I'm preparing in earnest for my next trip to Palestine and I think that it is high time that let you know just what I'll be doing. This summer, I'm travelling to Bethlehem to practicipate in the Palestine Summer Encounter Program and I could hardly be more excited.
I will be spending the summer learning Arabic, living with a Palestinian family, and volunteering with the Holy Land Trust's nonviolence training program. Though I could hardly be more excited about this volunteer placement, I'm participating in this program primarly so that I can learn some basic Arabic. I'll soon be joining on a part-time yearly basis an organization that supports Palestinian nonviolent resistance, so it's time to learn some Arabic!
I'm also collecting art and school supplies to donate school children who are lucky to go to schools practipating in the Holy Land Trust's Peacebuilders Program. That's an effort to train teachers in peace education, from preschool to university. Check out that program - it one of the only in the world like it.
Oh! And if you want to learn more about the Palestine Summer Encounter, you can watch a video about it.
4 comments:
Joy,
Thank you for the blog! I just came across it thru Laila's blog and I will looking forward to your posts!
How did you get started?.....I am still trying to catch up on past readings
Thank you, Halla!
I got started blogging while I was in Palestine last summer. How I got to Palestine is another story...I grew up in a community with several people who had been to Palestine and went to a college (Earlham College, actually) with a pretty sizable (for a tiny college) Palestinian population. I always wanted to go....and now I get to go back again!
Lucky you, I was there last year but could not get into Palestine but in Israel and I cannot wait to go back again! When I was there in 1999 it was so different, we drove from Haifa with relatives and went shopping in Nablus & ate dinner in Bethlehem a couple of times as well as go to the church of nativity & had allot more freedom of movement.....but we could not do that last year.
I wish I could go this year as well, it will always be in my blood.
Yes, I am so lucky to be able to go and it breaks my heart and makes me feel angry when other people who have more reason to go than I are denied entry.
It's amazing how the obstacals to getting from one place to another get worse every year, even when you think that it couldn't.
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