A Love Affair

It is difficult to describe how, in one week of volunteering, you can fall in love with a whole bunch of Spanish people – perhaps part of the reason is that they are very special teachers working with kids who range in age from 3 to high school seniors.  

These folks were all from Castilla-La Mancha Communitad (region) in central Spain.  The region decided to dramatically strengthen English education.  They are now teaching science courses in English to various grades, and they have begun English instruction to 3 to 5 year olds in preschool.  In a few years, these kids will all be conversant with it.  This is a big change for Spain.

Teachers can get funding to attend this program from the Community, and as part of the program, they must spend a month abroad in an English speaking country, working in a school. If you have any ideas about where…please let us know at www.cooperstwo@yahoo.com.

Here is a photo of them all gathered together after the Queimada singing some typical Spanish songs to the equal number of Anglos (the collective term for the volunteers from the US, the UK, Canada, Wales, Australia and New Zealand)  in the bar in the Hotel Abadia de los Templarios in La Alberca, Spain.  http://www.spanishunlimited.com/spain/salamanca/city4.asp.

You’ve got to love people who will do most anything to learn how to speak in English (they all know how to read and write it) in front of a bunch of native English speakers whom they have never seen before.  They want to be as accurate as possible in their pronunciation, sentence structure and use of phrasal verbs and funky sayings.  They know they are establishing speaking habits with their students.

And, because they were all so willing to stick their necks out, so were we, doing hour long one-to-ones and two-to-twos, playing games, taking all meals in mixed groups and especially doing skits together– some impromptu, and some with a very brief preparation time.

Here’s David as the big bad wolf in a skit of Little Red Riding Hood:

Here’s Susan as the witch preparing for the Quamada ceremony (during which David read the words in Gallego and the Spanish folks were really impressed!): the goal of this ritual is to distance the bad spirits:

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queimada_%28drink%29 )

Here’s David as Santa Claus:

Here’s Susan as the mother in Goldilocks and the 3 bears:

We spent hours talking with each Spanish person in all the planned activities, we drank wine together during lunch and dinner, and we partied after dinner in the bar.  We went into La Alberca for lunch and dinner on 2 separate days (from our “conference” center) and wandered, sang and played in this most beautiful, World Heritage, medieval town.

Here is a link to the Pueblo Inglese program:
http://www.vaughanvillage.com/venue-alberca.asp

We returned to Madrid (Susan with a cold) for just 2 nights and then trained to Seville – very excited about Semana Santa…..the subject of our next post….

We are thinking about the possibility of returning to this part of Spain in the early Spring for 6 months and volunteering with these teachers and their students in their villages where Americans are rarely seen, let alone heard….we think it might be a small but good way to encourage a more connected and peaceful world.

With hugs to you all….

March to April in Espana

March 30th

We are trying to get 6 months of toiletries into our suitcases here in New York City and it’s working!!  It’s just that there is no room for any clothes...funny how, as we age, the toiletries take preference over style.  We’re also carrying a variety of equipment, especially phones and, of course, our iPod with a small set of speakers making even less room for clothes.

We left the mesa in mid March as planned and, after a soak in the mineral springs at Ojo Caliente, drove to Salt Lake City where we switched out clothes in our storage unit, loved visiting with Sutton, John and Felix, and spent a very short, but great time with Kendra and Jim Golden who were on their way home to Pt. Townsend after being south in the motor home for 2 months.

We flew to New York City a few days ago, saying good bye to our 11 year old Honda Accord, and are really enjoying our stay with Chris & Payson.  We had a great lunch with Pat & Jim Hyatt and Glen Daum and a terrific visit with Susan’s brother John and his wife Kate at their wonderful location on the Connecticut river….we are now are off to Madrid to begin our six  month sojourn.

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April 7th

Well, here we are in Madrid, ready to leave tomorrow morning for La Alberca and our Pueblo Ingles volunteer time for a week.  We have been here for several days, riding the subways and buses and walking and walking and loving every minute. We are finally acclimated to the time change but are more active than we've been in a while so we are getting reacquainted with leg muscles.  Susan's knees are doing pretty well considering.....

Among the folks here in Madrid is at least one invisible man, spotted here in the Puerta del Sol.

Today we had our “anglo” orientation lunch for and saw some wonderful flamenco…..here’s our first attempt at uploading a video.  The lunch was at Casa Patas, a foundation for preserving Flamenco, where newbies come to study and veterans come to perform.

We've had a mess with our cell phone.  Four years ago we went to China, stopped into a phone store, bought a sim card, installed it into our phone and had great service the whole time were were there - in Tibet, too.  The other day we went into Vodaphone in Madrid, bought a sim card and we can't get it to work no how.....  so what does that tell us?  It told us to buy a cheap Spanish phone, which we did  - the number is 627-615-262 and to call from the US you would first dial 011 (to make an international call) 34 (the code for Spain) then this number....  Susan should answer....

Friday morning (the 9th) we left Madrid on a bus and traveled about 4 hours to the world heritage town, La Alberca, just south of Salamanca, where we are staying at a conference center doing a volunteer week helping Spanish Primary and Secondary School teachers improve their "conversational" English.  We are challenged to explain idioms like "shooting from the hip," "come in handy," and "come up with" and other strange workings of our language like and "work out," vs "work off" (which we now understand are phrasal verbs).  It's very difficult for these folks to really learn to speak the language but when we talk the way we usually talk it's near to impossible and very frustrating for them.  We will be here through next Friday and the experience is just wonderful!!

The land here is remarkable, the almond trees are in bloom, the chestnut trees are glorious and the singing of birds, crickets and frogs is a delicious continuous concert.

We are the most fortunate people in the world......and send hugs to you all!!!