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The children were taken on outings to local swimming pools with an additional stop off to visit the
local Coca Cola factory where they were given baseball caps as momentos.
Anna, David and Kat worked in the Jalazone Cultural Centre with a lively group of mixed ability. The
team held a cultural week based on their own experiences in Japan, Tanzania and Brazil, where different foods were tasted and dances learnt. At the graduation the children enthusiastically shouted and danced their
way through Alice the Camel, YMCA, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. Something for everyone!
Afternoon projects took place at a local youth organisation, Sharek, the Childrens’ Centre in Jalazone,
the Teachers’ Creativity Centre in Ramallah where Suzanne taught members of staff, and in a few outlying villages, which gave the volunteers the opportunity to see aspects of rural Palestinian life.
All the volunteers enjoyed life in Jalazone; children at every turn asking ‘What’s your name?’, basic
communication reduced to lots of pointing and gesturing, gifts of vegetables from the neighbours, but above all the friendly reception from everyone. Suzanne says, ‘They really welcomed us into their community. I
feel I left a piece of me behind in the camp.’
David particularly enjoyed attending a wedding where he explains, ‘The strongest drink on offer was
orange Fanta, but it was probably one of the craziest raves I’ve ever been to. Tom and I were the stars of the show, constantly encouraged to the centre of the dance-floor, name checked by the DJ and hoisted up on
the shoulders of the groom’s family. An amazing time and men only too!’
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