After wrestling with the colds (basically coughs) we brought with us for the first two weeks, and thank to Dr Nadar’s treatment, we were able to begin regular meetings with students to help them prepare for the oral part of their English Bagrut exam – one of many state tests they have to pass in order to graduate.
The format of the exam has changed in a basic way this year: no longer will students sit with a person with whom they will interact for the oral exam; instead they will sit in front of a computer monitor with headphones and a mic.

The will be greeted by Alphie, a character on the screen, that will ask them questions. They have to record their responses.
The oral Bagrut has three parts: the first part is considered an interview. Students will be given a choice between two topics and the questions associated with those topics will be shown on the screen.

Once a student has made his/her choice and pressed the record button, the questions disappear. The students have to record a least a minute’s worth of response. They cannot press the pause button and then continue. If they pause, they have to start over with a new recording. If they stop and start more than once, they lose points.
The second part (Part B) focuses on a research project a student has completed.

These have been turned in to their teachers and graded. During the time a student is in the oral exam, each student will be asked questions about his/her project. Questions such as: what is the subject of your project? Why did you choose this topic; what research did you do for this project, and how? What did you find out about your topic? Additional questions can be asked about whether or not each student worked with others or worked alone. If a student worked with others, the student may be asked about teamwork etc. For this part of the exam, a student is to give an answer that is at least a minute long. It can be more, but not much, but it cannot be less. We encourage each student to write a summary paragraph about his/her project and memorize it. When it comes to providing an answer, they only have to recite what they have memorized. We practice with them asking them to use their smart phone, or ours, and when ready to provide an answer, push the record button. When they stop we check to make sure they have spoken for at least a minute.
The third part of the oral exam is to watch a minute long video in which the character or characters face a moral dilemma. There is only acting, not sound. At the end of the video, again the students have to press the record button and talk about the video: what was the moral dilemma; how was it resolved; do you agree with the resolution; if so, why; if not, why not, and how would you have resolved it differently.
The students will have a computer simulation set up for them to practice, so at least the operation of the computer and the recording of answers should not be a factor in how well they do.
We meet with students during the time of 12 grade classes, on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. Since the classes are only 45 minutes long and it takes a while to get started, we each could only meet with two students during a class period. Since the 12thgrade classes usually meet at the same time on the different days, we are still getting the process of selecting students organized.
On Thursday night we prepared for the arrival of a group from Italy. This is a group that the local doctor (whom we went to for treatment of our colds) brings every year to Israel. They usually stay two nights in the guesthouse. Badea had planned dinner for them for about 7:30 or 8:00; they finally arrived around 9 pm and then sat in the meeting room in the guest house for over an hour listening to the story of a particular nun brought here for the purpose of sharing her story. Finally, Badea put things out and left for home. We didn’t serve them until about 10:30.
Breakfast was to be at 6:45 the next morning, so we were up at 5:15 – short note, in order to have hot water for a shower, you have to turn on the hot water heater, after which you have to wait at least thirty minutes and then you can take a shower with hot water. During the warmer days, there are also solar panels on the roof to heat the water. The group left by 7:30 for a day in the Galilee.
While they were away for the day, two of the students we met when we were first here, 2011-12, Jody Kabbia and Yara Safoury, came by to pick us up and take us out to lunch. They took us to Tamara, the next Palestinian village to the north of I”billin, for lunch.
Of course we started with Meze, small dishes like our appetizers, only we start with about twelve different appetizers, all very delicious. Then we have the main meal. Jody and Yara had steak, we chose the restaurant’s special dish. We enjoyed it very much.
Then they drove us back to their city, Shefarmer, for Kanafeh.

