My month in Hebron

I spent July of 2018 volunteering at the Excellence Center as an English teacher - and it was the best experience ever. Most of us had 2-3 classes a day (max 4, but that was when a lot of people took an extra day off) - I always finished no later than 5 pm (usually 2 or 4 pm).

As for Arabic classes: I already have quite a good grasp of MSA but didn't know any dialect at all. By the end of the month, I was thinking in dialectal Arabic. My teacher was the wonderful Marwa Shantir, who always made sure I got my 3 hours a week - although some other volunteers did have a little trouble. As long as you remind the teachers at the centre about your lessons, you'll receive all of them.

As a female, I lived with a host family, and I can honestly say that I had never experienced such hospitality before. I felt very welcome and almost pampered - I had to convince them to let me wash the dishes at least :) Also, living with a host family means that you get to practice Arabic every waking moment of the day. Marwa regularly checked in with me to find out if I was okay, and openly told me on the very first day that if I don't feel comfortable - no matter the reason - I could move to live with a different family. So don't be scared about that.

Finally, safety. As a solo female traveller, I was a little concerned - but there wasn't any reason to be. Everyone was happy to help me and looked out for me. Obviously, you should still use common sense, there are treacherous people everywhere - but nothing out of the ordinary.