Amman 23rd December 2009
Full circle. What a year ! Returning to a city I had adopted as home last year, with a mission so different in size, scope and character from the one I went out with on 1st January. Then I was on my own, a stranger in town, untried as a teacher. A teacher of organic gardening and compost making. A teacher of refugees from Iraq. Not knowing where I might live, how long I might stay.
Now I come in a convoy for the relief of Gaza, with friends, proud to show them the home which adopted me. Knowing I’m only here for a day.
The mission today is as one of a group. We come from York, from Bradford and the North, from the remainder of England, from Scotland, Wales, Ireland North and South. From Belgium, Switzerland, Italy. From the USA, New Zealand, Malaysia. Since Istanbul a huge Turkish contingent driving an extra 62 vehicles. In 18 days on the road we have formed strong bonds – a vigorous, passionate family of wilful individuals. Somehow, in small miracles, we have learned to live with one another’s different ways, to make something bigger than each of us could on our own amount to.
It is all about expressing solidarity with the dispossessed, with refugees or victims of war. Iraq or Gaza, our better natures demand a human response. Dozens of reasons for doing nothing appear, present themselves as obstacles, and discourage action. But the story of the convoy is that once each of us has taken the plunge we find amongst our new friends the strength to overcome the obstacles and set-backs.
We are really trying to practice solidarity in its original, primeval sense: we are all vulnerable, strangers in a strange land, unarmed, easy prey for predators. But we keep together, we look out for one another, we build a society on wheels.
