Sport and Globalization in London & Seville

After getting a small taste for the eager community of Bellavista and the Lora Tomayo school the Friday prior, our group dove into our first three days with the kids. For those who aren't familiar with what we are doing during this portion of our trip, we are putting on a group service project for an elementary school in a small, working class neighborhood outside of Sevilla, Spain. Each day we get the chance to work with one grade of the school of about 450 children. We split them into four different groups, each with two Carleton "group leaders" for the day who get to bond with their group of 10-15 boys and girls. Team names have been quite entertaining. Some of my favorites have been: Estrellas (stars), Bellavista Numero Uno (Bellavista number one), Tigres (tigers), Gimnasia (gymnastics), and Perros Peligrosos (Dangerous Dogs—bonus points for bilingual alliteration). The camp is built around sports, so the rest of us young , athletic Carls host different sports stations throughout the day. We play everything from floor hockey, to gatos y ratones (their version of ships across the ocean), to games using the nylon parachute that we all fondly remember from middle school. We all take the train in the morning from our various abodes around the town and arrive quickly to Bellavista on the outskirts of Sevilla. They are very proud to tell you that they are separate from Sevilla! The school is a quick 10 minute walk from the train station. It has an 8-foot tall stone wall surrounding the grounds, with the main three story building situated in the center. The playground, basketball courts, concrete, and futsal court all encircle the building. The youngsters (ages 4-6, I think) have their own sequestered area with a fence where they can frolic freely and safely from the wild world of big kid recreo (recess). Our first day was with the fourth graders and they were absolutely great. It was a fantastic start to the camp and more than any of us had expected. I was a group leader with Stephen, and to warm up and get to know the kids we played a few ice breakers. Each kid told us their name, an interesting fact (often their birthday), and showed us their favorite dance move. Gangnam style and 'disco scissors/peace signs' were by far the most popular. They liked my sprinkler move, so I felt pretty cool. After that we played Simon Says, and it went on for so long that we started to run out of things we could explain in Spanish, so Stephen had them doing sit-ups by the end. We then rotated through a bunch of different skills activities. Dribbling and shooting a basketball. Throwing, catching, and hiking a football. Playing an augmented version of baseball, and learning the three movements of volleyball—bumping, setting, and spiking. Then, as we have structured most other days, we move on to frisbee, kickball, floor hockey, soccer, parachute, tag games, relay races, football, basketball, and dodge ball (which they gleefully call matar, meaning to kill in Spanish). Halfway through the day we break for recess, and that's when the fun and madness really can reach its pinnacle... I'll start by saying I don't think I have ever signed an autograph in my life, and after this camp is over I guarantee my fellow classmates and I will have signed hundreds... each. I'm not sure who initiated the craze, or why it started happening, but the trend caught on like late night breakfast at Carleton. Every kid is running around with notebooks, planners, pieces of paper, or often times just their hands and arms asking for autographs from all of us Americans. It started the first day at recess and has only picked up since. It is incredibly cute, hilarious, and awesome at the same time. There's nothing like seeing a smiling kid look up at you and ask you for your "firma" and then stick out there arm that is already riddled with the signatures of your friends and sometimes has your faded signature from the day before. Aside from that quirk, recess is also great because you can walk around and play around with the kids from all the different grades. They all eat out on the playground while they play, and I think it's a good model. Kids are meant to play...Heck, everyone should, the world would be a lot happier if adults never stopped playing and running around during lunchtime. The second day of the camp we had third graders. This day went even more smoothly because by now we had worked out some of the kinks from the first day. The main difficulty was trying to play football with the kids because all they knew of the game was from violent rugby and American football highlights. We opted to throw them passes and run plays instead of letting them loose on each other. It was really enjoyable to feel the difference between the first two groups even though they were only a year apart. Each kid was so unique and had their own little idiosyncrasies and individual ways they decided to take part in the experience. It was always nice to hear their laughter, see their smiles, and watch them play and have fun. It was even better when we got them to work together as a team, cheer each other on, and do celebratory dances when they scored, hit, kicked, or ran. Let me tell you, though, we all feel for those teachers because these kids take a lot out of you and we had a nice break on the third day of the week when we celebrated the holiday for the region of Spain of which Sevilla is the capital. It is called Día de Andalucia. We were invited for a special day on Wednesday to first check out the nearby high school in the morning, and then return to Lora Tamayo in the afternoon to celebrate with the school. The visit to the high school took a lot of us back to our own high school days, and in many ways it didn't feel too much different from my facility and experience. They had a chem lab, a woodshop, computer labs, art room, classrooms, and a gym. They didn't have a typical lunchroom like you would find in the US, instead they had a snack cafe where students could buy lunch and everyone would eat outside at recess just like they did when they were at Lora Tomayo. We felt really special as their guests, and at the Cafe the principal insisted we all have a sandwich or something to drink, on the house. While on the tour we found out that the current gym teacher was a former coach of the Spanish national men's basketball team, so that was a pretty interesting surprise! After being shown around we had time to interact and play with some of the kids at recess. Some of us chatted, and others played soccer and basketball. We found many students who told us to look out for their sibling or cousin back at Lora Tomayo! The second half of the afternoon we got to be a part of the celebrations and festivities at Lora Tomayo. We were all served delicious hot chocolate and bread covered in olive oil and sugar. The hot chocolate was amazing, it was essentially a melted milk chocolate bar and it paired super well with the bread desert. The whole time you could hear Rafael's voice from the loudspeaker happily directing the day's events. After playing around with the kids outside, we all gathered in front of the school to hear a group of students play the anthem of Andalusia on their recorders. They were all so talented and well-rehearsed, and we all felt that sense of togetherness and community while listening to them play. Everyone in the school felt this way. After the ceremony concluded, there was a mad dash by the students to go buy the different hand-made gifts that they had all created as a fundraiser. They had door hangers, tiles with heartwarming quotes, paper flowers, colored sand art, and many other really cute and unique arts and crafts. We all bought some gifts to support the school and have some physical tokens to take along with us after we leave. Overall the first two days and the celebration day made for an incredibly special start to our time with the school. Seeing the genuine excitement in the eyes of these kids when you interact and play sports with them is absolutely priceless. I can't think of a more basic, invaluable way to spend my time than making young kids happy by playing games. I think the first week is just a taste of what's to come.