Two Weeks Volunteering at the Excellence Center

The Excellence Center truly lives up to its name. The staff and volunteers during my stay were welcoming, personable, and accommodating. They are incredibly receptive to any problems that you may bring up and will work with you to find a solution. Not only are the staff wonderful, but the Center attracts interesting and genuine people, helping you to find strong friends in the other volunteers. By the end of just two weeks, I truly felt that I was a part of the community at the Excellence Center. I took three hours of Palestinian Arabic lessons a week and helped out with both group and private English lessons.
While at the Excellence Center, I was able to take several short trips around Hebron and Palestine. For example, during my stay the staff organized a trip to Susiya, a Palestinian village sandwiched between settlements, and the Old City center of Hebron. Outside of formally organized excursions, I was able to travel to Battir, Bethlehem, and Mar Saba (a functional monastery in the desert outside of Bethlehem; it is a definite must-see as far as tourist sites go) with other volunteers. Within the city, Hebron is very walkable, and people are very helpful if you need directions.
Western impressions of Palestine cast it as a dangerous place. Being in Hebron directly contradicts this picture. With normal traveling precautions, such as respecting the culture and following local news, Palestine is a very safe place for international travel. If you have specific questions about safety, such as good times of day to travel and places to be more careful in, both the staff and your host family are invaluable resources to learn the specifics of how to get around in Palestine.
The lasting impression that I have of Palestine is the extreme hospitality and generosity of its people. On New Year’s Eve, I left the Excellence Center late and had difficulty finding a service back to my host family’s home. My host mother’s sister, whom I had never met before, quickly picked me up from the Excellence Center and insisted that I come to her home. We ended up going to her in-law’s house and I spent several hours being stuffed with food and laughing my way through conversation in Arabic. Finally, we went out driving to celebrate, and we rang in the New Year with a fruity smoothie on Ein Sarah St. At this point, she insisted that I spend the night at her house. This whirlwind evening was one of my favorite experiences in Palestine. While this was the most extreme example of the generosity of Palestinians that I encountered, many other times people invited me to share a meal, coffee, or sahlab (a warm winter drink).
My best advice for a future volunteer is to stay longer in Palestine! If you have the ability, a longer stay in Hebron is ideal as it gives you the chance to see more of Palestine and spend more time with the staff and volunteers at the Excellence Center. I believe that the best way to see Palestine is through the Excellence Center. The programs are flexible based off both your needs and the Center’s needs, and you can have degrees of autonomy or planned activities with the Center as suits your needs. Volunteering with the Center gives substance to your time in Palestine, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking to travel to Hebron.