– Post by Razan –
06.08.2018
This day for an exchange student isn’t a good day at all, I felt bad in the previous day and things were getting worse. I had fever, my left ear was hurting, and the sore throat was really painful. I couldn’t get up that day to go to the Fab Lab, I took one pill of a pain killer trying to get better. All bad thoughts came to my mind, I regretted coming to Germany and I wished to be in my bed where my mum will prepare a good soup and take care of me. The real struggle was that the phone was far from the bed, and I didn’t have the connection with the internet yet. When someone calls only four ringtones till the call ended. So I got the first call and I tried to get my phone when it was already ended. I was feeling bad wanted to answer calls and maybe feel better by hearing anyones voice from the group!
I slept for hours and the day didn’t end and I didn’t get better, then at night I got a call from Ahmad he was saying: “Hey Razan, why you don’t answer our calls? We are worried, then Mo’ath took the phone saying: “Hey what’s wrong? We tried to call several times, your sister is trying to call you, just answer her calls.” Then my sister called me and she was terrified asking about what’s happening and if I need a doctor. I just tried to tell her that I’m good and I won’t die and I feel better now.
Whenever this day comes to my mind I remember the feeling that such days are too long and I hope no one will face a similar day.
07.08.2018
Siegufer!
I woke up feeling better, I tried to think positively about the project and the opportunity of being in Germany with German and Palestinian students who are fully motivated to make a change. Yara knocked the door of my room checking me and saying that they are already leaving, she added that the next bus is after half an hour if I’m feeling better to go. I quickly got ready and left the room waiting for the next bus, I was a little bit nervous in the bus because I didn’t want to get lost again. However, I arrived at the Fab Lab around 10 o’clock where everybody was preparing for the stand up
Sticky note wall of the Al-Am’ari Computerclub.
meeting. It was a little bit charged but it was good for the first time, I got quick update about what my team did the previous day and what they discussed. They also put up a great organized sticky note-wall next to our workplace. I felt very motivated from what I saw there and it was a good way to point out which questions and things the group is thinking about. I felt that discussing the interviews I prepared in Palestine in june would help them to imagine the Al Am’ari camp and the whole situation better. Many topics were discussed and things definitely got clearer. It was nice to see how the girls were interested in the project and how amazing ideas emerged from chatting .
Around 5 o’clock, we ended the working group and the Mobile Makerspace group planned to check out the Hackspace Siegen near the Fab Lab. I asked them if i could join
Greenspace in Siegen.
because it sounded interesting to me and maybe I could get some ideas for our YALLAH! Club. Aydin said it’ll take like 15 minutes to go there, but it was very hot and it took forever to reach the place. Actually it was because we stopped at a greenspace. When Nanooq (a member of the Hacksapce Siegen) was telling the stories about the greenspace and how some guys destroyed some of the projects, what came to my mind was the story that Marios told us about the Urban Gardening project in the Al-Am’ari camp in 2016. Many plants were destroyed by the kids there. We always thought about the reason behind that behavior and assumed that the feeling of owning the place from the kids in Al-Am’ari was
the reason. But now I’m thinking that it might happened because some people enjoy destroying and nothing more. At the entrance of the hacking space you directly get the feeling that it’s a place of creativity, that’s how I summarize the experience there. Everything inside is so random and you will feel that many people with different perspectives build that place. Some ideas are funny and you can touch the sense of humor of the person who made it and other ideas are so intelligent, you can imagine how much work and time does it take to set it up like that. The upside down chairs in the ceiling are something you wont see in many places, they give the place a creative atmosphere
Art at Hackspace Siegen!
and that simple stuff is great to create certain feelings. When the maker space group finished doing the interviews, me, Ameera, Rawand and Ahmad left to the dorms, after one hour of running from one street to another to find the bus that was supposed to take us to the dorms, we finally found the bus and after taking the bus and several stops later, we found out that we are in the wrong bus and got lost somewhere in Germany. We walked again looking for a bus stop to drive us to the dorm and we made it in the end.
After one hour in the dorm Ahmad called me saying that they (Ameera, Ahmad, Rawand and Lena) will hang out and whether I would like to join, I went out and Lena suggested to have a walk in the forest near the dorms but when we reached the entrance it was very dark and we felt afraid to enter. We decided to sit on the floor where the trees surrounded us. It was an unforgettable night, we laughed and enjoyed our time, the spiders joined and shared the food with us. Our voice was very loud and an old lady went out from a small beautiful house, she talked with Lena and we thought she’s mad but actually she was scared because she thought that she saw flames from a lighter. We took pictures on Ahmads phone but sadly they weren’t good because it was dark.
08.08.2018
This day was a long working day, we had an interview with Anne Weibert, because she has been working in the computer club since 2009. We tried our best to write good questions and to dig deep in the real meaning of a computer club. We suggested Renad to be the interviewer because she knows Anne and we thought that maybe this will be more comfortable for Anne to talk. Also, we tried to rephrase the questions into enclosed questions. Sarah helped us to prepare for the interview by taking Anne’s role and that was very good because we edited many questions due to that.
The interview was very good as Anne has a lot of experience in the computer club, her answers were useful and on point of our searching needs. Her description of the background of the computer club helped me to understand and reflect many things
View from the dorms!
that happened in al hisba workshop in Al-Am’ari.
I was already tired, but I wanted to join the VR talk in the Fab Lab, I joined half an hour late but the talk was very basic and general. I didn’t join trying or playing the VR, because I started to feel that I was lacking energy. So I left to the dorms and talked with my family for the first time because I didn’t have internet connection since I came to Germany. Talking to them refreshed my energy and I motivated me for the coming days.
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