LOOK OUT, THERE ARE MINES!

The following text is written by Lwaly Dadi Ramdan. He has studied English with previous volunteer groups and is one of our friends in the camps.

The war stopped in Western Sahara in 1991, but there are still victims. Every year people die and are injured by the mines. The mine situation is alarming. There are thousands of mines waiting to explode in all of Western Sahara both in the Occupied and Liberated Territories. All the Saharawis living here are in great danger.

Many of the refugees in Algeria want to live as nomads in the Liberated Territories during the rainy season. The land is good for planting and people want to benefit from the nature. Many families plan to go there but there is one problem: the dangers of mines. All family members, women, children and old people will be in danger – especially the children.

There is an organisation working in the Liberated Territories called Land Mine Action. They work with cleaning the land of the mines and pointing out zones that are dangerous, zones that are less dangerous and zones that are safe. But there is another problem: Flooding. When the floods come, the mines change places. For many years, the Saharawis were used to walking in any place they wanted. Now, there is the wall and there are mines. So I have to beware in my land. Everywhere. Look out! There are mines under your feet!

I will tell you my cousin's story. He was with his father in the Liberated Areas as nomads looking after their sheep. Suddenly, he changed direction and minutes after he walked on a mine. He lost one of his feet and his father was hurt too. It was a hard time for the family. It was also an incredible time for me. I was studying in Algeria. I heard about him late because communication wasn't available like now. When I went back home I got out of the car and saw his injury. That moment really affected me deeply. I felt for him, for the others who lost their lives, for those who lost body parts and for the next victims. Who will it be?

I feel worried because my family is planning to live as nomads soon because of my grandparents. Their health is not good and they want to drink the milk and breath Sahara's air. At first it seems like a good thing to benefit from the nature, but on the other hand I'm afraid of the mines.

What crime did innocent people commit to be victims of mines? I hope it's time that the world will focus on this land and make more efforts to force Morocco to sign the UTAWA treaty which prevents the use of mines. I hope to see my land one day without mines and without weapons. Many wishes to the families who want to go and live as nomads. Safe travels!

Under The Surface

Not many people from the outside world have heard about the Saharawis, much fewer get to see the inside of the refugee camps. Most of the foreigners (read Spanish people) who visit the camps come in delegations and stay for one or maybe two weeks. The delegations we have seen pass through have been students, scientists, activists or medical staff. These groups of engaged and interested Europeans obviously want to see as much as possible on the little time they have, so they often travel from camp to camp and stay only a couple of days in each place. Being busy traveling around provides the visitors with a lot of information. It lets them meet many different people, they get to take a lot of photographs and hear many different stories.

However, there are a lot of things one can not see when passing through the camps like most people tend to do. You can not see that the eight year old boy you just photographed is in reality twelve. Nor can one see that almost every second woman suffers from anemia caused by malnutrition.

The Saharawis treat their guests in the most hospitable way and serve every piece of valuable food to the foreigners who stop by on short visits. But these rich meals are far from the normal, every day food composed by donations from organizations like the EU and the WFP. Most of the food does not hold a minimum standard of quality. The flour given by WFP is not good enough to make bread and the oil donated by the US is not exactly virgin olive oil. The donations to the camps have not been reconsidered the last 30 years, so the food they receive is aimed on people living in short term needs. Now generations are growing up on these fable gifts from the north.

The children we live with suffer from constant infections. Diarrhea and vomiting is something the families experience on a almost a weekly basis due to bacterias that hit their weak immune systems. You never forget the first time you see a diaper filled with blood. This is the harsh reality of the refugees. Behind their smiles and their more than welcoming gestures their bodies weaken day by day.

They say that a photo can say more than a thousand words. My experience from the last three months is that the contrary can be just as true.

Aid or not?

A few months ago, I nervously crammed graphs, definitions and theories before my long-feared IB exams in economics. Among the things I studied were some of the basic concepts of development, including positive and negative aspects of “aid” and other humanitarian initiatives. Last Saturday, these theoretical learnings were shown to me in practice as we went for a walk a French man, Jean Francois Debargue, who has lived in the camps for more than two years, working with desert gardening. According to Jeans's experience some of the projects that other countries establish in the refugee camps - although with good intentions – often lead to the wrong results.

