849: The Narrator
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From WB Easy Chicago, it's This American Life, I'm Hana Jafiwalt, sitting in for Ira Glass. This all started with a phone call, a call that eventually led to this episode. So that's where I'm going to start. I was talking to a journalist in Gaza on the phone. Hello. Hi, this is Tana. Hi. How are you? This was back in April. I'd been speaking to people in Gaza for months by then, but nobody where Meram was in the middle area, Der Barla. Meram, who made. She's a reporter for Al Jazeera English. We're chatting. I was asking some pretty basic questions about what she was experiencing, what she was seeing, what the day had been like. She got interrupted. It was, you know, a little bit called day and then Bella, you know. Who's like, so Banias is listening. I need to introduce Banias to you. Hi, Banias. How are you? I'm fine. Thank you. Good. Meram and I kept talking or trying to. And you're in Der Barla? Are you in Der Barla? Yeah, we are in Der Barla in the Central area. Now what do I do? Is that where you're from? Is that where your home is? Or did you? No, come this place too. Yeah. We're living in our relatives home here with around 80 other family members. Wow. 80. Yeah. 80 and 80. Not 80. That's a lot. That's a lot of people. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Like 80 and 80. So Banias is correcting me regarding the American accent. Okay. She's saying like, what is it? It's 80 or 80? 80. 80. 80. Does she correct you a lot? Yeah. A lot. A lot. She speaks English better than me because I started with her from very young. I'm here, you know, I don't Banias. Back to me. Back to me. Yeah. And where we're at? Yeah. Does she want to talk? Yeah. I'm pretty ready. I'm ready. You're ready? Ready. How old are you Banias? I'm eight years old. You're eight years old. And where did you learn to speak like an American? From Mama. She speaks to you in English? Yeah. Do you hear that? Do you hear that? Do we, we, we, I do. Yeah. Okay. What is it? So Banias is, what is it? The workplace. It's a war plane. I do hear it. Yeah. Yeah. I of course hear it because it never ends. Banias then takes the phone from her mom. Having told me what they are hearing begins pointing out what they're seeing saying look at this as if I can also see even the we're not on a video call. She says here we have the window as you can see. Here's the curtains. They're flowers. We don't have any sofas. Just mom. How do you say it? Matrices. Just matrices as you can see. We said sometimes I'm bed on, on the ground. Women are covering their hats all the time as you can see. She couldn't see. I should tell her. Yeah, tell me. Okay. Oh, did you see our room? No. If you see it, you will, you will, you will run, run, run from this. Wow. Because it's so old and dusty. Maram told me later she was so surprised at Banias's performance in this call. That was the word she used. Apparently Banias was marching around with the phone in front of her telling people I need the room please. Jumping on the mattress, standing on the table, pointing saying here's my brother, yes. There he is. He's pretty and smart like me. Gaza is full of kids. About half the population is under 18 years old and about half of that group is under 10 years old like Banias. A huge way in which children in this war are different from kids in other war zones is that children in Gaza are not allowed to leave. They're not displaced to some other spot away from the fighting. They're displaced inside Gaza. They're stuck in the violence and stuck with their families in crowded rooms or tents. Doing the things that kids everywhere do, building their inner world, trying to make sense of the world around them. I was calling Maram that day to ask about the situation in Derbella and Banias took the phone and said no, no, no, don't ask her. Ask me. Being in Derbella is boring. It's boring. Really boring. Not just boring, so boring. I really missed the burgers and now we are on canned food. We have just the boxes of food boxes. One day I want to tell you something. Tell me. One day when we are sitting in our room talking about something, then boom! A big bomb broke all of the windows and the door and the homeless was shaking and my baby brother, he has, has got injured in his head. We have noticed the glass in his head. Is he okay Banias? Yes. No, he's all right. We talked for a while and then said goodbye. That was the end of April. And then in July, I saw Maram's name on my phone. Hi, Maram. Can you hear me? Hello? Yeah. It was Banias. She wanted to talk. Tell me about her day. Then another day. Hello. Hi Banias. Do you want to talk to me? Yeah, sure. What are you doing?
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