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….