Apologies for the lack of update in the past few weeks - things have got rather busy at school. There was a bit of a shakeup where the arab first grade (english) teacher was moved to teaching the Palestinian curriculum part of the course (basic grammar) which is best taught in Arabic and is only included because the PA insists it must. It's pretty boring and doesn't make much sense which means it's hard for us to teach purely in Enlglish. So he now teaches every grade for a couple of periods a week and I have been moved to teaching English to First Grade and not doing any drama (except for after-school stuff). The two classes are super cute - about 5-6 years old, although being taught their arabic ABCs simultaneously as their english ones... Getting rid of the Palestinian Curriculum also means I am entirely responsible for the year's planning and for getting them to benchmarks etc which would be fine if the parents weren't so interfering!! A couple have asked for my personal mobile number so they can check up on things or they just swing by after class asking how they're child is getting on. I've only had the class a week!! What am I supposed to say??? Anyway, excited to have a class of my own and some stability in routine. Ramadan has finally finished as well so at least i can refuel at school.
You'd think there would be a specific date for the end of Ramadan, but no - it's all by the moon. So people are all ready to celebrate Eid (which is like Christmas day) but they don't know exactly which day it'll be. They have to wait for the mosque to announce it the night before. The first day of Eid was just like Christmas day (for everyone else) - you can see everyone going round in their best clothes visiting relatives and all the shops were closed. We went to Ramallah and had filter coffee and beer. It was awesome.
I'm really excited as I've been contacted by a German author-illustrator who wants to do a social-artistic project in the region involving Jewish, Muslim and Christian children. He's coming to Nablus in a few days to come see the school and meet everybody. Will let you know more when I do...
Our work visas should be coming through soon but we won't have our passports until we do which is really frustrating. They're in Ramallah being stamped or something. It just makes leaving Nablus difficult. We used just photocopies of our passports to get through the checkpoint the other day but it looks suspicious - who travels to the West Bank without their passport??? And there were FOUR checkpoints on the way to Ramallah. That's FOUR in an hours journey within the West Bank. An area supposedly under Palestinian Control. Three of the checks were through official checkpoints and one was just an IDF jeep at the side of the road that decided to pull our bus over randomly. There was an Eyewitness person there (a roving reporter who acts as an eyewitness to the illegal occupation) asking us what we were doing. She said she wasn't allowed into Nablus.
Well i'm going to make the most of the sun and my holiday from school and go and read a book. Email me news (new address isabel.s.hunter@gmail.com).
Love xxx
