Local Volunteers

Every time we go to a class a local Palestinian volunteer comes along with us. Mainly to translate but also to look after us. They all speak fantastic English and try so hard to make us feel welcome. They volunteer to improve their own English but also to have the opportunity to interact with people from different countries and to tell them what life is like in Nablus. They are very keen to give us a true impression of the people so we can go home and tell people what it is really like. It's difficult when they ask why they have to live like they do and why the west seems to hate arabs. There is no satisfactory or reassuring answer that I can possibly give.

I did a lesson yesterday on travel to other countries but we spent most of the time talking about how the students would like to just visit places near by such as Bethlehem and Amman. Most of the uni students are worried that they will have to leave Palestine to go to Dubai or Saudi Arabi because they simply can't get the work here. So there they might prefer to study subjects closer to their hearts such as psychology and sociology but they opt for more useful (from a Palestinian point of view) subjects such as engineering. Funny thing is non of the local volunteers that attend English classes to translate seem to have a degree in English! Languages are just extras they have picked up along the way. One 16 yr old girl that comes to class with me has an amazing level of English as well as speaking French and Arabic. She is also wanting to learn German, Italian and Spanish but can't find classes for this in Nablus. A lot of the English she has learnt has been picked up from on line classes and it shows in her vocabularly and fluency. These as I say are just extras and she eventually wants to become a dentist though this will take seven years.

Today's morning class talking about the time went well and was great fun as usual. This afternoon I'm teaching my girls group in New Askar and later on I will hopefully going to the Turkish baths. Hopefully.