Letter from Palestine, 28. A normal week?
11th March 2005
Dear friends!
It is a bit difficult to tell what a normal week is here in Palestine, but I think I have had something like that now. There have been special days also this week, but it would not be a normal week without.
I have had two days in Jalazone and one day in Ramallah this last week. Monday one of the teachers in the kindergarten had other work to do, so I got the responsibility for her class. They start to know me and therefore they dare to be “normal”, it means quite naughty. If I had not had two local assistants who know the language and could keep the children in the class, it would probably be quite difficult. It is limited how long time you can review English letters. It is good to have a nice area outside where they can use some energy.
Yesterday I was also in the kindergarten, then in another section, where the programme was the letter O. We started by making O’s with our arms and writing on the whiteboard. Then we found the clay, and both English and Arabic numbers were used to count all the O’s which were made. At last we had individual writing exercises, and colouring. I am really impressed about these 5-year-olds, and how they form and write nice letters. I also think they speak more English than I did when I was 10. The teachers in the kindergarten are eager to let the children be well prepared before they start school. When they come the teachers at the school are also happy to get some of the children from YWCA in their class, as they are a good help with all the knowledge they have already gained.
I have also had some time together with the sewing girls in Jalazone. Some of them have finished school while others have dropped out earlier. YWCA gives them an opportunity to learn handicraft, have an income and have a place to go in the morning. They make dolls with traditional Palestinian clothes, some of them are put together as a nativity set.
I also start to know the Vocational Training Centre in Ramallah, and I have nobody to make the class silent there… This week they were though a bit more silent that earlier, and I start to see a progress in the rapidity in the computer class. Now quite a few of them finish the first task and can start another during the lesson. I don’t have the responsibility to teach them anything new, but I am there to supervise when they exercise typing English letters. It goes well most of the time. It happens though that there are problems when Word has Arabic settings which are unknown for me. I start however to know some solutions, and can change it to the normal English settings.
Many of the secretary students are still very shy when it comes to speaking English. In Arabic they go on, sometimes a bit to much so that a poor teacher can not break through. But I feel there is a small development in the lessons with English conversation. With help from fellow students and the chance to make notes, more dare to open their mouth and let English words out.
From my mouth there are still mostly English words. The Arabic course is soon finished, and though I don’t practice very much daily, I feel that I now have the chance to say a bit, and I can think what I will say and believe that I will understand the answer if I get lost somewhere or need to buy something in a shop. In the kindergarten I can also say some sentences in both English and Arabic, and I choose to believe that it is so educational for them.
Tuesday was the well-known Women’s Day. It was celebrated by a seminar here at YWCA in Jerusalem. It was in Arabic, and it is still a long time before I might follow such a lecture in this language. It is limited what I can get of the context though I understand words such as ‘hospital’, ‘home’ and ‘church’. Anyway, it is exciting to study a gathering and see how they are committed. This ‘church’-lecture certainly made them awake. A short sentence in English showed that it was about hope, and this is a subject which makes the Palestinians enthusiastic.
Hope was also the subject for me Tuesday evening. It was a month after the funeral and we had a requiem in a chapel in St George’s in remembrance of Pappa. The resurrection had the focus. It is nice to be in a church where I meet traditions I find meaningful, though I did not know them before. There is probably more of this in the Lutheran church than I know. But this is really some of the richness I appreciate of being in the middle of such a diversity of denominations, and where I have found a home in the Anglican.
Normal-week-greetings from Hanne.
Dear friends!
It is a bit difficult to tell what a normal week is here in Palestine, but I think I have had something like that now. There have been special days also this week, but it would not be a normal week without.
I have had two days in Jalazone and one day in Ramallah this last week. Monday one of the teachers in the kindergarten had other work to do, so I got the responsibility for her class. They start to know me and therefore they dare to be “normal”, it means quite naughty. If I had not had two local assistants who know the language and could keep the children in the class, it would probably be quite difficult. It is limited how long time you can review English letters. It is good to have a nice area outside where they can use some energy.
Yesterday I was also in the kindergarten, then in another section, where the programme was the letter O. We started by making O’s with our arms and writing on the whiteboard. Then we found the clay, and both English and Arabic numbers were used to count all the O’s which were made. At last we had individual writing exercises, and colouring. I am really impressed about these 5-year-olds, and how they form and write nice letters. I also think they speak more English than I did when I was 10. The teachers in the kindergarten are eager to let the children be well prepared before they start school. When they come the teachers at the school are also happy to get some of the children from YWCA in their class, as they are a good help with all the knowledge they have already gained.
I have also had some time together with the sewing girls in Jalazone. Some of them have finished school while others have dropped out earlier. YWCA gives them an opportunity to learn handicraft, have an income and have a place to go in the morning. They make dolls with traditional Palestinian clothes, some of them are put together as a nativity set.
I also start to know the Vocational Training Centre in Ramallah, and I have nobody to make the class silent there… This week they were though a bit more silent that earlier, and I start to see a progress in the rapidity in the computer class. Now quite a few of them finish the first task and can start another during the lesson. I don’t have the responsibility to teach them anything new, but I am there to supervise when they exercise typing English letters. It goes well most of the time. It happens though that there are problems when Word has Arabic settings which are unknown for me. I start however to know some solutions, and can change it to the normal English settings.
Many of the secretary students are still very shy when it comes to speaking English. In Arabic they go on, sometimes a bit to much so that a poor teacher can not break through. But I feel there is a small development in the lessons with English conversation. With help from fellow students and the chance to make notes, more dare to open their mouth and let English words out.
From my mouth there are still mostly English words. The Arabic course is soon finished, and though I don’t practice very much daily, I feel that I now have the chance to say a bit, and I can think what I will say and believe that I will understand the answer if I get lost somewhere or need to buy something in a shop. In the kindergarten I can also say some sentences in both English and Arabic, and I choose to believe that it is so educational for them.
Tuesday was the well-known Women’s Day. It was celebrated by a seminar here at YWCA in Jerusalem. It was in Arabic, and it is still a long time before I might follow such a lecture in this language. It is limited what I can get of the context though I understand words such as ‘hospital’, ‘home’ and ‘church’. Anyway, it is exciting to study a gathering and see how they are committed. This ‘church’-lecture certainly made them awake. A short sentence in English showed that it was about hope, and this is a subject which makes the Palestinians enthusiastic.
Hope was also the subject for me Tuesday evening. It was a month after the funeral and we had a requiem in a chapel in St George’s in remembrance of Pappa. The resurrection had the focus. It is nice to be in a church where I meet traditions I find meaningful, though I did not know them before. There is probably more of this in the Lutheran church than I know. But this is really some of the richness I appreciate of being in the middle of such a diversity of denominations, and where I have found a home in the Anglican.
Normal-week-greetings from Hanne.
posted by Hanne at 4:24 AM
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