Arabic. Ugh. I was pretty excited initially that learning Arabic was one of the components of the Palestine Summer Encounter program that I am with. However, as I was sitting through hour 3 of this afternoon’s Arabic class, I was beginning to question my original thoughts. I already had 1 year of Hebrew grammar last year (unlike some seminaries, that only teach you 1 semester of grammar, and then one semester of exegesis – but, some would argue, that is a great reason to consider transferring to a seminary like that), and I am going to have 1 year of Greek grammar all next year, so, I’m beginning to think that a summer off from trying to learn a language would have been nice.
But no. I am learning Arabic. We are learning some classical Arabic (so we can read and write) and colloquial Arabic (so we can speak). I am finding myself far more interested in learning the speaking Arabic, as I don’t see myself trying to read and write Arabic in the future. Our teacher has far more energy than I could imagine anyone having, and she is really wonderful (she is the wife of Bishara Awad, the president of Bethlehem Bible College, where we have our classes) – but I am afraid she will be finding me to be a somewhat less than stellar student. But who knows…
We’re still trying to figure out my volunteering placement, as I am not going to make another website this summer. So I’ll be sure and update you when I figure that out (possibly as soon as tomorrow afternoon). I’m off now to walk the couple kilometers back to Beit Sahour where we’re being treated to some Chinese food by one of Holy Land Trust’s staff members. Nothing all that exciting to report today, except for the fact that my stomach is still doing pretty good, and it’s been almost 2 weeks of traveling with no major stomach issues – which is a very very good thing. We can only hope for another 9 weeks without any problems…