My experience with the Excellence Center in Hebron

My name is Lizzie and I am from England. At home I work with children- supporting a child with Down’s Syndrome in a primary school and teaching dance. I have been in Palestine for 1 month on the volunteer programme. Though I have never taught English before, and crossing the language barrier has been challenging at times, I have been able to use my experience of teaching other disciplines.

Whilst working at the Excellence Centre, I have taught and assisted with different classes. In the mornings, for my first two weeks was the summer camp. This was a mixed ability group of teenage students. I was assisting another volunteer, who had started the camp before I arrived. I enjoyed working in a team and it was interesting to see how the students engaged in the tasks they were given, a lot of which was based around self-identity. This gave me an insight into Palestinian culture and way that these students viewed their life.

In the afternoons I worked with Palestinian english teacher Ibrahim on the starter course. He would spend the first hour of the lesson teaching the subject, then in the second hour I would use games and conversation to encourage students to use the concepts and vocabulary that they had just learnt. I found that depending on the students, even if I had the same activity planned, it could go completely differently and I may end up doing a different activity. I really enjoyed working with Ibrahim, I had freedom to engage with the students, and I liked the challenge of communicating with them when they had limited english.

I also spent three mornings teaching in Kharass, a village just outside of Hebron. Each day consisted of two 2 hour lessons with young children, age 5-9. They had very limited English and there was a lot of focus on writing and learning simple vocabulary. There were some volunteers from the village who spoke English who were there to help up. After the first day I knew what to expect and quite enjoyed my time in Kharass, but 2 hours is much too long for children of this age to stay focused. I found that it was important to use a lot of repetition to help the children remember the vocabulary, and it was important to encourage them to speak individually as well in a chorus with the whole group. As much as I enjoyed working in Kharass, the organisation and resources were somewhat limited, and I feel that it would be a more successful programme if there was a set scheme of work so that international volunteers and volunteers from Kharass all knew what they should be teaching, and work together to teach it.

I enjoyed my Arabic lessons whilst at the excellence centre and have learnt some Arabic. I have previously studied languages, find grammar really interesting, therefore steered my lessons so that there was a focus on that. Though I enjoyed this, at times I felt it may have been beneficial to have shared a lesson with another volunteer so that I could develop my conversation skills. This being said, I feel that I have a good base so that if I decide to continue my Arabic studies when I return home, it will be a successful endeavour.

The environment at the Excellence Centre was friendly and welcoming. All the staff would engage in conversations and answer any questions that I had, and the other internationals were supportive and friendly. The students in the classes were, on the whole, very receptive to being taught by a native English speaker, and many of them would speak to me out of lessons, either wanting to know more about me and my country, or to practice what they had learnt in their lesson. I found this work ethic and intrigue from them very satisfying.

The Centre organised group excursions within the local area, and although I didn’t manage to join all of them, I did visit Al Fawwar refugee camp. The trip was well organised and I found it fascinating to see the contrast between my life with a host family, and life in the refugee camp. Despite the many problems that faced the people living there, they did their best to overcome and children of the family we met had gone on to study at university.

I also travelled within Palestine and Israel on my own, with friends from the Excellence Centre and with my host family. I made two trips to Bethlehem, the first with two of my host sisters and the second with other internationals. Both times I visited the church of the nativity, the Banksy hotel and the wall. I went with another volunteer to visit the Koffiyeh factory in Hebron. Just a short walk from the Excellence Centre, is this non-descript building that houses the last remaining Koffiyeh factory. Inside are the original machines weaving away a spectacular variety of the traditionally Palestinian scarf, and a shop where you can buy your own, along with other locally produced products.

I have visited Jerusalem twice during my stay here, and I love the city. There is so much to see, and each time I leave I want to go back and spend more time there. The Old City is beautiful and seeing the proximity of the different quarters- Armenian, Jewish, Christian and Muslim, it a contrast to the separatist narrative that is seen within the West Bank and the rest of Israel. I also visited the Israel museum in West Jerusalem. This museum, among many art and historical exhibits, is home to the Dead Sea Scrolls- ancient Jewish manuscripts found by a Bedouin in a cave at Qumran. As well as the scripts themselves, the building that they are housed in, specially designed for the purpose, makes an impressive exhibition. Other places I have visited are Masada- an old settlement built by King Herod atop a mountain in the desert, Ein Gedi- a natural Oasis in the desert and the Dead Sea.

During my time here I lived with a host family, in the next town Halhul. My host family, rather than a typical family was a group of 7 siblings who lived together, without their mother and father. They were very welcoming and I enjoyed staying with them. One of the main differences I found was the fluidity of time, there were no set meal times- on my first day, having eaten lunch at around 5 o’clock, I was getting ready to go to bed at around 10:00 when they started to prepare dinner! I also found that as they didn’t have to get up for work or school in the mornings, they would stay up late at night, then sleep till midday. Though I couldn’t join them on this schedule when I was working, over Eid I did. The emphasis that Palestinian culture places on family is very different from that in England. As well as families being much larger, they spend much more time together, and live closer together. (Though saying that, growing up, all my grandparents, one of my mum’s cousins, and my uncle’s family all lived on the same road!) Even though often, I had no idea what anyone was saying, it was nice to spend time with the extended family and watch the interactions between them.

During my last week here, it was Eid Al-Addah. This, as I was told, is the more important of the two Eids, and warrants a 6 day national holiday. The first day people fast, and I was lucky enough to have to the opportunity to join my family as they broke the fast. The whole family- grandparents and many cousins- joined together in the garden, as plates and plates of food were brought out of one of the kitchens. We sat together on the floor like a big picnic and shared traditional Palestinian food together. On the second day of Eid, again, most of the celebrations took place in the evening. During the day, there was some visits from other family members, but not as much as I had been lead to believe. This was the day that the animals would be killed. Each family bought an animal- sheep, goat, cow- and had it slaughtered, then the meat was split into thirds. One third to keep for their family, one third to give to wider family and friends, and one third to give to the poor. It was amazing to see the amount of meat stacked on the kitchen table at the grandma’s house, and watch the family sort it. For the rest of Eid, mainly it was relaxing and socialising with the family.

During my time in Palestine I never felt unsafe. There were unfamiliar situations, like seeing soldiers with guns in the street in the Israeli areas, or when 2 soldiers boarded the bus at a checkpoint when I travelled to Jerusalem, however I still felt safe. The people in Palestine were so welcoming, walking through the Old City in Hebron, shopkeepers would talk to you and invite you for coffee, an odd concept when in England we are taught that nothing is free- there is always a catch! This was not the case, people are genuinely friendly and want to welcome you to their country. As you walk down the main street people will say “welcome” to you as you pass.

Overall, my lasting impression of Palestine, and Hebron in particular, is a positive one. The people, the food and the landscape are all beautiful.