There was no phone signal

A big thank you to Matthew who tells us his story of the last student visit : 

I arrived back from Palestine just before Christmas after spending three months in Abu Dis between September to December. 

So in January I was really happy to hear that a group of Palestinians would be coming to the UK for a sports and students exchange. The place we would meet was the beautiful surroundings of the Peak District in the middle of nowhere, with around 25 people staying  there for the weekend. There was no phone signal (yes we did get very lost), internet, or distractions from everyone just having an abundance of time to enjoy each others company over the weekend. 

I remember seeing my Palestinian friends for the first time, and it was very surreal because I had spent months working with them in Palestine, and here they were in my own country eating our food and trying to avoid our big fat rain. 

We spent the first day going for a massive walk to a lake, which was the perfect place to go fishing for invisible fish and getting exceptionally muddy. 

In the afternoon the British students gave a presentation about their lives as students. In the evening we cooked together and played table tennis and chess. Conversions went on until the early morning, and the next day the Palestinians gave some moving and emotional stories of being a student in Palestine, and made me feel an appreciation of the small things in life, like being able to play tennis or moving freely in my country to get to lectures...