Report from Children's Summer Camp in Jerusalem

While the work in Jerusalem continued according to its rhythm, nine hours a day (the kaytana opens its doors at 9.00 and closes at 18.00), from August 1, when the municipal day care centers closed their premises, we received 35 more children, mostly African children (Eritreans and Ethiopians). Almost all of them have ancient biblical names, like Nahum, Yafet and Yosef. Those named Natanael were eight in number. Some of the girls have names of holy places like Jerusalem, Bethania, Yordanos, Nazareth and Israela.

The first week of August was the most difficult, until two of the counsellors returned from the World Youth Day in Poland. More than sixty children and only six counsellors: Claudia (superwoman, who has the energy of seven), Sister Claudia, an Ursuline originally from Milano, Sister Anna, an Ursuline novice, who was just visiting Jerusalem, two serious Polish seminarians, Matthew and Wojtek, great workers with lots of energy and myself. There were also a few Israeli volunteers, who showed up from time to time, also assisting the children with their holiday homework.

On August 2, we undertook the adventure of going to the swimming pool: all of us getting on the public bus and travelling all the way to Emek Refaim, to the municipal swimming pool, with pools that are suitable for little children. The most difficult is the walking on foot from one place to another as the children must walk two by two, an older child holding the hand of a younger one. I need to say that discipline is not the strongest characteristic of this group. What can one do when in the middle of a pedestrian crossing, as we try to get the children to cross quickly, one of them suddenly stops, opens his knapsack in order to take a drink from his water bottle, saying that he is thirsty. In fact, he is not really thirsty but simply wants to show off his new water bottle to the other children. The cars start to blow their horns and as a result the counsellors start to shout at the guilty child, who then bursts into tears while the passers-by shout at the counsellors in solidarity with the offended child.

The swimming pool is great fun and the children tend to remain in the water the whole time except for a short break for lunch. In fact, we have been a few times. The children jump around and play like little fish. Some of the children have to be hauled out of the water when they start to turn blue and their teeth are chattering. They must be forced to spend a few minutes in the sun before allowing them to return to the water. When the time comes to leave, the area we occupied looks like a battlefield with clothes, towels and other belongings scattered everywhere. The children are too exhausted to collect their belongings and so it is up to the two friendly Polish seminarians to collect what has been left behind and bring it back to the parish where the mothers can reclaim what belongs to their children.

On August 11 and 12, I had a wonderful surprise when my nephew Lorenzo came to visit. He was in Tel Aviv with some friends. On Friday, together with Lorenzo, one of the girls who was with the group proposed a few activities to the children. With Lorenzo, a drummer by profession, there was a lesson in drumming, while Anna, a ballerina, proposed dancing and performed parts of "The Sleeping Beauty" from Tchaikovsky.

It was beautiful!