Experience in Palestine

My name is Saloua, from France, I have a Master's degree in Human Resources. During my stay, I taught English in several places next to Hebron, often in pair with McKayla, an American volunteer. We went to different cities/villages such as: a center at Beit Omer, a school in Seir and at the Chamber of Commerce of al-Dahrya. We noticed that in the schools in which we taught, the students already had notions of English.
The staff from the center is very nice, for all of the courses inside the center like the summer camps, we had Palestinian assistants who were there to help us to translate the hard words which the students couldn’t understand. That was very helpful. The staff is also here to help you when you need some information about different topics. For example if you want to know how to go to a different city or if you want to buy something special, you can ask them. They will help you with pleasure.
The Center organizes some visits for the internationals. We had a schedule displayed in the kitchen of the center with all of the visits. For example, we went to a sandal and a Koffieh factory, to the old city of Hebron, in a camp… That was amazing to visit these places with the other volunteers.
During my stay, I had the chance to visit several important cities as Bethlehem, Ramallah, Nablus and Jerusalem. It’s really easy to travel inside the West-Bank, you just have to walk or go by taxi at the city center (taxi station), and then ask for the place you want to go. You can easily organize day-trips with other volunteers or members of staff.
Living with a host family is a good way to discover Palestinian culture. If you stay more than four weeks it can be good to change host family for having the chance to discover different ways of life.
Palestinian food is different from food we eat in France. Here they eat lot of chicken and rice, these are the principal food you will eat with your host family. I really loved the food here. The mothers of the host families take time to cook, so you will have the chance to eat several Palestinian dishes. You will see that people here are really welcoming, in addition of the host family you will be invited by others family to have dinner.
I volunteered in July and August, the weather was hot: from 28 to 33 Celsius degrees in Hebron in the afternoon. It’s easily bearable; you just have to bring adequate cloths.
To conclude about my volunteering, I am very happy to have travelled in Palestine