Ladies Cabin Night

So…basically it was like a small party. All of the girls cabins traveled to the dining hall at like 9:15 pm to hang out. When we got there there were a bunch of different stations set up.

1) Henna

2) beads/bracelettes

3) Facial cleansing masks

4) Nail polish

5) Face Painting

 You know, girl junk. So yeah everyone went to whatever station they wanted to go to. Got henna, made bracelettes, conversed, ate, drank, excetra excetera.  I wont tell you all the details that went on because that’s our little secret.

 

P.S Special thanks to Jehan for making it all possible! JJJ

 

Al Hawanem Performance

Last night there was a very special performance by a group called Al Hawanem. This Mediterranean band played songs from different countries of the Middle East. The instruments consisted of a Kanoon, an Oud, and a Tabla.  One of the women would switch between the Kanoon and a violin. You could tell she played with so much pleasure because she had a smile on here face during the whole performance. Lady Oud played with grace and closed her eyes as the music filled the stage. Don’t even let me talk about the tabla player. She played with such EXTREME passion, beads of sweat rolled down her face as she pounded out the spastic rhythm. During her solo she coasted the crowd into complete silence.

 

After the band finished all of the songs they asked for anyone in the crowd to come up and dance to Chobi. Most of the Iraqi boys and girls came up to dance to the beat they knew so well. This was a real treat for the American campers to see because the boys started to dance in a very interesting way. It was sort of like belly dancing. One of the boys twisted so well I thought he would pop his hip out of place! Everyone in the audience smiled and clapped along with the beat. Seeing how Iraqi boys dance compared to American boys was an intriguing experience.

 

Later after watching the dancing, it inspired the American kids to join the Iraqi kids and show them how their own style of dance was. So by the end of the night no one wanted to go back to his or her cabins.

 

 

Fatima Abdul-Haqq

Theater Games/Cabin Night Meeting

 

Wuz good every1 its ya boy Farhad again…How’s it goin’? Anyways, the second night of GYV was Folktale Night; all of the participants were assembled into groups and each performed various selective random folktale. As a warm up, Matt had all the groups play a game of charades. Eh…it was a tad bit unfair that they were the same cards over and over again though haha…

but they were still enjoyable. Just to name a few of the folktales, they were:

 

The Stubborn Turnip

The Silent Couple

The Fisherman and his Wife

The Lamb with the Golden Fleece

The Three Blind Men & the Elephant

 

Yep, that night revealed some hidden great acting from the participants…Everyone did great, but I remember Humam as the first act, did great work as the man who didn’t want to deal with his annoying neighbors –

 

HILARIOUS!

 

That same night, I dunno bout the girls but I know the boys had cabin meetings and played the question game (everyone writes down a question on a piece of paper, then put into a bowl, then whoever pulls it out has to answer but if anyone else wants to answer they can too). Some of the questions were silly, like “Can we go shopping together sometime?” When Tarek pulled that one out he reminded all of us that the Legacy Store will be open from 3:30PM to 4 each day of the week from then on and the participants were welcome to shop with him there. Another question that was pulled out was “What is your favorite quote?”

 

 

 

Tarek replied with “Actually one of my favorite quotes are posted on the wall – ‘Every man dies. But not every man truly lives…”

 

At first I tried to comprehend the quote, but I did catch on why Tarek liked it. By the way, our Heiwa cabin is pretty damn popular!!