Into routine

It's been three weeks since my shock re-entry into the holy land, and I've fallen into a kind of routine here. Frustrated with my slow progress in speaking Arabic, I've started taking 2 hour classes each morning. I can now read the Arabic script, albeit slowly and awkwardly, and I've started building my vocab, associating various Arabic words with similar sounding English phrases. For example, orange (the fruit) in Arabic is 'burtoqal'.  To remember this word I combine the fine acting of Burt Reynolds with the word protocol, creating some kind of strange Burt Reynold's esque procedure. Burtoqal. Without the use of these quirky linguistic associations I have no hope of remembering anything. On top of these Arabic classes I am also taking English conversation classes at the university a few times a week, which, as the name suggests, merely involves initiating conversations in English to allow students to practice their speaking. I am getting better and better at sustaining conversations about just about anything over long periods of time, sometimes serious, sometimes as inane as a Seinfeld episode. 

Aside from the university I also teach an English class for beginner adults. We have been meeting for a while, and they are an enjoyable bunch to teach. The highlight so far has certainly been one student who managed to full asleep halfway through writing a word, sitting upright, pen still on paper, for a good 20 minutes. I have also just started teaching some guitar classes in return for oud lessons. My natural instinct when playing the oud is to play it like a guitar, and it has been difficult to make the technical shift to oud. In fact, I still play the damn thing like a guitar, but my teacher is very patient with me. Finally, there was some discussion of me taking a group of teenagers in a refugee camp and preparing them for a trip to a United Nations youth convention in Geneva in June, but as of yet I am yet to hear of anything being organised, and so am yet to hold any classes. Don't get me started on the lack of organisation and structure that tends to dominate the culture.   

If the above sounds relatively uneventful, it is because it is. Nablus is in Area A. Area A is under full Palestinian control, and applies to the main cities and towns around the West Bank (which actually ends up only being about 3% of the West Bank). Nablus tends to carry on with few obvious signs of occupation, the exceptions being should you travel to a neighbouring village and have to pass through an Israeli checkpoint, or if the IDF decide to conduct a raid for security reasons. Balata camp, the most dense refugee camp within Nablus, is particularly notorious for raids, and anyone living there gets pretty used to the sound of their neighbours doors (or their own) being knocked down in the middle of the night. Area C is a different story altogether. Under full Israeli military control and located primarily in the Jordan valley, it is particularly difficult for the decreasing number of Palestinians who persevere to hold onto their land. Palestine is therefore a diverse land with a diverse range of situations, perspectives and problems.

Although under occupation, the most pivotal problems within Nablus are similar to many countries around the world. Although university qualifications are abundant, there remain very few job opportunities for graduates within Nablus or Palestine in general, and unemployment is over 20%. Whether the lack of infrastructure is due to the occupation or not I'm not sure, though my concern is that the occupation can be used as an excuse for what is essentially poor politics and community development. I often find myself sitting with a group of interesting and bright university students and wondering what they will do with their skills other than find a job in a neighbouring country. Although as a teacher I have always seen education as important, being here has highlighted to me just how essential a critical education is. Palestinian schools do not seem to provide the creative and critical skills needed to form a society that can take Palestine in the direction it needs to go in. Say what you will about NCEA (especially its obsession with assessments), the New Zealand education system has long since realised that merely teaching information to students is not enough; conceptual and critical thinking skills (we still don't do creativity very well) is hugely important in a Google age. Although regimes around the world and in New Zealand seem obsessed with measuring schools in terms of grades and achievement, enabling students to think critically and creatively is the greatest task of any educational system.

My 3 months in Nablus finishes at the end of April. That leaves the month of May, and I'm currently in the process of working out what I will do for this month. June sees the commencement of my time in Europe, which will involve bicycles.