one day in Jenin

Olivier and I joined our friends of Al Kamandjati for one day to Jenin. The road to Jenin is beautiful. We drove through mountains and the closer you get to Jenin, the greener it gets. The area around Jenin is rich in agriculture. Al Kamandjati has a department in Jenin where they give music lessons (music notation, singing, guitar, ud, percussion, violin, a.o.) every Saturday. We came to Jenin in order to repair the piano which Music Fund donated to the Freedom Theatre, founded by Juliano Mer Khamis. The piano was delivered in Ramallah last January and something happened during the transportation of it between Ramallah and Jenin which caused some problems to the mechanics of the instrument. There is a lot of work needed to get it in order again, something Olivier could not finish in only half a day. We will have to come back later on, or send someone else to finish the job. The Freedom Theatre is a wonderful house with a very special history which is worth looking at (see website). They have a workshop-space, a theatre space, a library and resource room, and a computer room. Many people come there to teach workshops (computer, capoeira, theatre, circus,...). It is a wonderfully lively place, where I would love to come back to in the future. A pity Juliano Mer Khamis was out of the country these days, but his Swedish partner, Jonathan Stanczak, was there to welcome us and explain all about the theatre.