Far'ata Imatin

13:45  Far’ata.  A few women awaited us when we arrived but within 15 minutes the group had grown to 12 participants.  We start a little too early for them; the coordinator told us that children come home from school at 13:00.  The mothers have to be there, give them lunch, etc.  We decided to begin future sessions slightly later.

Leora began teaching her Hebrew class; two weeks ago they asked her for a class in Hebrew rather than English.  This was the first lesson, but in view of the frequent bursts of laughter from the class and the women’s glowing faces when it ended it was clear that she managed to connect with them and they had a good time together.

At the same time Lilka had met some children who’d gathered when they saw something was going on.  She began speaking to them in simple Arabic, which made us jealous.  She decided to plan something to do with them next week.

Meanwhile Ilana, an experienced Hebrew teacher, came with us to meet the women, and particularly to decide on appropriate educational materials for one of them who’s more advanced than the others, who’d been learning Hebrew on her own from books and by watching television.  Ilana prepared a program that would let her make progress independently.

(Today we left early to get back in time for the meeting of the secretariat.)

15:20  Imatin.  H., the village head, had asked us to stop by the municipal building; we came for a short visit.  We described our activities and those of our friend Adam R. with youth in Far’ata.  H. asked us to teach English to high school pupils in Imatin.  We promised to look into it.

Returning on Highway 55 we saw only one military command car parked perpendicular to the road between Azzun and Izbet Tabib.