Meet Some of Our Current Volunteers in Palestine: At this time there are about 12 volunteers at The Excellence Center, the day before yesterday 1 left and 2 new ones arrived. Next week 3 more leave while new ones will surely arrive. The movement is continuous, a coming and going that never seems to coincide, making odd overlapping common and the possibility for any form of stable group a challenge. One Arabic teacher said that the saddest part about working with us international volunteers and students at the Excellence Center is the fact that we leave too soon, and usually just when we are starting to get a basic hold of the language.

This is true, we all stay too little. One week is never enough and even though some of us come for 2 or 3 months, in the end this seems also like too little time seen in perspective. At this point Maj from Denmark and Riley from the USA are the two that have been at the center the longest time. They arrived in February and have done pretty much everything from intensive Arabic courses to English teaching and more recently writing articles for the website. Riley is studying Human Rights and this is her second time in Palestine. Maj is studying Political Science and is here for the first time. She has made significant advancement on her Arabic language and most of the other volunteers are jealous of her.

Later on the 1st of March Adria from Mexico/USA arrived, she lives in Norway and works with resettlement of refugees, she wishes to learn better Arabic to use in her work. In Hebron she has been doing various things, currently she is writing articles for the website, but she started volunteering teaching yoga, creative writing and other community development workshops.

Maria arrived from Germany some weeks after, and has truly enjoyed teaching English at various schools as well as developing her Arabic language skills, especially the Palestinian dialect. She is a retired engineer who has worked in different community projects in Berlin.

Shayma and Soufia from the UK came with their laughter and good vibes to teach us all a good lesson on British English as well as engage with the local community on topics of health and environment. Mie came from Denmark most recently, with an amazing plan to teach art, especially stitching which is her favorite. 

Charline from Switzerland is has a Master in Middle Eastern Studies and has been studying Arabic for over a year, she came to Hebron to for the intensive Arabic classes and is dedicated to start speaking the language while here.

Finally, we have Cat, Joanne and Colter who arrived just a couple of days ago from the UK even though Cat is from Norway, Joanne from England and Colter from Canada, they all study at the University of Exeter were they are in the Middle Eastern Islamic Studies. They will be in Hebron for three weeks doing the intensive Arabic course on the regional dialect.

As you can see the variety and amount of diversity presented by the volunteers and students at the Excellence Center is extensive. This is just another reason why the whole experience in Hebron is such an enriching one. We finish with friends all over the world and a special network of intelligent, open minded people