WELCOME TO THE FAMILY

WELCOME TO THE FAMILY

My name is Sheila, 45 years, from Germany, more precisely from a little village called Glems, population 1200, located in the southwest of Germany. I would describe myself as blessed, very curious, young at heart, fearless and of course somehow charmingly crazy in my own way.

Then:
I quit running a hostel and being self-employed in January 2021.
During Covid I had a lot of time to think about myself, we all experienced that, even though I wasn´t inactive, I worked for friends´ businesses, did any kinds of office works, waitressing, cleaned up… and I figured out what I really love:
People, making people at least smile, helping, travelling and broadening my horizon.
At that time Afghanistan was the main subject in the news and I realized that I reacted emotionally strong to the stories of people who had to leave their country under fear of death…Refugees! THAT´S IT!
There are refugee-projects all over the world, most refugees need existential help and most refugees are from Arabic speaking countries – great, I always wanted to learn a totally different language and I always wanted to go on a language trip…

Now:
I´m sitting in the sunny front of the apartment that´s owned by the best Palestinian host family Marwa & Osama moved me to, sharing the apartment with an American Mormon beauty, writing about myself, Palestine and the Excellence Center after I spent 3 months from the 27th March until the 26th June 2022 as a totally changed person.
On the one hand I could write a book on every single day I had here and on the other hand the situations, experiences, and stories that happened here just make me speechless.
But one thing is for sure: I am a part of a lot of families now!

Excellence Center:
Marwa & Osama are the heart, Rafat is managing from Germany, with the lovely Khitam and the highly passionate teachers and of course some of their excellent family members at the Excellence Center.
I started with the Intensive Arabic Course, 20 hours per week of one-to-one lessons. The time I started there were not a lot of students, so I was lucky to have the one-to-one lessons as a total beginner starting Arabic from zero.
Nada, my teacher, is 23 years old, professional, structured and very patient. Her lessons were always prepared, she was very aware of my needs and my way of learning, flexible to adjust at any point of progress, so that I felt comfortable and successful. I love her!
After one month I changed into the Refugees Program.
That basically means teaching English (mostly to children), interviewing refugees, local people and different organizations about structures, economy, education, all-day-living, the issues, struggles and human rights violations caused by the occupation.
It then turned out that the Refugees Program became a mixture between the Refugees Program and the Human Rights Program that even surpassed my expectations.
I appreciated the flexibility of Osama. He had to deal with my individual expectations like
- I had never taught before at all,
- I didn’t want to teach children,
- I was interested in economic structures, education system, possibilities and solutions
He made it possible that I experienced all of it in a for me perfect way.
I taught adult refugees in the refugee camp, I had an English Club with teenage girls and I interviewed lawyers, teachers, activists against human right violation and children’s right violation, managers of different kinds of community centers etc.
I visited schools, kindergardens, the Hebron chamber of commerce, a Bedouin village and all the pride the Palestinian people have in trying to change the situation and seek freedom.
It was always possible to tell Osama about your interests or if you wanted to dive deeper into a subject, he is the one who helps you to meet with the right people.
Marwa organizes all the teachers, students, volunteers, internal workshops and meetings about teaching and studying in general, or presentations about the experiences of leaving students and volunteers. And Marwa is responsible for the host families and apartments. Besides that she teaches Arabic and she is a mother of the happiest one-year-old girl in the world. She leads the most unpredictable parts and I don’t know how she does it – huge respect!
She has to deal with a lot of sudden changes every day, literally everyone has different needs at different times, no structure, no red line, nothing to rely on… and guess:
She´s able to move mountains to make you happy. THANK YOU min albii!

All in one, the Excellence Center has a vibe that is very welcoming, warm and familiar. As I confirmed to Rafat 4 months ago, he sent a message with “Welcome to the family”.
Me as a German I just thought “yes standard – phrase, nice and polite”. Now I know better… I AM part of the family and it feels great!

Palestine:
Yes, it is there and it is real and it is existent!
Palestine is beautiful, authentic, lively, heartfelt, hospitable, resistant, religious, proud, safe, funny, mind- and life-changing and EXISTENT!

I recommend Hebron, I highly recommend the Excellence Center and I recommend the experiences you’ll just get here in Palestine!