ere are a bunch of mentors in their early twenties who volunteer and help the kids out. It's a very nice little centre, with a lot of highly motivated local kids from reasonably disadvantaged backgrounds. They produce some pretty nice stuff and are very passionate about what they do. So we go out there for two hours each Tuesday and do 'Why Not?' with about 20 of these kids. 'Why Not?' is an initiative of the NGO 'Mercy Corps' to connect youths from around the world, share their experiences and break down barriers. Students in the program are connected through an internet forum where they can post links, music, discuss etc. It's a very nice concept.
A lot of the kids that come along to our group are there as an opportunity to improve their English, as they all feel that is very important. But each week we discuss issues affecting them, and it's sometimes quite personal-developmenty, debatey, etc. The issue that really got them going, all of them coming from Palestinian families but unable to go there, was Gaza. During the Gaza crisis in December-January, one of our students wrote a song for Gaza.
This guy is only 16 years old, has never left Jordan, but speaks English with an incredible proficiency and eloquency and with a beautiful accent. He's really a very inspired and inspiring guy and this centre has given him some great opportunities to follow up his passions.
So he wrote an amazing song, melody and all, and we were quite shocked when he sung it to us, it was really great.
Our group was asked to submit something representative of the 'Why Not?' program to be shown at a Development Conference in Doha in mid-April, at which Bill Gates will be present. So on the spur of the moment we decided to record the song.
So Rian and this guy worked on the song, perfected a few of the lyrics, put guitar to it, and on Tuesday, we were ready to record at the local radio station.
In the taxi on the way to the youth centre, we saw the song guy standing on the side of the road, so we picked him up and took him with us. He had bad news. He had told his parents that he was going to sing a song. Apparently this upset them greatly. He told them it was for Gaza, thinking this would make them happy. Their response was along the lines of 'Nothing you can sing for Gaza will make a difference' and 'singing is for girls'.
Now there are people everywhere that have this attitude, but really it's very sad. This guy was so excited by it, had worked so hard on it, and is now not just forbidden from recording it, but also forbidden from ever going back to this youth centre. We were forced to record it without him, and who knows what effect this will have on his motivation levels. So that was very sad.
The good news is that the rest of the kids showed up, with their Palestinian scarves and flags, and we crammed 15 of them into the tiny recording studio and they belted out the chorus. I never saw people in such an uncomfortable, hot, airless space look so happy. It's really very nice to see these tough 16 year old kids get so happy about singing songs. Really not something that would have happened with the guys in my class at that age!
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