Community and school development among Palestinian refuees and Shi'ia Lebanese in South Lebanon

In the fall I am moving back to Lebanon--last year I was working on community development projects in the West Bank, Cairo, Jordan, and Beirut--to begin teaching. I will also take responsibility for taking the educational programs we have developed within the school into the community and, in particular, into the students' families. By simply moving to a community at risk, I hope to be able to effect change slowly, naturally, and organically. I will be in Tyre for two years, and during the summers will have the chance to create educational programs within the refugee camps, interact with the students on a non-academic level, and build life-giving relationships within the community. Foreigners can be hugely effective in the Middle East if they approach their work with respect and humility, simply because they cut through the powerfully divisive sectarian, religious, and political boundaries that exist almost everywhere you go. In Lebanon, I can be almost everything to everyone--I am a Christian so I can interact naturally with the existing Christian population, but I am not stuck there so I, unlike almost all Lebanese Christians, get to cross the bridge to hang out and work with Muslims and Druze. Because I am American, have lived in Palestine, and have traveled and worked all over the Middle East, I have a legitimacy and bring an attitude of reconciliation to every relationship. Something I have been struck by during my time in the Middle East is that development is less about the project and plan and more about who you are and who you hope to be. Thus, the impact I have made, and the impact I hope to have, is conditioned by my own character and relationships.