The vast majority of humanitarian initiatives in the camps involves the Saharawis receiving something. Wheat comes from the European Union, hermetical oil is shipped in from the United States and sugar comes in large packs from Spain. The women distribute these foods to each part of the camp (so-called “dairas”) and then equally between the families by a person in each “barrio” (the divisions of a “daira”). This aid is absolutely essential for survival in the camps and sadly, the amount of food per person has not increased significantly over the last 30 years. Hence, there is a lot of malnutrition and the children here often look far younger than they really are.

Arguably, aid has also created a culture of dependency. A crucial part of Jean's project has therefore been to offer a meaningful activity and at the same time teach some skills of vegetable production that can be applied once the Saharawis return to their homeland. However, this process hasn't always been easy, paradoxically much due to the willingness of other organisations to “help out” in his initiatives.

Jean gave the telling example of some visitors from Spain that came down to see the gardens, liked the idea and decided to “facilitate” the project by sending down a hoard of Spanish workers for a few weeks to complete the construction. With good intentions and funding from the Spanish state the project was completed in a much shorter time than people in the camps would have managed to build the gardens themselves. However, whilst the gardens were ready to grow potatoes, carrots and other vegetables, the Saharawis that were meant to build them in the first place now lacked a sense of ownership and responsibility to initiate the planting. Consequently, the gardens were still in need of external supervision in order to carry out the planting.

Jean also told the contrasting example of an old man who made a garden entirely by himself. For years to come there will probably be vegetables planted here as the old man has a sense of responsibility and ownership of his garden. He put a lot of time and effort into building robust stone fences, making pumps for water and planting the seeds. Naturally, he won't let this hard labour go with nothing.

Naturally, this is just one example of aid gone wrong and there are many projects here in the camps that have been very beneficial to the community (such as the two schools where we teach). However, according to Jean, perhaps the biggest problem of them all is that while all these initiatives probably come with good intentions, it is also a way for other countries to hide behind a “humanitarian mask” to avoid the real political issue of Saharawi independence. Countries such as the United States, France and Spain have the last decade almost solely answered the political problem of Western Sahara with humanitarian means. The French government, for example, funds Jean's project with significant amounts, but has at the same time silently supported the Moroccan occupation with abstentions on important United Nations resolutions about the referendum in Western Sahara. So is it “aid”? Or is it a way to avoid the real political issues?

The world is watching...

..in silence?

A couple of weeks ago we wrote about a conference "Saharawis in Algeria". Student activists from the occupied Western Sahara came to the camps. When they returned to Casablanca they got arrested by Moroccan police. Today you can read about this in Norway's biggets newspaper
here.

I just called to say...

Our families and friends have already experienced how terribly bad the telephone connection is in the Sahara desert. A real conversation is hardly possible. .

So, I thought I would use the blog to describe what I have been doing here the past month..
I have learned how to...

-dress myself in the traditional “melheffa” that Ida and I wear every day.
-sleep on the floor with all the women in my family (around 8 people in a small room)
-carry 10 liters of water on my shoulder the few kilometers back home from the “store”
-make the sweet Saharawi tea which takes about an hour (believe me, it sound easier than it is)
-write and read basic Arabic words and tell myself that I understand a basic conversation (thanks to my teacher Mohamed)
-greet someone in Hassanya (the dialect of Arabic spoken by the Saharawis). This ritual can take up to five minutes! Jekel al Hier.
-milk and feed goats (this needs to be done twice a day)
-do “the dishes” in cold water without soap
-dance like a Saharawi, but not near the oldest man in the family. He can not hear, see or even be near people who talk about dancing or music.
-not shower for a month, but still feel pretty fresh(!).
-wear “henna” on my hands and feet in beautiful patterns
-speak in Spanabic (a funny mixture of Spanish, French and Arabic) with my family and people I meet.

A womans work

I thought finding the time to write would be the biggest problem here, but finding the right time when it comes to the weather is even more essential. It's about 40degrese Celsius outside and I'm laying on the floor so close to the window(meaning a small hole in the wall) that I get traces of a chicken fence pattern on my face.

