“My name is Hugh and I am a recent graduate from the UK with a degree in Social Anthropology. During my studies I developed a keen interest in life in Palestine that I became committed to exploring first hand. To do this, I have embarked for three months on the Teach English and Study Arabic program with the excellence centre in Hebron. I am currently one and a half weeks into my program and am relishing the variety of opportunities the centre has made available to me alongside the day-to-day of learning Palestinian Arabic and teaching English language.

I have found the residents of Hebron to be incredibly warm and welcoming, especially the teachers at the centre and Sheik Abed who maintains our accommodation. This hospitality and friendliness is particularly impressive given the political situation in Hebron and the constant strain that occupation puts on the cities many Palestinian residents. Their struggles, particularly of youth with high unemployment and frequent harassment, make the work of the Excellent Centre even more vital.

Teachers and international volunteers provide not only tuition in English language, vital for career progression, but also education on human rights, female empowerment and more. While at the Centre, my responsibilities will primarily be the teaching of English to university students and graduates, as well as providing workshops on CVs, interviews and professional literacy.

I hope to contribute further to the work of the centre, and the success of its students, by beginning a small project of my own. I am keen to create a podcast that could be produced by the centre students, and future volunteers, that would provide a platform from which the particular experiences, challenges and insights of growing up in Hebron could be shared. This would involve interviewing members of the local community, international NGO employees, and the centre students themselves to create a picture of daily life as it is experienced by those who not only visit Hebron but have grown up and continue to live in it.

My language lessons with Marwa, the new Excellence Centre’s manager have been excellent (no pun intended). I have found the language challenging, having only had limited experience with fusha and no experience with Palestinian dialect, but the struggle has been rewarding. After only one week I feel a lot more comfortable walking round the city and engaging with locals in sketchy, yet comprehendible, Arabic.

I hope this language learning, as well as general experiences of being a member of Hebron’s diverse community, will stand me in very good stead to achieve my future ambitions of becoming a PhD student in the anthropology of Palestine. I hope to complete a thesis in the coming years that analyses and understands the unique situation that faces Palestinians as they try to live their lives despite the economic and political challenges of their contemporary situation.”