Spring cup final

The Al Salayyah school.


The winner of Spring Cup final - Islam. He beat me too afterwards, obviously.


The new campus of Nablus university.

The Spring cup tabel tennis final was played today. It was a good match, and the best player at school won. Great fun.

In the afternoon my good colleague - Saleh - took me to the French cultural center, the Nablus Hope center, the new campus of the University of Nablus and a bookstore downtown. Met several intersting persons including a Norwegian volunteer worker from Oslo

Quiet evening at the hotel winding down after two fabulous weeks in interesting, bustling and friendly Nablus.

The departure tomorrow from Al Salayyah - students, colleagues and the principal-is not going to be easy.

Spring Cup day

The Al Salayyah school.


One of my colleagues with his two daughters.

Spring cup finally got off the ground. The 7 players that showed up on Monday, also showed up today. They had a good time and completed the games that were scheduled. Tomorrow the final will be played most likely outside in the school court during mid break. That ought to be fun.

The workshop for English teachers in Nablus was also carried out as scheduled. 18 teachers showed up. I think they enjoyed what we did.

Also today I was invited home to meet with the family of one of the English teachers at school - Mr. Ahmad. He and his family live in an apartment overlooking Nablus city. From the balcony, the view of the city is just magnificent.

After an excellent dinner, mr. Ahmad, his two daughters and I went for an evening stroll in the neighborhood. We walked to a park with pick nick tables so high above the city center that we could clearly see across Israel to the Meditarranean Sea.

To be able to see "so far" gave me a very precise notion of how near everything is to each other in Palestine and Israel.

At school but no students

The road between the two villages Sarrah and Geet


My collegue Saleh and his daughter Nadeen.


Today there was a general strike carried out by teachers in all of Palestine as a protest against the poor wages that the Palestinian government pays teachers in this country. The teachers were at school, but there were no students.

Yesterday, one of my peer English teachers - Saleh - invited me to come today to his village and home. So in the afternoon we took a bus - minibus-over the hills and down the gullies to the nearby village, Sarrah, east of Nablus.

Being the last house in the village, and lying by a crossroads, Saleh told me Israeli soldiers decided to occupy this house too during the second Intifada. This was in 2001 and the occupation of their house lasted for a year and a half.


The house has two floors plus a roof top. There is a separate entrance to first floor and the roof. The family had to live on ground floor.

Did the Israelis pay rent? Of course not. Stupid question, but I wanted to know for sure. He told me the family had sued the Israeli army because it did not even pay the for the electricty it used while occupying a large part of the house. Salah does not believe anything will come out of the court case since the Israeli authorities don't bother even if they get a ruling in court against them.

Why did the soldiers leave the house? The family contacted newspapers in Israel which took an interest in the situation and wrote about it. Media pressure worked.


But Saleh who had just added these two stores to the house with the purpose of marrying, had to postpone his marriage for a year and half.


One of today's photos is taken from the rooftop. You will clearly see why the Israeli army occupied this particular house among others.

Towards the east it overlooks a road leading to a village - Geet - and a settlement. The road is blocked so it is impossible to drive to the village. If people in Sarrah want to visit relatives and friends in Geet, they will either have to walk, or make a detour that will take them about one hour by car or bus.

The distance between Geet and the settlement is about 500 meter a teacher, who lives in this village told me. Geet you see on the hill on the left hand side of the mentioned road. The settlement is on the other side of the road.

Clashes between the population in this village and the settlement have obvisously occurred, and are likely to occur, since the settlers have taken fields on the hillsides next to these villages, fields that belong to the Palestinians. To top it off, the settlers deny the Palestians access to the fields that they have stolen from them.

No wonder lasting peace is far away in the Middle East.

"Monday" but Sunday

Pastoral scene from Al Far'aa


On top of the mound with students.

Today is Sunday and first day of a new working week.

