com">rpfuller18@hotmail.com</a>></i></b> wrote:<br><blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; padding-left: 5px;"><br>From: Ridgely Fuller <<a href="mailto:rpfuller18@hotmail.com">rpfuller18@hotmail.com</a>><br>Subject: last days in Gaza<br>To: "Ridgely Fuller" <<a href="mailto:rpfuller18@hotmail.com">rpfuller18@hotmail.com</a>><br>Date: Saturday, August 21, 2010, 1:54 AM<br><br><div id="yiv1834139303"> <style><!-- #yiv1834139303 .yiv1834139303hmmessage P { margin:0px;padding:0px;} #yiv1834139303 .yiv1834139303hmmessage { font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma;} --></style><p class="yiv1834139303MsoNormal"><font style="font-size: 10pt;" size="2"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Hi All,<br></span></font></p><p class="yiv1834139303MsoNormal"><font style="font-size: 10pt;" size="2"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><br></span></font></p><p class="yiv1834139303MsoNormal"><font style="font-size: 10pt;" size="2"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">NO electricity starting early in this morning which is a first for me ..so hope my battery will last to cut and paste this message which I will try to send later ..the blackout periods have become more numerous and prolonged. The electricity shortage could so easily be remedied by simply increasing the fuel supply and allowing the repair of the one interior electrical plant is also critical. The entire population is punished by these dreadful blackouts,a constant and humiliating reminder to the Palestinians here of Israeli control of every minute of their lives.This total control being the reason international law does not consider Israel to have lifted the occupation of Gaza even though their settlers no longer physically occupy this area. Economists name this manipulation of the electrical supply as part of the Israeli plan of deliberate "de-development of Gaza" which has been implemented in various forms for dozens of years.</span></font></p><p class="yiv1834139303MsoNormal"><font style="font-size: 10pt;" size="2"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><br> </span></font></p><p class="yiv1834139303MsoNormal"><font style="font-size: 10pt;" size="2"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">I plan to spend the last few days here training new ‘Playmakers’..those adults who work with children in the <span style=""> </span>psychosocial group play imparted to me by Project <span style=""> </span>Joy. It is really fun and so rewarding to see these mostly young men and women learn to happily interact in a comfortable way unusual in their customary single sex education and very limited social contact. So, the team at the Al Qattan Center for the Child initially could only muster quiet smiles in our play routine ( even through loud 'meow' and 'moo' yoga stretches !) until I got to the more rambunctious games of ' We, the Protector' (great in Palestine!), 'Whose Team am I<span style=""> </span>On?' and an adapted variation of Ultimate Frisbee. During the later the large space was so filled with physical activity and gales of laughter that I could totally remove myself and just take pictures.After they finally stopped the men and women came thanking me, noting they themselves have little experience in play..and making me promise to come work with them again on Sunday.</span></font></p><p class="yiv1834139303MsoNormal"><font style="font-size: 10pt;" size="2"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><br></span></font></p><p class="yiv1834139303MsoNormal"><font style="font-size: 10pt;" size="2"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Similar experience south in with the Gaza Mental Health Center in Deir el Balah and north in Beit Hanoun with the Local Initiative…I remind myself that I really am asking alot of these folks to be so stimulated when they are not eating,DRINKING, and the heat is breaking all records ( yesterday again in the high 90s…110 temp in ‘comfort index’ due to the humidity.I have never been so consistently wet..just sweat).</span></font></p><p class="yiv1834139303MsoNormal"><font style="font-size: 10pt;" size="2"><br></font><font style="font-size: 10pt;" size="2"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></font></p><p class="yiv1834139303MsoNormal"><font style="font-size: 10pt;" size="2"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">And in the last days I would like to tie up loose ends which includes completing some of the ‘missions’ you all have sent me on..I like these always leading to new adventures ..….the first mission involved looking into the “Gaza Mall’ which opened in July and the Israeli PR department is desperately <span style=""></span>trying to use as “there is no problem,no humanitarian crisis in Gaza..look at this fancy Mall” I asked some of the young Playmakers about the new Mall and they burst out laughing..Eman offered to take me to the Mall in the afternoon..As the picture indicates its entrance is barely two peoples' arms length wide...8 small stores, a supermarket and a restaurant. It is full of goods, much of which comes through the tunnels from Egypt and much is Israeli as you can see in the photo with Eman.I interviewed the few customers as well as the General Manager,Salah-Al Dine Abu Abdo, who expresses the overwhelming opinion when he says" all products here are enough for 10% of our needs.We need medicine, machinery, construction materials.Many have died due to lack of medical equipment and medicine. Many thousands live without homes.That is what we need, this Mall is nothing."