My First Day of Teaching.

Today was my first day of teaching at the Abu Dis 'Dar al Sadaqa' (Friendship House) a community centre that has been set up by the Camden Abu Dis Friendship Association (Abu Dis has been twinned with Camden Town). Sarah, the other English volunteer teacher and I are part of a program called summer camp for local children between 10 and 16. There are other volunteers too: Nadeem a young Palestinian man who is going to teach dance, and there will be a drama teacher as well. There are 34 children involved. There is not very much money at all and we have to organise a lot of things ourselves at short notice but I think, I hope, we will manage to achieve something. Sarah has been here longer than me, is a dance teacher at a secondary school in Camden Town who has taken six weeks off teacher there to be in Abu Dis. We did two double lessons today, which is quite a good way to teach. We can play off each other. Sarah's strong point is in games / activities involving physical movement, and I can do the standard ESOL type things. Today we were teaching two large classes, and the problem was that we had students of different levels in the same class. Tomorrow we are going to try and group the students by age. They have all been learning English at their schools, but they all need more speaking practice. The children are extremely behaved. They are also very friendly as is everybody here. People you meet in the street, people in shops, students, are so gracious, kind and helpful. Khaled told me that that happens when people lead hard difficult lives. It brings people together, makes them look out for each other.

The owner of the local grocery shop round the corner where I live, is anxious to practice his spoken English, and I said would come and do some with him. He wears a t-shirt that says 'Finland' on it. His son is living there, has completed his masters in engineering and is going to take a doctorate. Many of the people here have relatives in Europe, the United States or the Gulf States. In a way it is a sign that younger people do not see a future for themselves here and will want to go and live somewhere else if they can. Ironically that is also the case with young Israelis.

I am determined not to be shocked by anything I see or hear while I am here. The friendly shop-owner with the 'Finland' t-shirt has a picture of Saddam Hussain on his counter. Sarah tells me that he is very popular here. I am not surprised. They see him as a hero because he stood up to the Americans and raised the issue of the Palestinians (although, as I pointed out, for his own interests not theirs). I have heard more than once that people think that the world does not care what happens to the Palestinians. But any foreign visitor can come here and see what life is like, talk to the people. All they have to do is to get on a number 36 bus from Jerusalem.

At the friendship centre today, I met a very gracious elderly man.
He said to me, 'You see, we live a very wretched life here'
I replied, 'You have a hard life, but this is a beautiful place'
'No we live a wretched life'
I said, 'But you all behave with such wonderful friendliness'
'That is our Moslem religion', he replied.

I do think that for all the hardship that people live, all the day to day humiliations and sorrows, that this really is a beautiful place.