My Experience in The Excellence Centre

I spent two weeks in The Excellence Centre in Hebron. Overall, I had a fairly good experience.
I enjoyed teaching English. I had many classes ranging in level from beginner to intermediate.

Most of the students were friendly, and enthusiastic. In addition to classes, I participated in English Club. English Club is an hour-long, weekly visit to a school to practice conversational English with students and help them become more confident in their everyday English usage.

The centre has whiteboards, a projector, printer and photocopier at the teacher’s disposal, which is handy for planning lessons. However, I feel that the amount of photographs taken during classes can be a little disruptive and off-putting.

I also received some Arabic lessons from staff at the centre. I am a beginner, my teacher was excellent (very patient!) and I found the classes beneficial.

For me, what I enjoyed most about my stay was being with my host family. I’ve found Palestinian people to be really warm and hospitable, like nowhere else. I’m from Ireland and within a couple of days it felt like my home. Although we have a language barrier, we were still able to communicate and most of the Arabic I learned, I picked up in their home. This was easily the most enjoyable and memorable part of my trip.

Even though I was able to get along ok in the town and communicating in general, I do feel that for their own comfort and peace of mind, volunteers should have basic Arabic before coming here. Also, to research the culture and societal normalcies and etiquette before arrival is very important.