By Frederika Chavous

After two weeks in the An-Najah University in Palestine I can definitely say that I have grown up a lot in both academic and personal ways.

I taught the workshop of Italian Language and Culture because some local students are going to have a trip to Italy and so they had to learn about greetings, numbers and days of the week; how to present themselves, how to ask for information. So we studied a little bit of vocabulary and after that we talked a bit about the Italian Culture, history, art and food. We also saw different pictures of the cities they will visit. After that we still had time to play some games in order to learn about Italian hand gestures, because they will have to know about it. We also touched on stereotypes about Italians  and Italians’ most common characteristics. The main purpose was to prepare them as well as possible for their trip.

It was a wonderful experience for me, actually still a student in Italy. They made me feel really comfortable and appreciated, particularly because I was younger than most of the students and I was worried about that. In fact, all the students and volunteers here were very nice and polite, showing how much they care about us. We always felt comfortable and safe everywhere we went during our trips around Palestine.

We really had the opportunity to see what the real Palestine is – from the University to the Bedouin tent, from the refugee camps to cities such as Nablus and Hebron – and to discover how beautiful it is to watch the sunrise over the Dead Sea, to eat the traditional sweets of Nablus, to meet different communities as the Samaritans and to discover many energetic, strong and hopeful people, such as those from the Freedom Theatre.

I really want to thank everyone here for the energy they have and for the wonderful experience they offered us, one that we will never forget.