English Camp Alcoy

Whew!  That was a crazy week! Our first seven days here were a whirlwind of activity and adjustment, but we made it, and now it's the weekend.  (Hallelujah!) We thought we'd take this lazy Sunday afternoon to catch y'all up on what we're doing here in southeast Spain.

Ian with two of his classmates spelling the word "ant"

The bulk of our weekdays are spent at Escola Oficial D'Idiomes (Official Language School) in Alcoi.  We eat breakfast (el desayuno) together at 7:15, leave home around 7:45, arrive at the school around 8:00, have devotions and a general meeting time with the other American volunteers, then start English Camp at 9:00.  There are four sessions with a mid-morning snack break, called almuerzo.  The children travel in their age groups from station to station, which include art, sports, music, and English.  My Bethel student teachers and I hang out in the English classroom all day where they teach the same lesson four times...with a few tweaks to accommodate each age group.  We get to love on the kids and play lots of fun language games.  The camp gets over around 1:00pm, at which point we eat a catered lunch (la comida), with the other American volunteers, then depart for home around 2:30 for siesta.

My student Katie, teaching about England

Ian hangs out in the 5-6-year-old group all morning and has started making some cute Spanish friends.  One in particular, a six-year-old named Jordi, has been dubbed Ian's favorite.  The two boys often have to be separated for having too much fun together.  :)

Eric's morning involves driving me, Ian, Tobin, and one of our students to the school every day (the other student living with us right now gets a ride from the missionaries running the show), leaving with Tobin around 9am to swing by the grocery store for the day's victuals, putting Tobin down for a nap at home while taking care of household details (cooking, cleaning, budget-keeping, baby food-making, etc.), heading back to the school around 12:30 so Tobin can get his lunch from me, then taking us all home after lunch.  He's taken on his role as administrator/house-husband like a fish takes to water.  I'm so stinkin' proud of him.

Check out tomorrow's post to find out about our exciting afternoon/evenings!