Hannah:
Our last few days are proving to be extremely busy as we continue
to deliver sessions at the SOS School and in the Village. By now
however, many of our trainees are able to lead the sessions by
themselves which is great for us to see and reassures our hope that
they will be able to sustain these sessions once we leave. The
instruments we purchased last week are going down very well and
proving a success in both places.


Over the weekend the village was fairly empty as the majority of
the children were away visiting family or friends for a few days to
celebrate Eid. There were however, around ten children who stayed
at the village for the duration which, for me, really highlights
the importance of the SOS community and organisation as these
children sadly have no one else to look after them. With a complete
day off last Sunday we set off for Jerusalem to meet up with the
music teacher from SOS school who is also one of our trainees. He
had kindly offered to spend the day with us (I say ‘kindly’ because days off are rare for him and he sees us many times at school!) and he gave us a fantastic tour of the Old City, this time focussing on the Armenian Quarter as this is where he grew up. Despite spending many an occasion on a noisy bus trip where the children here go wild for loud Arabic pop music Liz and I have yet to be put off; in fact we have fallen in love with Arabic music off all kinds and so whilst in Jerusalem with our music specialist we were desperate to get our hands on some CDs to take home!


What we have seen of Palestine so far has been fantastic. As well
as the phenomenal architecture, sites of religious history and
landscape that is very different from home, I think the most
special thing I have come across here is the friendliness of the
Palestinian people. Tomorrow will be our last day at the SOS
School. We will really miss all the people there as they have been
extremely welcoming. The trainees especially have worked very hard
and shown great enthusiasm for the ‘Music as Therapy’
programme. I’ll try get back on the computer and give you
some more information before we leave.