It's Thursday afternoon, and I am conducting the Musicians Without Borders orchestra in Bethlehem, Palestine. In this free music education programme, 50 children participate in group instrument lessons (violin, oud, qanun and Arabic percussion), choir, social-work group sessions and orchestra twice a week. The children come from Bethlehem, from surrounding refugee camps and villages. The programme includes children who are enrolled in special education schools, and serves mainly girls.
We have a very simple rule during the orchestra lessons: when a child has an important question related to the music or rehearsal, they raise their hand, pointing one finger in the air. When a visit to the toilet is urgent, two fingers go up. This way I don't need to stop the music; I can just make a gesture to the child to show that permission is granted.
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