My melheffa is soaked in sweat. A melheffa is a three meter piece of fabric that the women here gracefully wear everyday. Is is one of the many Saharawi traditions that are so important and alive in this society.
Ane and I chose to wear the melheffa during our stay in a desperate attemt to blend in, but also to show that we support their struggle towards the independence of their country. The melheffa along with their language (Hassania), their tea and their derrah. Is to show their identity and their unity.

We try as best we can to understand and adapt to their culture and everyday life. But no matter how much interaction you've had with estranged cultures before, the life in the camp will come as a shock to any globetrotter.
For me as a Nordic woman used to my personal goals and being just me, myself and I have a difficult time getting used to this society.

You can say that these women are strong and have control of the family and the household, but when
it comes to the world outside these brick walls. I see that the men have almost total control.


Ida

Dinner Talks

A funny conversation developed yesterday during dinner as I ate couscous with Bashri, the fifteen year-old boy in my family. We started talking about the climate in Sahara. The first two weeks here have been very warm with temperatures up to 40 degrees Celsius in the middle of the day. Bashri, however, assured me that I will miss this weather when the cold starts to set in.
“During the night you will need at least three blankets to keep warm” he warned me and pointed towards the collection of colourful, acryl blankets in the corner. I told him that Norway too is a very, very cold country: “During the winter, we even have snow.”
“But how many blankets?” he asked.
To this I didn't really know what to respond. How many acryl blankets are needed to keep warm in a sand house in Norway? I didn't want to explain the whole concept of isolation and electrical heating, so I simply said I thought three or four would be sufficient. But this is something I have yet to find out!

Army Dreamers

The Norwegian parliament elections were held the same day we left for the camps. For the whole summer I campaigned for my political party, knowing that it was important for the future of my country that the sitting government would be reelected – fortunately it was. Actually the last five years or so of my life has been filled with politics - through my studies, my work and my friends. I have always said that I believe in politics; mainly because politics affect everything in our society like our children, our food, our elderly and the education and even the structures of our relationships.

However, after only a few weeks in the Sahara desert I have realized something that I guess I have known for a long time: politics have not served everyone equally. But few have been betrayed more by politics (or should I say political powerlessness) as the Saharawis. My new friend Mohamed told me that many Saharawis no longer see politics as a solution. They have had enough of talk, plans and promises. Since the ceasefire in 1991, the international society has done nothing for the Saharawis. After 34 years as refugees in the unbearable heat of the Algerian desert, many Saharawis now only see war as a a solution to end these sufferings. ”We have done everything by the book, no terror, no actions of violence since the ceasefire. But this kind of behavior does not turn heads in the UN or the EU. We need to do something. Everyone in the camps feel the same way.”

At this point I do not know what to say. So I try with: ” What about your children – that may be hurt in a war?”. But Mohamed tells me that the children would be safe in Algeria in case of a war. The war would naturally unfold itself by the border of the occupied areas. Before I have the time to say anything Mohamed quickly adds that a war also would ruin the good and peaceful label the Saharawis have obtained over the last couple of decades. This is why he thinks there has not been a war already.

Before we leave each other he tells me “Ohathe” a Saharawee gesture that means something like “end of discussion”. I look at him and answer back “ohathe”.

Tea in the Sahara

Today, the 1st of October, we have been in the desert for two weeks. We are still not used to the heat, the flies or the long greetings in Hassanyia “Jekel leebas”. But we are starting to understand the rhythm of the everyday life here in the camps.

The three of us live in different families placed close together in Layouune refugee camp, in the a part called Boccra.

A day in life:
- We get up at 7oclock to eat breakfast and get ready for work. The three of us work as English and informatics teachers in a nearby school. Our students, mainly girls, are secretaries for distribution of food and other items for the families in Layouune.
- After work we go home and eat the main meal, the most common foods are couscous, camel or goat meat and rice.
- At five o'clock we have lessons in Hassanyia, a dialect of Araic. The language is necessary to know as not everybody speaks Spanish.

The gaps in the day when we are not working or studying are spent with the families. We get offered tea all the time. This is a ritual that can take up to an hour or two. The tea can be a challenge for us Norwegians since it basically consists of sugar. But at the same time, the tea is a nice break in the day, a time to chat and relax with our families and new friends.

