First Post!

I have been debating these past few weeks whether I wanted to create a blog, but I have decided that blogging my experiences will be good both for me and hopefully for you all to read and know what is going on in my day-to-day life. I am fortunate enough to have email access at my apartment, and I would love to hear from all of you! I am not sure how much information to include about these past 3 weeks I have been here, because they have been formative for sure, but I do not want to overwhelm you with details. So I think I will fill things in little by little. As a little background information, there are 6 of us living in Jerusalem and the West Bank, and three of us live in Bethlehem. Some members of our group started their volunteer placements today, and I will start mine tomorrow! There was a little confusion about my placement...originally they had me placed at Dar Anaddwa, which is a cultural center in Bethlehem, but I found out today that they need a volunteer who is fluent in Arabic. Needless to say, that eliminated me! So the plan now is that I will be volunteering in the Lutheran School of Beit Sahour as a kindergarten assisstant. I am excited for this, as I enjoy working with kids (and hopefully my arabic will improve!) I was a little disappointed about my original placement not working out, but I am here to serve in whatever way the community needs and I am looking forward to this opportunity