Let's Explore: Volunteering on the South Side

I love to volunteer, so when I found out that there were opportunities to volunteer in Sevilla I was eager to sign up. Back in Madison, I volunteered bi-weekly as a Girls On the Run coach and in the summer I work at a girls sports camp! I love working with kids and sports! I found out that in Sevilla there was a program where I would be able to volunteer with a kids soccer team, even though I can't play soccer for my life, I wanted to do it! However, the soccer volunteering conflicted with my class schedule, so the coordinator told me I had to choose something else.

All I really wanted to do was work with kids so I picked out an after-school program in an underprivileged neighborhood. The coordinator told me that a guide would meet me at a bus stop and guide me through my first day. Edu, showed up and we hopped on a bus. I was a little worried when he kept calling people to see where we were going and was asking me questions I didn't know the answer to. I had no idea where we were going, no address, no contact person, I was just following his lead. Well, he really didn't know where we were going. He was asking the bus driver and we finally got off the bus. You could definitely tell the difference between this area of Sevilla, and the neighborhood that I live in. We definitely got off at the wrong stop and we wandered around until we found the school. They opened the gate for us and let us in. Then Edu left me to figure out what I was doing there and told me that I'd have to take the bus back by myself!

Luckily, the coordinator, Maria del Mar, at the school was such a sweetheart and she brought me in and showed me around. I was expecting to work with kids around the ages of 7-11, but I walked into a room and felt like Hillary Swank when she walked into the high school classroom in the movie Freedom Writers. The "kids" were about 13-17 (middle school to high school age) and they all stared at me when I walked in. Maria introduced me and explained that I was from America and here to help them with their English. I said I was from Chicago and they all thought that was soooo cool because they had seen it in the movies. It was kind of adorable.

Anyways, I knew right away this would be a challenge. They were sassy, not motivated to learn English, and strictly wanted me to translate words for them. Also, about 5 of the boys told me their names were Manuel...I felt like a vulnerable substitute teacher. Some of the girls were nice and told me that my Spanish was very good and that I had a good accent! Other girls were a little pushy and would yell, "Ven!" (Come!) when they needed help. I don't deal with sass well, so I would go over to them and say "POR FAVOR!" (PLEASE!) If I am going to do one thing at this school, it will be to teach these kids some manners! The kids would continue to ask me what this means, is this a verb or a noun or an adjective, etc.. I used to tutor and I do not put up with kids thinking that they will just get answers from me. I'm a big fan of the process of learning, so I tried to get the kids to come up with the answers themselves.

I was working with one girl who was 16 and had to translate the play, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde into Spanish. We translated one page together and then I told her she should try to do the next page by herself and then I would check her work when she finished. She got super mad and started rambling in Spanish and a few minutes later she left. Whoops. I'm just trying to teach these kids to be a little independent!

Honestly, I'm pretty sure middle school kids are the hardest age group to deal with. There were kids "flirting," hitting each other, screaming across the room, whispering secrets and doing who knows what else. I really would have preferred elementary school children, and I can probably still switch to that, but I think I'm going to stick this out for a while and see how it goes.

Once all the kids left I was talking to the two coordinators, Maria and Gema, and they were complimenting me on my Spanish and saying that they are thinking about trying to learn English. Gema is really eager to learn, so I told her that next week if the kids didn't need help I would sit down with her and try to teach her a few things. She was really excited!

I managed to get on the bus and find my way back to Nervion in time for my Finance class. Which I actually cried in, for the second time this semester, there have only been 4 classes. Don't worry, they were tears from laughing so hard. My teacher asked us what assets are so I literally said some part of a definition straight from our textbook and he proceeded to tell me that I was wrong and that that was a liability. I then circled the text of the definition of an asset which is exactly what I said, he looked at me and knew he was wrong but kept trying to beat around the bush. My friends and I all started laughing and I when someone else starts to laugh, I laugh even harder. Anyways, there is a huge language barrier between us and our teacher, and not just the language, but the strong accent that he possesses. So this made the conversation/ argument even funnier.

This evening I had dinner with Virginia and Paco and then went out with Javier, and 2 other intercambio pairs. We went to a few bars but I was so exhausted from the day that I headed home with a friend around 2:00. Javier is nice, but his English is a bit of a struggle and he has a lot of misconceptions about America that lead to me having to bust the myths that he believes. He's learning and so am I!

Sending Smiles From Sevilla,

Rebecca

What I learned about in Wine Class today: Young wine vs. Aged wine, and how to tell how old wine is and if it's still good