<br> </span></font></p><p class="yiv1834139303MsoNormal"><font style="font-size: 10pt;" size="2"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">According to him the 'Mall' itself is an old building bought by a civil engineer who has lived and taught in Canada for the past 10 years.His original intent was to turn it into a typical indoor market with small stalls but lack of ability to import necessary material even then( various Israel economic embargoes have been going on for a long time ) led the building to languish until this period of severe unemployment when construction workers cleaned, painted and really shined up the place. Regardless of the Palestinian dismissal of the 'Mall' as superficial in terms of their real needs I do see it as an example of the persistence and ingenuity of the people who are able to get this small piece of modernity off the ground despite being under a stringent economic blockade.<br> </span></font></p><p class="yiv1834139303MsoNormal"><font style="font-size: 10pt;" size="2"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><br> </span></font></p><p class="yiv1834139303MsoNormal"><font style="font-size: 10pt;" size="2"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">I think Eman's our own story which emerged during our visit is more illustrative of reality here. Her Father, a professor in Qatar, returned to Gaza some years ago and opened 5 appliance stores throughout the Gaza Strip. During the winter 2007 the Israeli airforce gave the family a ten minute warning via phone before destroying the family home in Rafah as their equipment had misidentified the washing machines and televisions as weapons. The night time bomb displaced 40 some extended family members and destroyed four adjoining homes. Her father closed all the stores except one and moved the family to Gaza City. Interesting side story Emman tells is after her house was bombed the Israeli Airforce warned a family in the Jabalya refugee camp their house was next,,,the family said "NO" and gathered hundreds of people on the rooftop..seeing this the Airforce held off destroying the house until the invasion in 2008-9.</span></font></p><p class="yiv1834139303MsoNormal"><font style="font-size: 10pt;" size="2"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Eman's story doesn't end there: during the past 6 years she has been awarded a total of 6 scholarships to study in France and Germany but has not been able to access any as Israel will not grant her exit papers.Again, the policy of de-development of Gaza when young people are not allowed to study/maximize their potential for themselves or their people.</span></font></p><p class="yiv1834139303MsoNormal"><br> <font style="font-size: 10pt;" size="2"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></font></p><p class="yiv1834139303MsoNormal"><font style="font-size: 10pt;" size="2"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">I am now off on a mission requested by New England's wonderful friends Mazin and Jessie who asked me to find and deliver a Ramadan gift to a family somewhere in the huge maze of Gaza City. Our friends 'adopted' this family back in 2002 when the young daughter, shot in the eye by Israeli sniper and was flown to Connecticut for medical treatment.This mission will surely be an adventure as I have learned taxi drivers generally have no idea when one hands them an address, even written in Arabic.Destinations are eventually found when the drivers repeatedly stop and ask the whereabouts of specific families in their neighborhoods.I recruited a new young Palestinian friend who so admires Mazin and has dreams of studying in the UK to help guide and translate for me on this mission.</span></font></p><p class="yiv1834139303MsoNormal"><br> <font style="font-size: 10pt;" size="2"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></font></p><p class="yiv1834139303MsoNormal"><font style="font-size: 10pt;" size="2"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Take care,</span></font></p><p class="yiv1834139303MsoNormal"><br> <font style="font-size: 10pt;" size="2"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></font></p><p class="yiv1834139303MsoNormal"><font style="font-size: 10pt;" size="2"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Ridgely<br> </span></font></p> <br> <span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><br> </div></blockquote></td></tr></tbody></table><br> <img src="cid:7BCCDC04-3BA8-440D-AE44-B2871D18D23D@local"><img src="cid:82C5BCF1-FB13-4014-840F-2EE0DA1E3851@local"><img src="cid:56139C61-E06F-49AE-8163-9FBA0602C77B@local"><img src="cid:B44AC6F1-6CF5-4113-AB5D-A6BFD6A062BD@local"></blockquote></div><br></body></html>