After having reflected a little over last weeks experiences, I decided to make a go for it with a couple of classic communication exercises that I think are excellent to trigger real conversation in pairs. One of them is difficult in the sense that it demands a bit of self discipline by the students.

Things worked out quite well mostly because the students are brave and curious to see what I invite them try out. Since they are not used to talking English, several of the students will communicate a lot in Arabic between them, but mostly to figure out what to do. So what?

Many of them do speak English, and let's face it: most students of English as a foreign language need a bit of time to accept the role they have to play when they engage in oral exercises as the ones I use.

Also; today was the big day with regards to the table tennis tournament - Spring cup 2010. 55 students had signed up. The participants had been broken into 4 flights, and a timetable from today till Thursday had all been laid out, something that took about 2 hours last night to put together.

At 12:30 as school ended and the competition were to start, 7 students showed up! The natives were right; only the ones who are good at table tennis would show up. I, who wanted an open competition for everybody, experienced a cultural "mini" shock typical of expatriates in an environment where they don't know the ropes.

No big deal. Instead we'll arrange a competition for the 7 that showed up on Tuesday. Since there are not more than seven, we ought to be able to finish all of the rounds maybe except the final by Wednesday.

Had all 55 showed up, it would have been fun, but nevertheless a zoo.

For the second time I was invited to the village and the home of one of the students. This village Far'aa lies some 20 minutes by car from Nablus on the road to Jenin (northwards) in a beautiful valley of fruit - lemon and oranges - and olive groves, wheat fields, and lush and green fields all surrounded by majestic mounds and mountains.

The students asked jokingly if I wanted to climb the nearby Dalsnuten type mountain something I to their surprise said I thought was a great idea. Yeah; let's do that.

Good dinner in a nearby newly opened restaurant after the hike.

After dinner we managed to post the first blog from a student at the Al Salayyah school on the blog established by students at Kongsgård called My grandparents.

Maybe other students will now want to post a blog about their grandparents too. We'll see.

Muslim Prayer day

During a quiet morning friends from Al Quds suddenly showed up and invited me on a pick nick to a Greek Orthodox monastary close to the Dead Sea. Great and social outing with good friends.

Here is a website from an Al Jazeera blog that sheds light on two of the killings last week-end: http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2010/03/25/lies-can-be-uncovered-lost-lives-cant-be-recovered

"Friday"

and the week end starts. Actually it is Thursday, but the atmosphere at work was as if it were a Friday back home. In Muslim countries Friday is like our Sunday, and for students at schools and universities they are also off Saturday.

Before calling it a day, I lead a workshop for the 4 English teachers at school. Basically it consisted of sharing with them the various oral exercises that I have used in the classes so far, the ones I plan to carry out next week, plus the method behind these exercises. They liked the exercises and the method, and therefore found the session worthwhile.

Talking about workshops. The principal has invited all of the English teachers in Nablus to a workshop where the focus also will be communication exercises and the method behind them. In addition to the Nablusian English teachers, some, maybe all of the volunteer teachers that I met with Tuesday evening, and who are all native speakers, will join in that session. Mixing native speakers with tefl teachers (teaching English as a foreign language) is just going to be perfect. I look very much forward to that.

Right now I am enjoying a couple of relaxing days at the Resort hotel in Jericho; the same hotel we stayed at in October. The weather is not the greatest; the water in the pool is cold, but everything is green, even some of the barren hillsides. Quiet.

Another workday and a visit

Introducing a family tree

Great day.

Two classes plus preparation for a workshop with the English teachers tomorrow afternoon.

Between two classes two of my students who are brothers - addressed me and invited me to come to their home after school for lunch. I accepted immediately of course, but since I had an appointment with the volunteer teachers at 3pm, we had to figure out how to do this. We did so very quickly.

So after school we met and took a taxi to their village - Rojeeb - some 4 km from Nablus. I was first invited into their grocery store right next to where they live, then into their nice home. There I met the father, mother, grandmother, two sisters, two brothers and a cousin who also teaches and runs a computer business besides.

