Volunteers

While over here we have the chance to volunteer for half a day a week and one of a few different Christian ministries in and around Jerusalem. Today Diane planned for a few of us to meet with the principle of Jerusalem School in east Jerusalem to see how we could help them out. At 10:00 I left the school with Melissa (the wife of one of the semester undergrad students), Isaiah (another undergrad student) and Bryan (a grad student who's wife works at the school.) We walked through the old city to just outside of Damascus gate where we caught an Arab bus. The bus took us nearly to the check point between Israel and the West Bank. There was no check to get in, so we walked past the check point and then turned up the road that Bryan said was the boundary line between Jerusalem and the West Bank. We could see the wall they're building...

The school is on that boundary road, just barely on the Jerusalem side. It is a Christian school that uses, I think, mostly one of the home school curricula...maybe Apologia? The student body itself (K-12, I think) is well over half Muslim. Because of that, some of them struggle with English (and everything is taught in English). The principle's first thought was to have us help some of them with English. He also mentioned that some might need help in math. Then we went to observe the classrooms of some of the teachers we might help. The few students I met seemed to be pretty similar to all the other children that age I've met. Most of them were pretty friendly, some rather rambunctious and rebellious. Also, it's the month of Ramadan which means that most of them are fasting, so I'm sure they're a little crazier/grumpier/more tired than "normal." It was fun. I'm not sure exactly where I'll be when I go back next week since I will be there on a different day (Tuesday) and at different times (probably about 8-11:30), but I'm sure I'll find something to do.

The school building itself was built by the Coptic church to use as a college, but for some reason they never finished it. It had been empty for something like 12 years before this school moved in this year. It's a pretty nice building. I didn't bring my camera this time, but I'll have to get some pictures next time and put them up.

After that we caught a bus back to Damascus Gate and walked back to school, just in time to grab a sandwich before class. :)

As a side note, I must admit that I'm terribly tired of hearing about the conquests of the various Pharaohs who invaded Canaan. I think I've read or heard about 3 accounts of that and I've seen the same ancient texts on that subject about 5 times now...*sigh* :) As interesting as these first couple weeks have been, they have also been really repetitive in a lot of areas. Pretty much all of the lectures I've attended and articles I've read have overlapped at some point. But hey, maybe I'll learn it really well this way. Let's hope. :) And it is good to see the connections between different subjects.