Yesterday in the first language class of the day, the Intermediate A class discussed the idea of community and what it means to be in one. We asked them to think about what is involved in a community such as the buildings and structures along with thinking about population. After our discussion, we asked them to create their own idealistic community and draw a blueprint of what it would look like, how many people would live there, and a name for the community. I know both Caro and I were extremely impressed by their ideas along with their use of Spanish vocabulary which they had learned that day. Here is an example of an ideal community which Josefa and Aurora created which we hope gives you an idea of what they learned. I encourage all parents to ask their children when they return home about their ideal communities because they have some great ideas! Both Caro and I are enjoying spending time with your campers and can’t wait to learn more about them and teach them more of the language.
Julieta y Caro
An ideal community
Encuentro de Bicis
For our “Encuentro Deportivo” today, me and my group of villagers – Epifania, Fernando, Lola, Natasha and Amanda – biked to our beautiful beach at El Lago del Bosque. First of all, we talked about the safety measures so that we could all enjoy a nice ride; then we headed to the beach. The kids really enjoyed the ride and the extraordinary view while getting plenty of exercise at the same time. We had fun spotting the different animals and birds along the way. Once we arrived at the beach, we relaxed a little bit near the water, the kids talked about their “talleres” and their expectations for the next few days. After a while we headed back to the village and went to the “café” to enjoy a yummy glass of milk with cookies.
Telenovela – Los juegos de celos y egos
Hola, our names are Paz and Carlota. We wanted to tell you about a drama that we put on every night before dinner called “Telenovela”. It is a soap opera that is acted out by the counselors and the villagers put on a commercial in the middle of it to make the experience more cultural and real, like what they would see if they were watching a latino soap opera.
We are the writers of the telenovela for these next two weeks which we called “Los juegos de celos y egos” which means ‘’the games of jealousy and egos.” The main characters are Pepe (younger brother of Sargento), Sargento (older brother of Pepe and captain of the soccer team), Renata (girlfriend of Sargento and head cheerleader), and Tatiana (the coolest girl in school). The overall plot is that Sargento is immensely popular and is extremely cool because he is the captain of the soccer team and is dating Renata, but Pepe is the farthest from cool because he plays in the band and annoys his brother all the time. Even their parents favor Sargento over Pepe because Sargento can do no wrong and Pepe is just a whiny little kid who plays in the band and does not have the same persona as Sargento.
Sargento and Renata have a close friend named Tatiana who just got back from touring France and she is the coolest girl in school, so they make a bet with her to take Pepe to the prom. Tatiana is disgusted with the idea because she had so many more options but she agrees to the bet and she brings in her personal stylist Viqui to help transform him. Viqui is the best stylist around and gives Pepe a huge makeover. Pepe is now getting noticed by the “cool” kids and ditches out on his band friends to go hang out with them.
Eventually, Pepe gets to be incredibly gorgeous and popular that Tatiana starts to fall for him because she saw his true beauty on the inside and out by spending so much time with him. However, Pepe is incredibly desirable now and many other girls want to be with him so Tatiana has some serious competition and jealousy ahead of her….
The villagers will learn that true beauty on the inside is what matters most and that faithful friends and family are the ones who will stick by you no matter what because they love you unconditionally even when they do not always show it.
Carlota y Paz
Encuentro de Fotografía
Encuentro de Fotografía
Our photography class is an encuentro that lasts three days. Each day we have done a different activity. The villagers have really done well in our encuentro. The first day vocabulary was introduced for parts of a camera, different angles, and styles of photography. After the vocabulary lesson, the villagers were given a task to take photos of natural frames; we went on a walk through the forest to the lake. They took some beautiful photos.
The next day different vocabulary regarding emotions was introduced. The words that they were given included harmony, happiness, sadness, anger, pensive, love, and frustration, with these emotions they were put into groups of 3 and given different angles to take the photos from. For each emotion there was a change in angle. This went very well. The villagers got to model, try new angles, and emotions. They seemed to really enjoy it and take great photos.
Today we will be doing an activity instead of writing an essay about their time at camp, they will be taking a series of pictures that summarizes there time here at El Lago del Bosque!
Credit Program: El Liderazgo en la aldea
This week, new two-week villagers arrived at El Lago del Bosque-Wilder. This gave our credit villagers a chance to improve their global citizenship skills and demonstrate their leadership in our aldea, since they already are pros at all things El Lago del Bosque. They have done many things to help the new villagers feel at home here, including offering activities like fútbol, disco volador, volibol, canto, arte and bailes during opening day for the new villagers. They also helped lead a Programa de Noche, or evening program, in which they taught the new villagers songs and dances that they learned here in the beginning of their credit session. Watch the following videos to see the great leadership that our villagers are demonstrating!
Credit Program: International Day
The credit program was lucky enough to travel to Bemidji for International Day for the first time since 2004! We went to celebrate the 50th summer of Concordia Language Villages. We had a blast learning all about other cultures! From fútbol to canto, and bailes to our closing program, we were busy all day. It took a lot of preparation to be ready to participate in all of the activities, but we were proud of all that we accomplished. One of the best parts of the day was our time camping at El Lago del Bosque – Bemidji and the great friends we made there! We look forward to El Lago del Bosque -Wilder’s return to International Day in the future!
