The remaining two weeks in Jerusalem were spent in Arad, where we stayed in a small apartment that was also used as an education center. The education center was equipped with a 5-laptop computer lab and two small classrooms where conversational English was taught. Everyday, except Friday and Saturday, at 6:00 pm, our doors would open to anyone (but mainly Sudanese refugees would come) to learn English by using the computers or through conversation classes conducted by our brothers Austin and Sam. Although the ladies in my team were willing to have class for women, no woman came.
I helped students in the computer lab and had an opportunity to teach a young boy English. I remember the first day he came in. He had opened our apartment door at 5:00 pm, the first day we were there and my team was caught off by surprise. The young boy and his younger brother were caught off by surprise, too! We weren’t the same team they were used to seeing. We explained to the young boy that the computer lab would be open at 6:00pm. He looked at us with a blank stare; his brother said something to him in their native tongue and they scurried down the stairs to oblivion. I was hoping that we didn’t scare them
away.
Well, 6:00pm came around, then 6:15pm, then 6:30pm and finally the young boy and his younger brother showed up. Whew! They weren’t scared off. 🙂
Since that day, the young boy, Jak, became my English student. I would sit by him and write out English words on paper as he spells those words out on the computer. Although Jak didn’t speak (he was mute), he came everyday the education center was opened, and everyday Jak was recognizing English words and their meaning. It was encouraging to see Jak’s determination to learn.
While in Arad, we took advantage of a little sightseeing and went to the Dead Sea. Some say this was the place where Sodom and Gomorrah existed. The water had so much minerals in it, it left a slimy residue on the skin and it stiffens swim shorts. 🙂 Of course, the Dead Sea is famous for floating, but what’s fun about repeating something the whole world obviously knows. 🙂
On another day, Priscilla and I went to Masada, the place of three great eras. There are two palaces on the plateau that were built for King Herod and a Byzantine Church that was occuppied by monks many centuries later. As one man has put it, “Ruins of one civilization are the building blocks of the next.” This is so true with Masada.
