Imatin – women’s English class

We spoke before class started with F. about absences. She asked us to begin class at 4 p.m. (instead of 3 p.m.) since the girls come back tired and have no chance to rest.

We agreed to begin at 3:30 p.m. next time and see whether this would help more girls attend.

Here is a report on the classes.

Lilia: In Mickie’s car on the way to Im’matin we spoke about last week’s “incident” (girls had asked Murit and Mickie what their religion was). At the suggestion of Rickie, who is very experienced in such matters, we concluded we would make every effort to avoid answering such questions which might make us slip regrettably.

This time we managed to talk with several women before class as they had come to accompany us in class. We brought them some Passover cookies and were offered herb tea. The atmosphere was pleasant.

My class was attended by 7 girls first, then their number rose to 12. Since they had the lyrics for “We Shall Overcome”, I asked each of them to read in turn, and translate it into Arabic. We opened a conversation around the song. I noticed one of the girls was yawning so I asked her why, and she told us they were studying hard for exams right now. What subjects? I asked. “Geography, maths, technology, history, Arabic, English”. We talked about favorite and less liked subjects. I realized that many of them are absent because of their present study load. M., the house matron, joined the class too, and another nice woman whose name I don’t know. They occasionally took part in the conversations. We practiced various phrases in English, conjugations and possessives. We sang again, and explained the song about the little fish. Then I asked them to very briefly tell the story of Uri and his grandmother. With my help they summarized past and present events of the story. Before ending, one of the girls handed me a quick sketch she had drawn: “This is Uri (the tall one) and that is you, and here am… I (the little one).” Another girl handed me a beautiful red rose. The class went perfectly well, our concerns had been unfounded.

Gabriela:

As Lilia mentioned above we had a lively discussion about our policy regarding discussing religion and politics with the women and girls in Im'matin on the way to the village. Ten girls arrived to the class and M. was there too.

The lesson went very smoothly and was very enjoyable. I had cut out some pictures from magazines and mounted them on cardboard so they appeared framed. They worked in groups of 2 or 3. I asked them to list things (nouns) from the pictures, then to add adjectives to these nouns, then to suggest verbs that are suited to the nouns and finally adverbs to the verbs. So that finally we were able to create sentences.

It was real fun.

Mickie: