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Meet the 'gangsters'
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By Reham AlFarra
Hunting for a news story and reading about Townsend as an area that is building its reputation in Bournemouth for 'vandalism', I just stood at Jewell Road at 6.30pm last Wednesday, waiting for some action.
I looked with the eyes of suspicion to the mailman who took the mail quite slowly and to the vagabond who leant on the wall with a funny bag. "What if one of them was a vandal. It was stupid of me to have my passport on me," I thought.
The wind whistling was all that I could hear. " Such a scary place," I thought.
Big trees, quiet houses, and a dark road with only the pale light coming out of 'One Stop' store, connected to Townsend Primary School and Townsend Community Centre that was robbed just a few hours earlier.
But nothing happened.
I started to feel bored and cold, when a voice came suddenly out of the darkness: "Hey! Have you seen a police man just entering the store?" I stared at the source of the voice. A small ghost, that vanished in the darkness again when I said: " No! I have not seen a policeman."
Hesitating, I walked towards the voice.
In the darkness, there were three other small bodies with only the light of their cigarettes. " Can I speak to you? I am a student."
I was little bit scared when they hanged around me, closer than they should, but when I saw their innocent faces, well, maybe not very innocent, I calmed down and started to enjoy my conversation with them.
The first voice belonged to a small blond boy with pretty face. He claimed to be 13-years-old, and was very disappointed when I told him he looks only 9. Just a child. And, like a typical child, his tongue slipped and said they were accused of vandalism themselves, all four of them.
I started to hear confessions: "Police thought that we broke into a house, because we knew the daughter, and they accused us of throwing snowballs. But we didn't do it," they claimed.
"Then, what did you do? Honestly, you have to tell me the truth," I asked.
"Honestly, honestly, we just threw snowballs."
"But how can you do that when there isn't snow?"
"Well, when it is freezing, you see, you take the frost off the cars and throw it onto people."
"That's all?" I asked.
"You stole from the store," The blond small boy pointed at a bigger one.
"What store?" the other exclaimed.
"This very one behind your back."
"I did not!"
"Yeah, then maybe it was your twin brother, or your ghost from other life!"
I watched the conversation with a great deal of amusement, then said: "Why are you afraid of the police?"
"They cause lots of trouble. They take our cigarettes."
"And why do you have to smoke? Do your parents know about it?"
" Don't you smoke yourself?" Ashamed, I replied: " Well, sometimes I do."
"Will you give us cigarettes?"
"I might before I go, if you did not tell anyone about it."
One of them opened his arms: " I'm gonna kiss you. I've never kissed a beautiful Jordanian girl."
"No, Thanks!" I said.
"Why?" with a big disappointment, he asked.
"Because you are under age."
"And is there a law in Jordan, saying that there is certain age for kissing?"
I smiled: " Yes, there is. You have to be over 60."
This idea grabbed their attention: " 60 0r 16", and " You are kidding aren't you?"
"60. I am serious," I said.
Puzzled, they asked: " So how can you have sex and have children in Jordan?"
Being embarrassed myself, I changed the subject.
I learnt that a boy was caught for attacking buses and stealing mobile phones, before his family left the area to Southampton.
When the conversation ended, I gave them two cigarettes. They were so happy about it, which reduced my guilt.
"Hey, don't you tell any one I gave you cigarettes."
"We didn't even see you," they promised as they ran into the shadows to share the pleasure of foreign cigarettes.
"What a generation!" I thought.
Five days later, I went back to the same area, which had witnessed a new robbery attempt at the Community Centre.
Another gang of youths was there, older and completely different.
They were fighting, shouting, and hiding while spying on a man with a van inside the school compound.
I watched what was happening from a distance.
They started swearing because I was attracting attention to the fact that something wrong was happening.
"Well, I am definitely not going to interview the bigger ones!" I thought, and left the place.