Volunteering at the Excellence Center in 2014

I volunteered at the Excellence Center in Hebron, Palestine during the summer of 2014.

The people in Hebron are very friendly and so are the people at the Excellence Center. The host family I stayed with were very welcoming and made me feel as if I was a part of the family.

The experience of teaching English to Palestinians is also very nice. Most students are respectful and very eager to learn English. I enjoyed teaching them very much.

Besides teaching English I also travelled around Palestine. Sometimes I travelled on my own, but the Excellence Center will also take you on tours. These tours will take you to places in Palestine you would not visit otherwise and are a very enriching experience. One tour they took us on was to a small Bedouin village. We got to see how the people live and learned about the difficult situation they are in.

One thing I liked less is the amount of pictures the staff takes. During the lessons one of the staff members comes in with a camera and takes random pictures of you and the students. I got used to it after a while but I can imagine some people may be uncomfortable with this. The pictures are used to promote the organisation which is good, but sometimes I feel that the foreign volunteers are used as an accessory.

The Arabic lessons are good, but I did not get enough lessons. I could have if I had chased after them, but should not have to do that.

All in all I had an amazing experience in Palestine. If you are interested in the Arab-Israeli conflict I strongly recommend you to visit Palestine and witness the situation with your own eyes. The Excellence Center is an excellent place for volunteering and your schedule is flexible enough to travel around Palestine as well.