Act 4 :: Scene 1 | Holy Lands :: Nablus (West Bank)

After 40 hours of travel - which included: i) a mad dash into Bangkok to buy electronic goods (including my first apple anything) during a very short stop-over; ii) a long night spent waiting for airport employees in the Mumbai airport; iii) four hours of waiting to be asked the same questions by different officials working for different Israeli departments at the Jordon-Israel border crossing; iv) and several expensive phone calls made from other travellers phones - I discovered that the driver sent from the University to collect me was at the other Hussein border crossing an hour up the highway (where I was told to cross so that I wouldn't be given such a hard time by the Israeli immigration departments). (Mind you, if you must be interrogated at an international border after many hours of travel, I highly recommend being questioned by young Israeli girls with incredible eyes.)


In order to prevent the complete removal of all semblance of femininity from the entire female population – who are required to spend two years of their youth serving the State – their uniforms have been modified so as to include hipster pants and fitted shirts. (I'm not convinced that their hand bags are 'standard issue' either.)

On the way to the university I saw a sandstorm, camels, a flock of sheep with a shepherdess, the Dead Sea, olive groves and checkpoints. (Only one of those items did I fail to recognise from the pages of the Bible.)

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My first stint of volunteer work was with the An Najal Univerisity in Nablus. (It is the same place that is called 'Shechem' in the Bible, which – low and behold – was also the first place Abraham chose to dwell after entering the promised lands (Genesis 12:6); yet another unexpected parallel - this is getting positively spooky).

I had vastly overestimated the size of the teaching staff in the school of optometry (which was established just five years ago (there is only one fully qualified optometry lecturer for the 80 students spread across 4 years, who is only available to the department a few days each week because of all the other responsibilities she has within the university)) and grossly underestimated how much help they were expecting from me while I was present; As such, I was quite surprised to be met on my first morning, having just made my way past a class of students waiting noisily in the corridor, with the question "what will you be lecturing the students on today Dr Luke?" (For the next two weeks I scrambled my way through two lectures and a practical session each day).

The optometry students either really liked me, or were told that they would be failed if they didn’t treat me like royalty. (It probably helped that I was their first foreign teacher (and that the large majority of students were young and female; I think the other students around the campus thought I was was the worst disguised undercover cop they had seen since the late episodes of 21 Jump Street; I was the only fair skinned male on the premises which singled me out for much attention, especially from the security men at the gate each morning.)

The students were keen to learn but even more eager to take me out during lunch breaks and after class to eat their favourite foods in their favourite places, and to play their favourite sports; They were all very generous to me and I missed them very much when my two weeks were finished.

I was given gifts (lunch everyday, tours, even a farewell party) after being in their lives for less than two weeks.

One of the saddest things I heard while teaching in the University was the students telling me how they hoped that someday they would be able to visit Jerusalem in response to learning that I was going to spend the weekend there. (I live about as far away from Jerusalem as you can get and have no familial links to the land, they live less than a days walk away from the place which their ancestors possessed for hundreds of years, and yet they are denied access at the check point(s) that I do not even have to queue at - it’s all messed up.)

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If the best thing about the university was the students, the same can be said for the accommodation I was provided with, which came with an excellent set of flatmates.

Zafer is the university president's right hand man, and a budding theologian of all the Abrahamic religions, who intends to use his considerable abilities to fascilitate further understanding, respect, and ultimately peace in the Middle East. (He is a remarkable individual who assured me he has just the one sin, that being his weekly dose of hubbly bubbly; My one failing is that I am too easily led into the failings of all those I meet and befriend).

I hope that when I am this man’s age I am still looking for ways that I can make the world a better place like Chris – a retired teacher from England who is teaching English to the Palestinians – is presently doing. (Inspiring stamina.)

This is Steve Royl (as in the royal family) one of the international relations team who looked after me so well; He is a top bloke who loves to talk about matters of importance (which, of course, includes international sporting fixtures) and to eat lots of good food (of which there is no shortage in Palestine).

Finally, this is Dr Akram, another man I greatly admire; He is a highly motivated Ophthalmologist who has stuck his neck out in order to see: i) the profession of optometry established in Palestine (by teaching in the university); and ii) fellow Palestinians in his home town (of 1 million people) granted access to public eye care through the establishment of an eye department in the Hebron public hospital.

All the Palestinians that I met were remarkably gracious, hospitable and resilient. (And very Godly.)

It was wonderful to be able to embody the sympathy I have for the Palestinian people and give expression to that concern in such a practical manner (which really should come easily for someone like me who has two degrees that both contain the word ‘practical’ in the title).

My hope that the Palestinians would recognise my coming, as a committed Christian and foreigner (an Australian even!), as being an act of solidarity with them in the current plight was confirmed as fulfilled in the email that I received from one of the students just days after leaving:

‘… thank you, you came from very far place to help us and you exposed yourself to risk when you came to palestine’.