We will not be able to update this blog as much as we would have wanted due to a somewhat fragile internet service.

We are having a great time here, so (family and friends) please do not worry.

Outside my House

Saharawis in Algeria

A few days ago we visited a conference where they discussed the issue of Saharawis living in other parts of Algeria. There were several visitors from the occupied areas there as well as representatives from the board of Polisario, among them the president.

Many young Saharawis go to Algeria with the support for Polisario for there studies as there are no universities or upper secondary schools in the camps. Some also go to Spain and Cuba. Yesterday, the oldest brother in my family returned from Spain to Laayoune after three years of not seeing them. Another man we talked to spent 14 years in Cuba studying and working. When these Saharawis return to the camps with a degree, they often find that there are few relevant jobs in which they can use their knowledge. Consequently, some decide to stay and work outside the camps. Many of the young people we've got to know so are travelling to Algeria these days to study. It is easy to understand why some of them will decide to stay for a bit longer before eventually returning to the camps. Our Arabic teacher explained to us that it is important for the Polisario that people do return to the camps in order to demonstrate they don't accept to be destined in Algeria: Western Sahara is where they really belong. As an uncle of my family said one evening: “We are not living here because of famine or natural disasters, we are political refugees”.

In the Desert

After two weeks in Sahara, I've discovered that Laayoune is a place of strong family ties. Every night, when the temperature declines and there is a mild breeze in the air, the whole family gathers on a big carpet outside to drink sugary tea and talk long into the late hours. Family meaning aunts, uncles, parents, grandparents, cousins and other neighbours – I have yet to figure out all the relationships in my family. The first few nights it struck me how incredibly friendly and welcoming the Saharawis are – and how happy they seemed with their everyday life. Time is a different concept here than at home. As the father in my family, Abdullah, pours tea from one cup to the other to make the foam, friends drop by to join the conversation, children run around from house to house and the day passes by slowly. For over 30 years the Saharawis have been waiting here for their referendum.

While life in the camps might be an interesting four-months adventure for a nineteen year-old Norwegian, this is by no means a good solution for the Saharawis. No one in my family has work outside the house, the children go to school but it's unknown whether they'll actually get to use their education in a relevant job. Killing time cruising around with a Land Rover with the oldest boys in my family is certainly fun, but over time this is perhaps not particularly meaningful. Lack of work is a major problem in the camps and simply waiting for a solution to the occupation can be very tiresome.

We have become friends with several people working for Polisario's army, who have told us about the increasing willingness to return to the war. I hope that never happens. All the Saharawis want is a diplomatic solution with Marrocco, but it is very difficult to influence this process when destined in the camps. “Insh-Allah” says Leyla, the mother in my family, and drinks the tenth cup of tea for the day. Hoping, that is all they can do.

Introduction to the Western Sahara

Western Sahara is a forgotten conflict. For over 30 years more than 160 000 refugees have lived in four separate refugee camps, isolated from the outside world in the Algerian Sahara desert. Temperatures range from the scorching to the freezing and the camps are totally dependent on external support, such as from The World Food Program.

More than 80 countries have gained independence since the United Nations was founded, but not the Western Sahara - it is now the last colony of Africa.

Several UN resolutions affirm that the Sahrawis have the right to referendum which will decide their own future, yet the world still refuses to uphold international law and bring the occupation to an end. The Sahrawi people have declared their own republic in exile, which has been recognized by more than 90 other states. As the situation is now, an entire people is divided from one another by Marroco's 2,200 kilometre-long wall which separates the Sahrawis in the occupied areas from those in the refugee camps.

SahaNor is an exchange program between the Red Cross Nordic United World College and the Ministry of Sport and Youth/Polisario which is the governing body of the Saharawi people. The project is made possible with the funding and encouragement of Fredskorpset, the Norwegian Peace Corps. It is a reciprocal exchange with two Arabic teachers coming to Norway and six Norwegian volunteers teaching English in Algeria. Please keep in mind that this blog reflects our personal experiences and opinions and are not the official views of our partner organisations. Also, feel free to promote this blog to anyone you like. Our aim is that more people around the world will know about the situation for the refugees. Hopefully, more attention and awareness about the conflict will increase the chances of a free and independent Western Sahara.