Rosa, Milagros y Marisol en el Día Internacional
Check out this video to see our village teaching songs at International Day!
Our closing program was one of the highlights for us because we all worked together to create it! Here is the video, and check out the script below!
Hace muchos años, había dos aldeas que tenían culturas y lenguas diferentes. No solían hacer nada juntas, y en realidad no se llevaban muy bien entre sí. Y cuando se encontraban en un lugar, se miraban a los ojos con odio. Y un día las aldeas decidieron construir un muro para asegurarse de que nunca volvieran a encontrarse otra vez. El muro iba a ser tan ancho y tan alto que no podrían hablarse ni verse. Y así les gustó. Fue tan raro, que las dos aldeas sólo pudieran estar de acuerdo en una sola cosa: crear un muro para dividirse.
Y se quedó así. Por días, meses y años. Hasta que un día apareció una heroína. Nadie sabía de dónde vino o cómo se llamaba, pero se dirigió al muro. Y empezó a dar golpes al muro con un gran martillo. Y el muro empezó a derrumbarse, poco a poco. La heroína siguió mientras la gente de las dos aldeas lo miró sorprendida. Unos le gritaron, “¡Basta ya!” y “¿Qué haces?” Y después de unas horas unos aldeanos de cada lado del muro empezaron a acercarse al muro. Les había atraído la fuerza y la pasión de la heroína… y empezaron a conocerse y unirse. En las próximas horas, aún más gente se unió a la causa.
Y antes de que se acabara el día, el muro se hizo pedazos y la gente se juntó.
Y cuando todos se vieron de nuevo, se dieron cuenta de que juntos podrían ser aún más fuertes. Y entonces, empezaron a bailar, cantar y gritar, festejando la destrucción del muro y la nueva unión de las dos aldeas.
Many years ago, there were two villages that had different cultures and languages. They didn’t tend to do anything together, and really did not get along very well. And when they came into contact, they looked into each other’s eyes with hatred. And one day the village decided to build a wall to make sure they never had to meet again. The wall would be so wide and so high that they would not be able to talk or see each other. And that is how they like it. The two villages could only agree on one thing: to create a wall to divide themselves.
And it stayed like that. For days, months and years. Then one day a heroine came to the village. Nobody knew where she came from or what her name was, but she went to the wall. And she began banging on the wall with a large hammer. And the wall began to crumble, slowly. The heroine continued while the people of the two villages looked surprised. Some shouted, “Enough!” And “What are you doing?” And after a few hours, villagers on both sides of the wall began to approach the wall. They had drawn strength and passion from the heroine … and began to get to know each other and unite. In the next few hours, even more people joined the cause.
And before the day was over, the wall was shattered and the people gathered.
And when everyone saw each other again, they realized that together they could be even stronger. And then they began to dance, sing and shout with joy, celebrating the destruction of the wall and the new union of the two villages.
El primer día en ELdB
Voli
Busqúeda de nuevos amigos
La cliníca San José
¡Bailamos!
En el comedor
Las ultimas dias
Tanto amor
Chicos serios
Taller de "Viva Peru"
Voli
Voli en la playa
Presentacion de comida
La Pampa
Hola, my name is Carlota and I am the counselor of the house “La Pampa” with Rita, Maribel, Lara, Nieves, and Luna. I absolutely love all of these girls. They are fantastic to be around because they bring so much energy and positivity to the house as well as to the whole camp. I try to do an activity with them every day to bond and some examples of those have been making t-shirts, decorating bandanas, painting all of our inside jokes on a canvas, and writing letters to other villagers as well as to each other. All of these girls are like a family, they are really close to each other, and I have no doubt that these girls will be best friends when they leave here because they are already. I always see them together, whether it be walking around the village, laughing, meeting new friends, eating, dancing, singing, or other things. They make everything worthwhile and I cannot even place a number on the amount of pictures we have taken, laughs we have shared, or hugs we have given. This house has four out of the five girls that are first time campers and you would not even have noticed. They act like they have been coming back for seven years or so and have been reunited. When these girls leave, be prepared to hear many stories for days because they will have tons to share.
Capoeira
Though originally quite obscure, today capoeira is gaining in popularity. It has been my pleasure to introduce this unique sport dance and game to an interested group of youngsters.
Capoeira is a creation of Brazil that fuses martial arts with dance, but even so, if two people are doing capoeira together, they aren’t said to be fighting or dancing, but playing.
Skilled participants may play far from each other and exchange high flying acrobatic tricks in or they may play right next each other, bodies and minds entangled in a physical game of chess.
Here at El Lago de Bosque in one encuentro por casa, we introduce the storied history of Capoeira (ranging from its invention in the 1600s to its legalization in the 1940s), talk briefly about the musical accompaniment and introduce some of the basic movements. The most central of these is the ginga, the swaying back and forth motion that is most characteristic of game. Also covered is the meia-lua de frente (a basic kick) and a simple esquiva (dodge).
Most all of the aldeanos took to this introduction of capoeira with alacrity and it’s been fun showing them a little of the moves and history I’ve collected over my few years of learning and travel.
Many aldeanos have seemed quite interested in this unique form of fighting/dancing/playing and I would encourage them to pursue it further when they arrive home. Capoeira is a sport and community to be found all over the world and will definitely serve them when they go abroad.
