By Shahrose Kahn – Canada

My experience at Zajel was once in a lifetime opportunity. It had been my dream to visit Palestine since I was 12 and first started reading about history. When I heard about this program, I did not know what to expect but I did not care too much as I would be spending two weeks in Palestine. However, now that I have done the program, I am thankful to God that this was my first visit to the country. People usually think Palestine is a war zone and why would anyone want to visit a country like that. But they could not be more wrong.

Even though Palestine is under the Israeli occupation, I would give anything to come back to Palestine once more. The culture, the history and the people really show you that there is life even under the circumstances that the Palestinians live in. On top of that, The Coordinator of Zajel made sure that we were never near any dangerous situation and always prioritized our safety. Zajel showed us the truth of the Palestinians, both the happy truth and the sad parts. Also importantly, they allowed us to make friends for life from all over the world. I came to Zajel alone but I left with three new families: the international volunteers, the local volunteers and my students!