Mahmoud Seydam, head of engineering sciences and applied arts at the University College of Science and Technology in Khan Younis and a lecturer at al-Aqsa University, begins his online lecture on museum architecture. He squats in front of a step he calls a table and opens his laptop. As two students join, he waits for others. The internet connection drops out, halting the lecture.
In his usual calm and professional tone, he records a voice message to his students: “Hello everyone … There seems to be an internet problem, so I will record the lecture, upload it to YouTube and send you the link.”
Living in a tent
Sleep itself is a struggle. “Anxiety dominates everything … because there’s no sense of stability. You compare how your life was before the war to your current life and, psychologically, you’re unable to accept this reality. You’re living in a tent, which doesn’t protect you from anything and doesn’t provide any privacy. You can’t even do your work peacefully because of the noise.”
Mahmoud describes fear of emergencies, strikes on tents around them, and anxiety about being displaced again. He says they were displaced more than 15 times, sometimes sleeping on the street for three or four nights.
Daily tasks and lectures
His morning begins with fetching water. He walks to where the water truck stops, brings it back, and pours it into their tank and buckets. “The tank only holds 200 litres. We don’t have any other tanks. They were all destroyed when our house was bombed. And the water doesn’t reach us every day.”
Mahmoud starts to set up for the day’s lecture. As soon as he plugs his laptop into the power strip, the system shuts down. He has learned basic solar energy technology to manage these recurring breakdowns. He cleans dust off the solar panels on top of the tent, records the museum design lecture, and then sets off for the Scholars Without Borders offices, the college’s temporary headquarters.
“The distance to Scholars Without Borders is about 6km. I usually go on foot because of how difficult transportation is: the roads are rough and everything is packed with tents and carts. Today, I used a cart pulled by an old car – it’s the kind that is usually pulled by a horse or a donkey – and then a rundown tuk-tuk. It takes me an hour to get there.”
Impact of the war
“Being in these circumstances and still being able to carry on, to give my all – frankly, I find it incredibly difficult. The basic necessities of life must be in place for a person to be able to excel in their work.”
He notes that most sessions are online and that basic tools and materials for learning have become difficult to access or unavailable. He recalls seeing military strikes against university buildings from a distance, and a video showing the demolition of all the university buildings after the ceasefire was broken.
“We continue with a certain degree of patience and perseverance.”
In the evening, he visits his parents and two siblings who live in tents nearby. He sometimes sits outside his tent and talks with others to unwind, then resumes communications with students until he sleeps. “From the moment you wake up until you go to sleep, you’re barely able to keep up with anything other than the tasks you have to do.”
