Oh the Irony
Today marks the first day I’ve been able to get to the office and back without getting lost! We had our first Arabic class this morning at 8, and it was really helpful. We’re learning some basic phrases in the local dialect. After that we took a cab to an-Najah for class. It’s taught by two professors, and today the professor who only speaks Arabic lectured for an hour. It was so hard to follow with the confusion of the lecture and the translator, and I found that I missed a lot of important information. It made me realize how difficult classes must be for the people I know at Georgetown who are in the states for the first time in their lives from countries like Iraq or Afghanistan.
My class with the children went a lot better today. I knew what to expect, so I was prepared with a vocabulary list and a game to play. When I asked them what they would like to learn for the next lesson, they all said they wanted to learn about health and the environment.
Then I went to the Palestinian Women’s Club to watch an aerobics class. I may be taking over for the teacher when she leaves, so I need to start brainstorming for ideas. It was really eye-opening to see women in an environment where they are free from male influence. Without understanding a word, you can relate to them.
In the evening we were invited upstairs for tea with our neighbors. The father of the family began going into politics, which got a little awkward. Many people here on both sides of the conflict have a very one-sided, narrow view of their own situation. He doesn’t differentiate between the religion of Judaism and the state of Israel, and when we tried to explain that the state doesn’t represent all Jews, he really couldn’t see our point. He also felt that Saddam Hussein did the right thing in suppressing the Kurds. Each side sees themselves as the eternal victim, and can’t sympathize with others going through the same situation. It was upsetting to see that we’re working for justice, but some of the people we’re working for can’t see that denying other groups their rights is just as bad.
