Volunteer in Palestine, Teach English - Learn Arabic

First of all, the manager of the Oxford center and his staff are really helpful. He literally helped me with everything and I still can't thank him enough for it. He helped me in finding a host-family, providing support during my stay everything. I think it was just three weeks with his help that I prepared my stay. At the center you get a lot of freedom to organize the courses you would like to give. Secondly, I was anxious to come because of an old review you find on this website but I am so glad did because non of it was true!!!! I have experienced the complete opposit. Thirdly, you can also do a lot of activities in the area of Hebron in your spare-time like going to Ramallah, Betlehem, Jericho and the Dead Sea. There's enough to discover and my one-month stay was so worth it!

I spent three weeks in Hebron teaching at Oxford Centre between 30th July and 20th August 2015. I was assigned a classroom with a whiteboard and use of a projector. The students had chairs with those mini tables attached to the arm rest. The atmosphere was friendly but professional. Nearby was the incredible Old Town and The Ibrahim Mosque. There was also a nearby park where we had an end of course party where we handed out certificates. I delivered 3 classes a day: 2 at upper intermediate (Level 1) and one class at Intermediate (Entry level 3).
I took resources on a memory stick which are on the desktop of the computer in the office should any other teachers need to use them. The students were delightful as were the other members of staff. The teaching and learning was typical ESOL stuff. My brief by the centre manager was to get the students speaking. We did interesting readings about politics and culture and had lively formal and informal discussions afterwards which all the students took part in.
My advice to other teachers is to give the students a quick aural diagnostic and to prepare some flexible lessons around speaking and listening. I divided my classes into small groups and they made presentations about their country and a separate one about their religion. This seemed to work well and I suggest similar topics for future teachers.
I paid $150 to stay in really pleasant accommodation several miles away from the college. I had a separate self-contained flat that was attached to a family house. The family were very friendly and showed me around. I was there 3 weeks but I only taught for 2 weeks. I taught 6 hours a day for 10 days (Sun – Thurs). There is no public transport in Hebron so you will either find yourself walking a lot or using the very cheap yellow taxis. For trips out of town to Jerusalem, Bethlehem etc a bus or a shared taxi can be used. These are very cheap and can be found very near Oxford Hebron which is close to the centre of Hebron.
Oxford Centre is also quite close to the Old Town where can be found the old souq and the ancient mosque as well as what is officially known an H1 which is an Israeli settlement in the centre. Despite being against international law this settlement is protected by the Israeli Defence Force who have a strong presence but only in the old town. On Saturday’s the settlers organise a tour under armed guard. Although this is very disturbing it is also very interesting as a visitor and as a foreigner you can join the throng winding its way through the souq as part of what is known as the protective presence. This is a slightly useful exercise as is photographing any soldiers who are seen arresting children or engaging in any acts of bullying.
Apart from the Old Town Hebron does not offer much in the way of tourism. It is however and excellent place to go and volunteer as a teacher. I found it to be the friendliest place of all the West bank towns I visited and that’s saying something. People went out of their way to help me with stuff and never hassled me. Oxford Centre was an excellent host and enjoyable place to work.

If I going uncleound Oxford Center online, and after talking with the owner of the center, I decided to travel the 14 hour flight and give it a shot. Turns out that this guy is very shady, he's a conniving cheat, who looks out for his best interests. He told me he had a brand new apartment in the same building of the center. The center was on the first floor, and our apartment was on the 4th. He said prior to my coming that it will cost $150 a month for rent, when I got there I was persuaded to stay a month and half, and it jumped to $300 for some reason. I also specifically asked him if there was a washer and dryer and WiFi in the apartment and he reassured me that there was and there is everything in there saying the apartment was beautiful and very new. Well, come to my surprise, the apartment was so new it was literally an unfinished apartment. No hot water, no kitchen whatsoever, no stove, no furniture, no WiFi and no washer and dryer. He brought me a raggedy looking twin size bed with a blanket that looks like it was stolen from a homeless guy off the streets, there was no dresser or closet to put my clothes in so my clothes literally stayed in my suitcase the whole time I was there. Additionally, there was no mirrors anywhere, no iron, no toilet paper, plates, soap, eating utensils etc. I was extremely pissed, and only when the other volunteer and I kept nagging him, only then did he get us literally 2 coffee mugs, a plastic cheap mirror that looked like a funny mirror you find at a fun house, his parents iron, and two mini water heaters, because of course we had to boil the water, fill the bucket, add cold water to the bucket, And then take a shower. He lied about everything prior to my arrival. I spent 1500, for my ticket to help him, and while I was there I felt like I was slapped On the face everyday. I initially told him I could only stay for one month prior to my coming and he said okay as soon as I got there he kept insisting and pressuring me to stay for at least 2 months I didn't feel very comfortable but I also felt bad and I'm a very helpful and kind person so I agreed to stay for a month. he kept giving us excuses like he had no help in arranging our apartment and he is a first timer going in this as well and that he had no help from anybody, but seriously come on don't you have sisters? don't you have a mom? you as a human being use certain things and have essential basic needs for everyday life such as hot water its funny, we asked him if he would allow his sister to stay in a place like this and his famous quote is "I don't know" and then we asked again and he eventually said "no" so why would you allow your female volunteers to stay in a hole in the wall place like that especially when they're coming to help you?? he did show us around the city but I felt like he was stuck to us 24 /7 and I felt really creeped out around him he kept staring at me a lot and me being a nice person I get shy to speak out sometimes but there came a point where he really pushed my buttons and kept following me around so I distanced myself on purpose from him and I stopped conversating with him. on top of that as soon as my arrival in Tel Aviv came I requested that his uncle pick me up from the airport because I'm not very familiar with my surroundings and I'm new to the country in the end his uncle cheated me and I ended up paying 400 for the ride which is around 1500 shEkels, Later I found out the ride shouldn't cost more than 500 Shekels. His uncle used the excise that because I was interrogated at the airport for 7 ours, his uncle initially came when my plane landed and had to leave and come back again because I was still stuck inside the airport but I kept telling his uncle to go home and I'll have my cousin pick me up but his uncle insisted on staying, 1500 shekels is a ton of money for the people over there living in that country but he looked at me as being an outsider and as an American so he figured I was an easy target for him to cheat me. I loved the students I taught which were amazing they were very eager to learn but the environment was crap. ironically, I'm the one who helped him type out and correct his original contract that his lawyer brother made him do to the volunteers, it was horrible grammatical errors everywhere, so me, being an English major, he asked to correct the contract for him, towards the end I started to get fed up and decided to only teach one class which is total 10 days and when I came to leave early I asked for the remaining of my money back and he said you signed the contract its not my problem, so he didn't give me anything back. so if you decide to go over there make sure you don't sign the contract until you see the apartment you are staying in and until you make sure how long you want to stay I would advise you to pay him at the end of your visit and not in the beginning like I did. one more thing he absolutely loves taking pictures without your permission and immediately posting it on Facebook. I have told him countless times not to take my picture and not to post them on Facebook and to remove the pictures he already had up of me and he kept refusing until eventually I kept nagging him enough to take the original pictures off of Facebook.even when I would turn my face when I seen him he was about to take a picture he would still take the picture and I told him "didn't I tell you not to take pictures of me" and his reply was "well I want to take pictures of you". he is very selfish and he doesn't care about anybody but himself. And on top of that I found out he was charging the students monthly to take the course that we were teaching as volunteers and he wasn't paying us anything so he was making money off of the volunteers and off of the students. I will never ever work with this center again. Beware.