And I thought I knew Palestine

I am an international student from Singapore studying in Jerusalem. During the Passover vacation I decided to volunteer at Excellence Center in Hebron. I had harbored many ideas about Hebron and about Palestine but my 3 week-long experience at the center made me discard some notions and rethink many others. If I could sum it all up in one word, it was "immersive". I arrived on the first day to a bustling city (the largest in Palestine) with its 800,000 occupants and religious underpinnings. I was given adequate guidance from Jerusalem where I was studying abroad to the center.

Upon arrival, I was greeted warmly by the management of the center and the pleasant staff that worked there. Behind the concrete façade of the building located on Ein Sara street (the main street in Hebron), on the 3rd floor, was a nice center with 3 classrooms and a pantry. I was little lost from the whirling intake of everything from the start but the helpful staff as well as my fellow volunteers (who were already experienced) got me on my feet in no time. After a little orientation, I was up and ready to start teaching.

The apartment arranged for me was pleasant – being a male volunteer, I didn’t stay in the same apartment as my host family due to inconveniences but rather I resided in an apartment on the ground floor while they lived above. The apartment came furnished with a washing machine, stove, a shower, beds, utensils and despite being spartan, it covered all the basic necessities. My host family was great and though hardly fluent in English, it contributed enormously to my experience as I learned a great deal of the Arabic language. Also, it was a very real experience which did not seek to mask the existent barrier of language between cultures. Where language was a barrier, though, race and ethnicity were not. The hospitality of my host family bridged the holes left in communication and almost every night I would be invited into their home to chat and have a cup (or many cups) of coffee or tea, along with snacks. Occasionally I would be welcome for a hearty home-cooked Arab meal. It was an experience indeed.
At the start, I was consigned to writing articles for the center's website and to being an assistant teacher in other classes. The classes with a lower in English would have an Arab teacher and the internationals would be expected to help out to improve pronunciation or conversational skills while the more advanced classes were taught entirely by the international volunteers. The schedule was usually rolled out and classes were assigned a few days before. Asides from the regular classes assigned to us which were pretty much constant, a few beginner lessons were thrown into the mix where we would help the Arab teachers with the lesson. Additionally, there is a program infamously named "60 minutes" among the staff at the center where we would travel to a school in (or outside) the neighborhood to teach students at a school for an hour. It was eye-opening to see how the schools are run and the varying types of classes (girls-only/boys-only and government/private).

A highlight for backpacking tourists and eager culture-fanatics alike will definitely be the Arabic lessons we receive from the center. Every week, we have 2-3 lessons of Arabic while being constantly immersed in an Arabic-speaking environment all the time. The breaking of cultural barriers and the experience of that assimilation is unparalleled. The lessons themselves are professional, and though I opted to learn only the colloquial aspect due to my limited time, volunteers who teach for an extended period of time can be trained in reading and writing by native speakers of the language. A point to note is that the Excellence Center is well known for its Arabic language instruction and TIPH (Temporary International Presence in Hebron) sends its emissaries and observers to study the language here. Within a week and a half, I was able to hold very basic conversations with the locals and introduce myself proficiently, which attests to the outstanding teachers they have here.

Another highlight was undoubtedly the trips we took around Palestine and the territories around it. I got to see Jericho, the Dead Sea, Bethlehem, and the Al Fuwar refugee camp which lay on the outskirts of Hebron, not to mention the highly contested border between Israel and Palestine within the Old City of Hebron itself, which is marked by the famous historical and religious site of the Cave of Patriarchs.

The experience of teaching in Hebron never sought to hide the underlying tension of the Occupation, and although I shall not divulge my perspective of it here and rather maintain a neutral viewpoint, I got to see the cause of the inter-state tension from both sides as well as some of the resultant cultural repercussions. It is indeed difficult to view the issue with untainted lenses when touring with the local guides, yet as an international volunteer I find that it is my duty to view the issue neutrally and having international volunteers with me provided some perspective as well. The experience of teaching together with other internationals didn’t mask the culture – rather, it brought out all its flavors: how it strived, how it thrived, and how it left an impression on all our hearts.

The people were the most amazing point of the entire duration – the students, the staff, the fellow volunteers. All in all, if you are looking for an experience that provides a well-organized stay in Palestine and more meaningful consistency than merely city-hopping, but doesn’t dull the flavors of the beautiful Palestinian experience, this is the right place to be.