As a start, I wanted from
this visit to England to try the life of the countryside of Pendle and most
importantly to feel that I did something for my country, Palestine. All I
wanted from this visit was to represent my country, to talk about our suffering
from the Israeli occupation and to prove that we have the right of having a
free country of Palestine.. Thank God I did it and luckily I was able to make
new friends in a short time.
On 8th of June, we travelled
to Jordan; we had to go through many steps and barriers of the Israeli
side to get to Jordan. We stayed in
Jordan and at the down we went to the airport. we took a plane to Egypt then to
London. Richard welcomed us in Manchester airport and took us to coldwell in
Pendle. when we reached coldwell we had a warm welcome from the British
students and the volunteers of this project. a small meeting and a good meal
were the best as a start of this project. at night, we went around the house
and to the wood to discover the place.
10th of June was the British day;
the British students did some presentations to express their lifestyle and to
show us a side of the English culture. I was surprised to know that there is no
equality between men and women especially in their career lives. Moreover, it
was a new experience to get to know about the lifestyle of the British students
and ours and to have a chance to make a comparison and contrast between them;
and this is one of the benefits of the twinning. We had a walk around. at noon,
we appeared on a program which is called yoki talki. we talked about the
Palestinian issue and the Israeli occupation. at night, we had a campfire and
many people of Pendle came, we sang many songs and had a good time.
Next day, we had the Palestinian day; we
talked about our lives as students under the Israeli occupation, the
checkpoints and barriers we go through, the limitation of movement, the way to
university in the West Bank from Jerusalem, and the student prisoners of our
universities. We ate fish and chips, then we had Pendle-Beit Leed evening at
Ace centre. we met many people from all over the place. some students did Dabka
dance.
On 12th of June, we went in
small groups to different places in Pendle. In my group, we went in a tour with
some Pakistani women. Then we went to a church where the priest talked about
the charity events they do in the church and the volunteering work and it's
effects on society. After that, we went to a school; we talked about our lives
and they talked about a project they did
and we tried to share stories of inspiration for younger students. At
Coldwell, we started working at a blog of the twinning program.
The following day, we packed
our luggage and went to take a bus to London. We got lost in London while
looking for our residence.
14th of of June was the day
of universities' visit. We splitted in
groups, so we went to many universities. I had the chance to go to SOAS
university. we met the presidents of the students' union. we talked about
twinning and the ideas of twinning between SOAS university and Al-Quds
university. We went to City Learning center, we watched some animation videos
to get an idea about making them. each group adapted an idea to work on and we
started our work.
Next morning we went to CLC but we got lost
for an hour in London streets. we finished the animation video. at noon, We did
a protest for the political prisoners of Palestine in the streets of London.
After that we went to Anika's house, a volunteering woman of CADFA; she made us
an Arabic food. We went around London with the British students.
Sunday, We had a good time.
was the tourism day, we went to Hampstead Heath park. Then to Backingham
castle, the Queen's palace, London Eyes. At the evening, we went to Map cafe;
Kefaya evening music which was a music evening to fund CADFA.
17th of June was the day in
which my group had to visit Islington Collage but there was a problem in the
schedule so we couldn't have a meeting with the students there. afterwards we
went to CLC to make a website for the twinning project. at the evening, we went
to CADFA office to do presentations about Palestine and our lives.
On 18th of June we went to CLC to finish the work on
the website. then we had the time to have a tour in London.
19th of June was the day of
the final student event at SOAS. Many people came and my teacher at Al-Quds
university attended the event. We talked
about the twinning project and the benefits we got from.
20th of June was the last day
in London, we had a small meeting then we left to the airport and directly
travelled to Jordan. and we stayed one night there then we had to go through
the same suffering again on the bridge between Jordan and Palestine.
I liked this experience. I t
was really different; I had the chance to live in a different country with a
different culture, to get to know new people, to make new friends, to represent
Palestine, to talk about our suffering, and to make connections. This visit
gave me the idea that our voice is heard by others and that we have to work
more to get our voices heard. I hope this kind of twinning visits will keep
going and to have many British students here in Palestine!
Some pictures of the feedback session at Al-Quds University!