The meal was very tasty -køfte, salad, homemade youghourt and bread fresh from the oven. Afterwards we had tea in the drawing room.

Before I returned to Nablus, they showed me the village from the roof. From there we could also log on to the internet something we had talked about since I wanted to show them the photoproject between the schools: Grandparents in Stavanger and Nablus.

In the taxi back to Nablus I realized that I had experienced a meeting that I will remember for the rest of my life.

From the taxi I saw a Palestinian soldier here and there with guns so I gather the situation is still tense. One or maybe both of the last two youths that were killed a few days ago were buried today. I picked up this morning that one of the 4 killed youths was a student at Al salayyah last year. He was a good friend of the oldest of the two brothers mentioned above. One of the two incidents took place not far from this village.

Tonight Israeli fighter jet planes are for the second night in a row making their presence heard now and again above the city of Nablus. It reminds me of the night following September 11 in St.Paul, Minnesota.

What do they want?

Second day of school

Students giving me a guided tour of Old city of Nablus.

Great day. 3 classes out of which one that I met with yesterday.

Tour of Old Nablus with 7 of the students after school. Fun.

Dinner with the young adults I met yesterday afternoon in the principals office.

First day of school

went very well.

Everybody - the superintendant who we met with at the office downtown, the principal mr. Mustafa, the teachers and staff as well as the students at Al salayyah - gave me a hearty welcome, something that immediately made me feel at home.

I taught two lessons in two different classes that I will meet again on Wednesday. Tomorrow I'll be meeting students in another two classes. All together 4 classes.

The word of a table tennis competition has also been spread today, so tomorrow the students, who want to, will sign up for the competition.

The Stavanger Bordtennisklubb - table tennis club - has put up a trophy for the occasion - Spring Cup 2010. It will be a knock out competition with two finalists in the end. The winner gets to beat me.

Towards the end of the day 4 English speaking young chaps - one Brit and three Americans - showed up at mr. Mustafa's office where some of us were winding down after the day's work. It turns out that they are doing voluntary work in Nablus teaching English and doing various sports activities with students in junior high school during the afternoon at Al salayyah.

All together they are 7 - both young men and women. We decided to have dinner together tomorrow evening here at the Yasmeen hotel. That ought to be fun too.

Things are quiet in Nablus although the killing of the four youths yesterday and the day before is present in the minds of everybody in Nablus.

Al Quds (Jerusalem) and Nablus

Sunny and quiet in both Al Quds this morning and in Nablus this afternoon and evening.

Last year in October we could see a couple of Israeli soldiers on a rooftop a few buildings away from our hotel. There were none this morning. Walking around for two hours in Old Jerusalem this morning, I only came across a few soldiers by one of the gates that I passed. However, on the square overlooking the Wailing wall there were many soldiers, but they were mostly sitting and chewing the fat. The area of the Rock mosque was open to the public, but the waiting line was too long for my limited amount of time, so therefore I found a way through the basar that took me to about 75 meters from the mosque. Since I could not say I am a muslim, I was denied access to the grounds. It was peaceful there too.

Despite the calmness, the agitated calling from a loudspeaker this afternoon, and the sad summoning of the Nablusians to evening prayer from the nearby mosque, both revealed the pain that the people of Nablus are suffering right now. Yesterday's one dead young adult became two during the night, and today two young adults have also been killed close to another nearby Palestinian village and neighboring settlement turning the number of killed youths to four within two days.

None of these youths were students at Al salayyah boy's school, but when Zyad - my cultural mentor and liason in Nablus - and I walked in the souk (the basar), he met a cousin. One of the young adults was a good friend of his.

Zyad - who says hello to all his friends at Kongsgård and in Stavanger - spent several hours with me at the hotel preparing for the teaching project at his school which starts tomorrow at 8.

Things are all set, and ready to be taken away.

