The palestinian ” sailing team’ have arrived bck from Algeria, This is Habeeb’s report.
Habeeb Kabbariti reports from Algeria’
Our first time to sail on the Laser Racing boats………Soon Insh’allah we will have our own in Gaza.
We began our training in Egypt on the Nile with Egyptian coach , Ahmed Abdelmenem from the Egyptian Sailing Federation for 6 days . Although we had been attending classes with Derek in Gaza and had some chance to sail the Catamaran in Gaza, this was our first time to sail with Lasers.
At the end of the sixth day, we met with Mohammed Essam , Mohammed is responsible for the sailing activities in the Egyptian sailing Federation and we were invited to lunch where we exchanged gifts
Friday 9-March -2012 ,We travelled to Algeria to begin our training there.On Arrival, we met Ryad Alabbar, President of The Algerian Sailing Federation and some of the other teams
Immediately , the next day we began our training with the International Sailing Federation and the Algerian coaches and they were very helpful to us We felt so bad because the wind was strong and the sea conditions were very different than sailing on the Nile but this is all part of our sailing experience
Afterward’s we started to enjoy the training and we got better .During these days we also had some physical training , and physical and medical tests . We also got to meet up with the other teams from Algeria , Morocco , Tunisia , Sudan and Kenya . All of them offered us their support and helped us a lot and said they were very happy for our participation
On the last day each class had a friendly race , in my class ( laser radial ) there were the Palestinian team, , a team from Sudan and a team from Algeria. I took the first place , Ismail Gamal (Palestinian) took second place and Yassin from Sudan) took the third place and we were presented with our prizes
The International Sailing Federation promised to try to help , We were very lucky to meet Teresa Lara, Vice President of the International Sailing Federation, we discussed our problems with her with regards to sailing in Palestine and the difficuties we face
Of course, the classes we are now attending with Derek in Gaza proved to be very helpful
:QUICK UPDATE
, Hope to soon have good news on the dinghies in Cyprus , Although i am not usually superstitious i am not saying too much yet , just in case
As i mentioned before, the sailing school and its success will always be down to the help of a lot of people and your continued support . We believe it is the right of all Palestinians , as it is the right of every nationality , to have access to their own waters , the right of every child to have the chance of a childhood and the right of every human being to have the right of return to their own country and the sea will one day, insh’alah, give Gaza this freedom
To donate to the school or to any of our projects in Gaza, there is a paypal donate button on each of our posts or contact us via email , jennygraham7@gmail.com for more information or for bank details
