Learning Arabic

Arabic script is beautiful. Literary Arabic is different from spoken Arabic.
 Spoken Arabic is not a written language, so in our 5-day course in Darajat village we did not learn the letters.

Our gifted and patient teacher, Dr. Hassan Abu Sa'ad, would write our Arabic vocabulary on the board phonetically, using Hebrew letters.
Hebrew and Arabic are Semitic languages, often quite similar. We also had a textbook.

The computer room of the village school became our classroom for the week. The first "summer school" for Jewish Israelis happened last August. Our own Pesach vacation class was the second such course. Hopefully there will be more. I wish everyone in the country could come for this experience.

Here the eleven students get ready for a group photo. Hassan is the man standing.
 We studied together for six hours a day, learning over 300 of the most useful words.

Most of the week was a chamsin, a desert heat wave, 40 degrees C., over 100 F.
 Luckily, this computer room was air conditioned.
.

Camel herd

We hiked way up on the hill above Darajat. A dozen camels were grazing peacefully. And even one baby camel!

Lots of other animals to see at the Camera Critters Sunday meme.

Ahalan wasahalan--welcome!

The several generations of women who graciously welcomed me into their house in Darajat.
Dahab, Amina, Zohara, Aisha, and Nahed fed and watered me, took care of my every need and then some, and patiently helped me try to understand and speak Arabic.
In the top picture are the two wives of the father of the present-day village leader and school principal, Ishak Abu Chamad. They proudly show the photo of the original founding father. The whole village and family started with him some 150 years ago when he left the South Hebron Hills and came further south to the Negev.

Darajat

Darajat--the village I called home from last Monday to Friday. Located in the south, in the Negev desert near Arad. A dozen Jewish Israelis and one American lady pastor came together from all over the country to study spoken Arabic for six hours a day. After class we had cultural activities and hikes. Each of us lived in the home of a different host family, enjoying the famous Bedouin-style hospitality.
I come back to Jerusalem filled with great affection and admiration for the kind and wonderul people of Darajat, the hard-working women and men and all the beautiful children.
In the coming posts I'll happily share these good and blessed times.