Last November we had the opportunity to be in Palestine, more specifically at the Excellence Center in Hebron. On this trip we were able to meet not only several members of the organisation, such as the management team, teachers, and students; but we were also able to see in action how their language courses work.
The classes are taught by the Excellence Center’s team of educators, made up of local teachers and international volunteers. In these programmes, volunteers participate in delivering English language courses to help students from local schools in improving their speaking, reading and writing skills.
This trip was made possible thanks to the collaboration that Conexión Creando Puentes has had with the Excellence Center for the past two years. This collaboration began during a trip to Germany where in the town of Halle-Saale we visited the Excellence Center in Europe. This union gave us the opportunity to be part of this unique experience. During this adventure we shared time with friendly and attentive students who all contributed in making our stay very pleasant.
At the same time, we also had the opportunity to attend Conversational Arabic classes and the Methodology and Teaching workshop, both of which we found very interesting and useful, so we have suggested that more people from our team should take part in them.
However, not all our activities were academically related – there was also time for leisure! We enjoyed the opportunity to meet local people and get to know the city better. We took part in different activities, such as a lovely day hiking through mountains full of olive trees seeing breath-taking views and ending with an unforgettable picnic. We had walks through the market of Hebron (Souk) and the old city; a place where you feel as if you are going back thousands of years in time. We also enjoyed barbecues with the team and other volunteers in a vineyard surrounded by mountains and caves full of history, as well as special moments with super friendly, generous and cheerful host families.
For all these reasons, Conexión Creando Puentes invites volunteers to participate in the next adventure, the idea is to return in 2022! More details will be announced between January and February 2022. However, those interested should write to us at info@conexioncp.org so we can talk and keep you updated about the programme and any other initiative we discuss with the Hebron team. We look forward to hearing from you!
[Translated from Spanish]
Proofreading: Kathryn McNeil
23rd December 2021
