Volunteers in Palestine coming to The Excellence Center should be forewarned that the people of Palestine are among the friendliest you will ever meet. They have a gentle acceptance of other people that is informative and instructive for westerners to experience; I feel changed for the better for having spent a month with them. In spite of the hardships they face they seem to face each day with smiles and laughter.

There are many who speak a little broken English, and a relative few who speak it in a facile manner. But no matter, they will always try to help you if they can understand what you need. For example on several occasions I have been led on long walks by someone who just spontaneously decided to lead me to a bus station when I was lost in one city or another. Walking through the market place in Hebron’s old city, it occurred three times in one hour that I wished I had a voice recorder, as on three occasions men who were fluent in English spoke passionately and wisely about the untenable situation of being occupied by Israel.

Even at The Excellence Center, I find one of the primary concerns of the staff is that the volunteers be satisfied, even happy with what they are doing. If there is an activity that is not appropriate for an individual that person can simply make new plans. For example I was asked to lead a workshop on writing a CV. I know so little about that that I’ve never even been sure what a CV is. There is a joint in cars called a CV joint, you know. I talked it over with the director, and someone else gave the workshop.

Notable random acts of kindness occur; for example when I changed money at the change site, my new money came through the window, followed by a small cup of coffee. On another occasion, I stopped to watch a young man making a very thin style bread wrap, which he stretches by tossing like a pizza and then bakes on a rounded griddle. He saw me watching and said, ‘One shark, one shekel (which is about twenty cents); he then quickly changed his mind, handed me a shrak bread hot of the grill for free and touched his heart.

I consider them to be very non-aggressive as drivers, at least in comparison to some other countries I’ve been in. On the streets, my impression is it is first to come, first serve, and that includes pedestrians. If one is crossing the street drivers will slow down and show consideration for pedestrians. In traffic they are aggressive but at low speeds; the idea is to get the front of the vehicle in position to move forward. Walking the streets is also vastly safer than many other countries I have been in.

In all honesty, the greatest danger here comes from Israeli soldiers. There are a lot of them, and each one invariably has a semi-automatic rifle in his or her hands, often help up ready to fire. There are regular demonstrations here against the occupation, especially on Fridays, and the soldiers readily shoot into the crowds.

Lastly, there are the Palestinian children. Like children everywhere, they are beautiful. But at The Excellence Center some volunteers regularly go into classrooms and work with young students studying English. To date in my experience, they have all be very well-behaved, enthusiastic learners, and delighted to see foreigners. One cannot help but be touched by their sincere and hard-working efforts to make a good life for themselves and their people in a troubled land”.