By Ifsa Tinda – England

To begin, I can officially say that I have had the best two weeks of my life. On the last day of classes, we were talking about future plans and I mentioned that I plan on coming back to Nablus within the next year. And one of my students said to me “why”. I said I love this place. I love the language, the people, the culture and everything in between. I’ve visited Palestine before and every time I leave, I leave half of my heart in Palestine.

At first I can safely say that I felt as though I was dropped in deep end, but I soon learnt to swim. It was particularly easy to get the hang of things when you’re teaching an amazing bunch of students like my class. The attitude here is very different to the UK, with a passion to learn and co-operate. I am genuinely so proud of them and I hope they never stop practicing English. Also to all the volunteers, we have genuinely got to know each other very well and I could not have asked for a better group. We are all not from the same background but we left this place with a sense of unity. The trips were also a major highlight and I feel privileged to have visited places that locals have not. All in all, I would like to say a big thank you to everyone and thank you to Zajel Program.