Jaime

I had a wonderful experience here! I am a language lover and an English teacher, so I chose this workaway in order to practice my Arabic and gain international experience in teaching English--I'm happy to say I got both. I taught between 1 and 4 classes per day (50 minutes each) and practiced Arabic with a private tutor for 1 hour each day (they start out as tutors but eventually become your friends). You have the freedom to create your own curriculum and teaching materials for the language you choose to teach, so if you like to have flexibility in what you teach, you will enjoy it here. There will usually be other international workawayers teaching other languages alongside you and living with you in the apartment provided. This was another aspect I loved about my experience. After work and during the weekends, I really bonded with my fellow teachers by traveling to other cities, within the city of Nablus, or simply cooking meals together at home. There is a team of Palestinian student-volunteers running the center. They are always extremely happy to have international workawayers visit their country and university, and they are always happy to spend time with you and learn about your culture. During my time there, they even invited me to join activities through their University student groups. I joined an event with the Palestinian Animal League (PAL) to an animal farm that was saving endagered animals, and I also enjoyed an evening listening to the University orchestra. Finally Ms. Louha, the manager of the language center, takes very good care of the international volunteers who join this program. None of my requests were left unmet -- be it extra supplies for the apartment, additional Arabic tutoring, schedule changes, etc. She is an extremely professional manager and cares deeply about the language center she is running. The center deserves all the support it can get.

Jaime