Burj el Barajneh camp
Sunday - January 18 - 2009
Sponsor: Melek
Facilitators: Tala, Layla, Maha & Busy Box staff
We’ve had 3 different outings up until now that have involved escalators. For some of our camp kids the escalator seems like a carnival ride, and for others, a death trap. Between this divide, it takes our crew about 15 minutes to get the group up or down the escalator. Some kids will actually sit on it, as if a ride, then circle around to go up again, then down, then up. While some of us try to manage those kids - for the simple sake of keeping group together and to make it to our destination on time - it takes another team of us to try and convince the scared few that it’s really safe, there’s nothing to worry about, and that the stairs won’t “eat” them. After several minutes of unconvincing, we finally resort to a friendly bear-hug and safely place them on the stairs. Needless to say, among our groups’ split, we undoubtedly gain added “adventure” each time our outing involves an escalator.
My favorite part though, is witnessing when one of our kids makes the heroic “cross-over”. He might be anxious to ride the escalator en route to our outing, but by the time he sees his brave friends going up and down the escalator on one leg - on our way back from the outing - he magically transforms, graduating to the other group, now fitting as many rides as he can to extend his performance of different stunning feats, like going down using no hands, and waving them as if to say, “Come chase me!” He then officially crosses over to the other side: the “escalator dare devil group,” - something nearly worthy of a badge.
My second favorite part to these escalator adventures, is simply watching the reaction of the security guards and how unsure they are about what their role in all of this should be exactly. I note it’s usually the same in each case: eye contact with me, always accompanied by a smile, followed by a hesitant stutter step to come help, but then a usual back off, to where they make the ultimate decision to just “enjoy the show” of the frightened and the thrilled juxtaposed against one another. I’ll glance back at the guards with a smile, thanking them in my mind for their patience, understanding, and just letting us do our "thing."
After our brief sidetracking en route this time, we finally arrived to Busy Box, and it eventually came time to celebrate one of our girls' birthday. Maha stuck what seemed to be a flaming rocket in this little birthday girls cupcake. I caught myself looking in amazement at this sparkling torpedo, not sure when I’d have to dive across the room to put this sweet girl’s hair out. But, I was also thinking back to when I was a kid and remembering how I thought the simple “trick” candle was such a big deal. I simply couldn’t take my eyes off the spectacle of this roaring birthday torch. It was new to me. I was entranced.
On my walk home I began to reflect about the day. I thought about our kids’ wonderment with the escalator, and then, my strange fascination with this flaming birthday rocket candle. I realized that they both elicited first, a fear in us, then a sense of wonder, and then ultimately, joy. The kids and I both got to each stage, and then eventually ended up in the same place, but by different means – I, by a weird sparkling candle, and they, by your standard public escalator.
What I thought was most remarkable is how we both got there by something so simple, so elementary. And I’m still not sure if it was me witnessing their innocence on the escalator that brought me to the place where I felt entranced like a child again by this sparkler, or if it was my ability to let myself be a kid again - like amidst the flaming candle - that helps me to enjoy the kids, in a very similar way, enjoy the escalator. Regardless, of which, I felt a deep sense of connect with these kids after digesting this. By the time I arrived home, the more I thought about it, I felt that same sense of connect shift, to, not only with these kids, but with people, in general… all through a simple novelty candle, some moving stairs, and probably most importantly, these kids. They all entangled together to clarify something important for me this day: just how connected we all really are.
