Monday, March 13, 2017
Yesterday (Sunday) was a really busy day. I had my first Arabic class - two and a half hours - one on one. Jameel, my teacher, is really nice, so the time passes quickly.
Then, I walked to the Project Hope office to prepare some papers for my classes that day. I have three 30 minute classes at the public school. The English teacher stays in the room with me. When I ask kids a question, she often tells them the answer. I was thinking of asking the principal if I could be left by myself with the kids, but when it was time to leave, she told me she wanted me to model good teaching practices for the teacher because she isn't very good. I think she just gives them worksheets. After that we took another taxi to the refugee camp for the after-school kids. We worked on alphabet with them. It definitely helped that I spent last weekend walking around the city to learn my way. Jafar (my local volunteer who accompanies me to class on Sundays and Tuesdays) was supposed to meet me at the PH office, but he called and asked if I could meet him by the ATM's right upstairs from the taxi depot. I said yes. Noura asked me twice if I knew where it was, but I definitely did. Then, on the way home, it was raining and the taxi was passing near Jafar's house, so he wanted to get out and asked if I could find my way home. I said as long as the driver takes me to center city, I'm fine. Last week, I asked Jafar to walk me all the way back to the PH office because I was afraid I would get lost.
I was really tired after all that, but Heide and I still went to the market to buy some food and to get some knafeh. It's a sweet that Nablus is famous for. It's actually cheese with lots of sugar. We took photos of the guys making it.
The market is a very interesting place. They sell everything there: fresh vegetables, meat, fish, shoes, clothing, etc.
Here's Heide buying some things.
The eggs are sold right next to their moms!
Moroccans don't keep pets, so any animals in the market are for food.
Two volunteers had their birthdays yesterday, so all the volunteers went out to a very nice restaurant. We were a huge number, but it was nice. My dinner was fabulous: bread with chicken, onions and almonds on it.
Mondays and Wednesdays are much easier days. I have the Arabic class in the morning and then I have one class that I share with Heide. This time they sent us with Hani. He was at the dinner last night with us, so Heide knew him, but I was at the other end of the table. When we got to the school, the director was very angry and said we were late. He said we were supposed to get there at 11:00. But when we went last Monday, we thought class was at 10:30. He told us that wouldn't work because the kids have breakfast at 11:00 and we needed to come at 11:30. That's what we did this time. I have no idea what happened. We still taught the kids and they were great.
Yesterday (Sunday) was a really busy day. I had my first Arabic class - two and a half hours - one on one. Jameel, my teacher, is really nice, so the time passes quickly.
Then, I walked to the Project Hope office to prepare some papers for my classes that day. I have three 30 minute classes at the public school. The English teacher stays in the room with me. When I ask kids a question, she often tells them the answer. I was thinking of asking the principal if I could be left by myself with the kids, but when it was time to leave, she told me she wanted me to model good teaching practices for the teacher because she isn't very good. I think she just gives them worksheets. After that we took another taxi to the refugee camp for the after-school kids. We worked on alphabet with them. It definitely helped that I spent last weekend walking around the city to learn my way. Jafar (my local volunteer who accompanies me to class on Sundays and Tuesdays) was supposed to meet me at the PH office, but he called and asked if I could meet him by the ATM's right upstairs from the taxi depot. I said yes. Noura asked me twice if I knew where it was, but I definitely did. Then, on the way home, it was raining and the taxi was passing near Jafar's house, so he wanted to get out and asked if I could find my way home. I said as long as the driver takes me to center city, I'm fine. Last week, I asked Jafar to walk me all the way back to the PH office because I was afraid I would get lost.
I was really tired after all that, but Heide and I still went to the market to buy some food and to get some knafeh. It's a sweet that Nablus is famous for. It's actually cheese with lots of sugar. We took photos of the guys making it.
The market is a very interesting place. They sell everything there: fresh vegetables, meat, fish, shoes, clothing, etc.
Here's Heide buying some things.
The eggs are sold right next to their moms!
Moroccans don't keep pets, so any animals in the market are for food.
Two volunteers had their birthdays yesterday, so all the volunteers went out to a very nice restaurant. We were a huge number, but it was nice. My dinner was fabulous: bread with chicken, onions and almonds on it.
Mondays and Wednesdays are much easier days. I have the Arabic class in the morning and then I have one class that I share with Heide. This time they sent us with Hani. He was at the dinner last night with us, so Heide knew him, but I was at the other end of the table. When we got to the school, the director was very angry and said we were late. He said we were supposed to get there at 11:00. But when we went last Monday, we thought class was at 10:30. He told us that wouldn't work because the kids have breakfast at 11:00 and we needed to come at 11:30. That's what we did this time. I have no idea what happened. We still taught the kids and they were great.
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