Finally very full, we came back to the guesthouse and were ready to help with dinner for the Italians.
The Italian group was out and about all over the Galilee during the day and returned around 5:30, just in time miss a heavy rain. Dinner was planned for 7:00, so we were able to provide dinner at that time on Friday. During the dinner we overheard the group members talking together about the one-day airline strike in Italy and that their return to Italy would be delayed by two days. They were able to make plans to stay in Bethlehem for Sunday night and then we heard them say that they would most likely be spending most of the night on Monday into Tuesday because they had a five am flight on Tuesday morning.
There was one family among the group, husband, wife, son – about 16, and daughter – about 12. We had many conversations with them and ended up sharing contact information. The son will be coming with a group from his school to the Los Angeles area this summer and the parents are looking at possibilities for him to spend at least a year in college in the US. We said we could help make suggestions, so we will see what happens with this when we return.
The group ate breakfast at 6:30 on Saturday morning, and the priest organized them and got them out of the guesthouse by 7:30, with the exception of one couple who made arrangements to get home earlier. They stayed until noon and then were picked up by taxi to go to the airport.
On Saturday, a group from a Presbyterian Church in Burlington, NC, came to meet with the Archbishop and then have lunch in the guest house. The pastor and leader of this group, Ron Shive, is a person we knew through our involvement with the Presbyterian Church’s Israel Palestine Mission Network, so we were delighted to re-connected with him. Following lunch I took them up to the roof so they could look over toward Mt Carmel and Haifa and see the village of I’billin. Then before they left I took them over to see the Church of the Sermon on the Mount and its wonderful iconostasis.
After this group left, we could begin the usual process after a group that has been staying in the rooms guest house overnight leaves: strip all sheets off the beds, gather all the towels, and take all of this to the roof where the washing machines and dryer are located. There is also space to hang clothes on the line, but right now the weather has not been very cooperative – strong winds, cold, and rain. The new dryer Pilgrims of I’billin purchased has been a godsend.
While on the roof doing the wash, we often take time to take in the scenery. Looking Southwest we see Mt Carmel and Haifa; to the West we see the Mediterranean; looking northwest on a clear day we can see Akko, looking east we look over the Church of the Sermon on the Mount and up to the hills/mountains of the Galilee.
As Jane was looking over the hillside that is on the south side of the elementary school, she called to me, telling me to come quickly. There is a beautiful bird. I came and looked and quickly went downstairs to get my camera. Fortunately the bird was going back and forth, sitting on the light on top of a pole and then flying up to the side of the hill and pecking at the hillside. (A large part of the hillside had fallen down when we were here in 2012-2013 and covered a good part of the area between the elementary school and the middle school. This left a barren hillside of soft rock). I took some pictures and then came back to get my longer lens. The pictures that resulted are below. The bird is a White-breasted Kingfisher. It is a resident of Israel. I thought it kept going to the hillside and pecking at the soft stone in order to get some of this to help build a nest. When I looked up the bird in our book about Birds of Israel, it indicates that these birds make their nests in a hole in a bank.








Finally, on Sunday, we walked over the Melkite Catholic Church,
the church where the Archbishop started as the priest in 1965 and from which he had his vision of forming high quality schools for the Palestinian children, and acted on that vision. The services are in Arabic and they follow the Byzantine Rites for worship services (The Melkites, Byzantine Rite Catholics, trace their history to the early Christians of Antioch, formerly part of Syria and now in Turkey, of the 1st century AD, where Christianity was introduced by Saint Peter.) Following the worship service we walked over to the home of Ass’ad Daoud. He was not at home, but his mother was and she invited us into the home. She told us the Ass’ad was on his way. In a short time, Ass’ad entered and sat with. We talked for quite a while getting caught up on the past two years. I have written about Ass’ad in previous posts, see A basic new project of his is to restore an old flour mill. The machinery was in Nazareth and was going to be discarded. He asked about having the machinery and was told he had 10 days to take it or it would be discarded. He made arrangements – considerable efforts – and also measured the machinery and built a place to put it – see photos below

His mother made her usual very good Arabic coffee and provided us with delicious jaffa oranges. After we finished, Ass’ad took us to see his new project, the flour mill, and we looked over the back yard area that he has developed into a center for the village to celebrate during Christmas time, and also is the place where the original structure of the house in which St Mariam Bawardi
was born in the mid 1800s is located. Ass’ad drove us back to the guesthouse in the middle of the afternoon.