At Salam Palestine, we make a point to start the day off right and together with a Palestinian community breakfast. We love to provide this meal to all those who contribute to the work we do for our Palestinian community in the city of Hebron, West Bank. It’s a nice routine and a great start to each morning.
Sharing Breakfast
Our volunteers, interns, and students along with our staff – even our director Marwa Shantir – sit down every morning and enjoy breakfast together. Says one volunteer, “it is nice to know that every morning upon arrival at the center we will all sit down and begin the day together.”
Maneesha from the United States – who is here to run seminars and contribute her extensive knowledge of computer science and technology – enjoys the ritualistic aspect of the breakfast each morning: “the consistency of it is wonderful.
Everything else here is so full of surprises except for our breakfast time. You can count on it always being there, for the most part, it is the only consistent part of my day. After breakfast, the adventure starts!”
Community Breakfast Is Beneficial For Many Reasons
This community breakfast is beneficial for many reasons. You can talk about your schedule for the day, discuss possible day trips for later in the week, and in general check in with each other. Maneesha remarks, “It is also a time when a lot of us practice our Arabic.
Being so new to the language, it is the main time I get to practice with others [outside of lessons], and I get exposed to some of the most common phrases there, especially the many ways of greeting others.”
It Is A Safe Space To Practice Speaking Arabic
Alexa is from the United States and participates in our “Volunteer to Write about Palestine” program, she is familiar with Modern Standard Arabic but is studying the Palestinian dialect with us at Salam Palestine. She tells us, “it is a great opportunity to become more familiar with dialect and get exposed to regular conversation.
Also, it is a safe space for me to practice my dialect speaking, I am not as afraid of making mistakes when I speak as I am in the street. I get to try out new words and sentences and get kind corrections from the director or my Arabic teacher and sometimes from students.”
What Kind Of Breakfast Foods Do We Provide?
Breakfast at Salam Palestine looks a little different each day, with several kinds of foods offered from a larger range of Palestinian breakfast foods such as bread, hummus, mutabal, olive oil and za’atar, labneh, tomato, cucumber, falafel, shakshouka, eggs, cheese, fruits, and avocado. We also drink tea at breakfast, most of the year tea is made with mint although in winter it is usually made with sage. Arabic coffee is usually had after breakfast and not during breakfast.
Final Remarks
The community’s traditional Palestinian breakfast is one of the pillars of our program here at Salam Palestine. It helps our community (administration, teachers, volunteers, interns, and staff) forge personal connections with one another. It is important to us that we not only work together but that we get along and feel as though we are somewhat of a family. This is especially helpful to our international volunteers, who are far from their homes and families.
