Learning Arabic at the Excellence Center

My name is Maria, I am a health counselor from Austria and spent three weeks at the Excellence Center in Hebron, studying Arabic every day for three hours. I was lucky to have Scheima as my teacher and I cannot thank her enough for her professionalism and vast experience in teaching Arabic. She is an amazing teacher, who is very kind, patient and funny and I enjoyed my classes so much and profited very much from them. We talked a lot about Palestine and its traditions and customs and I was looking forward to my classes every day.
Everyone at the Center is so forth-coming and friendly and tries their best to make your stay a great experience.

I stayed with a host family, which was an amazing experience. Marwa was so generous and kind and I was welcomed like a family member by all her family. I was invited many times to dinner and got to experience different Palestinian dishes, which all tasted amazing. I was also able to practice my Arabic, as everyone was very happy to talk in Arabic with me.

The Center organized many activities and I got to visit the Old Town, the Ibrahimi Mosque, a glass blowing factory and also went on a day trip to the Dead Sea.
On my weekends, I travelled to different cities (e.g. Bethlehem, Ramallah, Jerusalem), which I enjoyed tremendously. It is one thing to read about Palestine and the Israeli occupation, but quite something else to experience it yourself and see with your own eyes the restrictions put on Palestinians.

I encourage everyone to come and visit Palestine and stay at the Excellence Center. Palestine is such a beautiful country, but what will make your stay even more special are the kind people. I never felt unsafe, especially because the people are the most warm-hearted and hospitable people I have ever met. I learned so much and improved my Arabic and cannot recommend the Excellence Center enough. I hope to come back soon- inshallah!