JERUSALEM - AL QUDS

Jerusalem eller Al Quds som byen heter på arabisk er rolig i kveld. Så er det da også lørdag og sabbat så da må ihvertfall jødene holde seg i skinnet.

Ikke desto mindre ser jeg på nettet at en ungdom på 17 er drept i et sammenstøt mellom settlere og palestinsk ungdom i en landsby i nærheten av Nablus. Israelske soldater kom for å rydde opp, og klarte altså å drepe en og såre hardt en annen 17 årig palestiner.

Ungdommene kan være elever ved skolen jeg skal møte på om 1 1/2 døgn for alt jeg vet. Tragisk uansett, og sikkert helt unødvendig.

The day before departure

Since Joe Biden landed in Tel Aviv and the Israeli government announced the building of 1600 homes in East Jerusalem last week, the situation in the Middle East has got quite tense. We have seen pictures on TV of riots in streets of East Jerusalem in the beginning of this week which evidently raised the question whether it would be safe to go to Nablus or not.

Both the principal and I have been following the situation closely; we have been in contact with our friends in both Jerusalem and Nablus on the net and on the telephone. In addition we have spoken with the Norwegian embassy in Tel Aviv, and its branch in Al Ram on the West Bank.

The message we hear from everybody we have spoken to the last few days is: There is no reason to postpone the project.

So therefore I foresee myself boarding the Lufthansa plane for Frankfurt and Tel Aviv tomorrow morning at 6:40.

I am not worried. In fact I am excited about this journey, and I also feel privileged that I get to carry out this project.

VELKOMMEN TIL MIN BLOGG

Grunnen til at jeg har opprettet denne bloggen er at jeg om ganske nøyaktig 2 uker kommer til å befinne meg på et fly til Tel Aviv på vei til den palestinske byen Nablus - en av vennskapsbyene til Stavanger. Dit skal jeg for å undervise i engelsk på en videregående skole for gutter. Dette er første gang en lærer ved min skole gjør. Blir det en engangsforeteelse, eller blir det begynnelsen på en prosess som kan føre andre lærere fra videregående skoler i Rogaland dit, og vice versa? Og elever/studenter?

Om to uker ser jeg for meg at jeg om kvelden kanskje sitter på et hotellrom i Nablus med behov for å formidle noen av de mange inntrykk og opplevelser jeg kommer til å være fyllt av under mitt 2 ukers lange opphold i et annet land og i en annen kultur; nemlig Palestina - Asia.

For tiden er jeg i ferd med å utarbeide undervisningsopplegg. Målet for undervisningen er å tilrettelegge for situasjoner der elevene må snakke engelsk. Den underliggende premiss for dette målet er å gjøre unge palestinere i stand til å kunne snakke med folk ute i verden. Kanskje vil noen av disse ungdommene klare å skaffe seg en utdannelse enten i Nablus eller ute i verden. Da vil engelsk være gullgjevt å kunne. Mestring av engelsk fører neppe til fred i Midt Østen, men kanskje sitter en av disse ungdommene en dag rundt et bord der det forhandles om varige fredsløsninger med israelere og amerikanere. Da vil mestring av engelsk være viktig.

Ok, hold an; du skal jo bare være der nede i 2 uker. Er du ikke en smule naiv for å si det mildt , tenker du kanskje. Ja, sikkert naiv. Men av og til må en tenke langsiktig - legge stein på stein som det heter når en beskriver menneskets møysommelige gjøren og laden her på jorden. Engelsk på en videregående gutteskole i Nablus er for meg en plass å begynne. Å skape situasjoner der unge mennesker kommuniserer på engelsk har jeg gjort i snart 30 år. Det kan jeg. Vil jeg lykkes? Det vil tiden vise. Slik er det bare.En utfordring til deg kjære leser: Dersom du har en ide til et godt undervisningsopplegg i muntlig engelsk, som du selv som elev lærte mye av, vil jeg sette pris på å høre om det.

Paaske