Fayón

Straight after camp we headed further inland, to a small village on the Aragonese border called Fayón, where Sam's granny lives. Despite its population of less than 500 people, Fayón is quite a well known village because of it's history. It was an important town in the Battle of the Ebro during the Spanish Civil war about 75 years ago, but also because the village was flooded.

The village was built on the banks of the Ebro river, but had to be flooded few decades ago as a water company wanted to remove a damn from further up the river. One evening we headed up to a small church on a hill from which you could see the old church steeple peeking out of the Ebro river; the rest of the old village remains submerged.

We spent the week in the new Fayon: beautiful little white houses with terracota rooves. One day Sam and I found a pear tree hanging out of one of the houses walls, and we found almond trees, olive trees and grape vines along the streets too. On the night we arrived there was a huge party in the Plaza Mayor, bunting with the Aragonese flag hung over the long tables which filled the square and hosted the whole village as they enjoyed their summer parties. Bread, chicken, salad, wine and food was enjoyed and shared before a prize giving with Spanish ham and local wine given to people who had one the raffle and various other competitions over the last few days. Little children dancing, adults chattering away enjoying the oasis of cool air in the midst of the humidity now that the sun had set. The following night we went to see jotas, the typical Aragonese dance.

Berea

7.25 - Alarm

7.30 - Coffee and Biscuits

7.45 - Morning meeting/devotional

8.15 - Wake up the kids.....

A challenging, fun and rewarding week in the beautiful catalan countryside. I'm not especially used to getting up this early in the summer, but each day I got up and attended the devotional, which was a great way to start the day! I was the 'monitora' of three girls aged 15-17, and Sam was in charge of the eight boys in the same age group, so after our meeting we went to wake up the teenagers. 

During the week we had time to play, use the swimming pool, sing and learn about Jesus with studies expanding on the theme of the week was 'Obedience'. To introduce the daily topic, each morning we had a meeting in a marquee outside, with a side theme of 'how it's made'. Hosted by three 'professional' experimenters, the children got to watch experiments such as how to squeeze a hard-boiled egg into a water bottle. One of the hosts was English, so I was asked to translate up front...

One of the things I'll remember the most was the Sunday, the last day. The parents of all the children were invited to spend the day with us, and the team organised a morning meeting, with songs performed by the different groups and a small talk. I was asked if I'd talk for 5 minutes and share my testimony.

I shared that I've always gone to Church and that I always thought I lead a 'good' life. However, in the Bible it says that no one is good enough. God is perfect, and we are sinners (whether we have told a simple lie or murdered somebody...)

Perhaps you know that in Spanish there are two verbs which mean 'to be', and depending on which one you use with certain adjectives, you can change the meaning of what you say. In front of the 100 or so people, instead of saying that I thought I was good (era buena), I said that I was sexy/hot (estaba buena). Thankfully, I quickly realised my mistake, corrected myself and the audience laughed along with me...

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven." - Jesus

(Matthew 21:7)

Camp: Vilafranca

This photo was taken from the motorway, with me sitting on the railings of the slip-road, taking a pause from playing the guitar with Anna and Sam in their reflective jackets as we waited for a pick up van.

Anna had collected us from Barcelona to take us to the mountains, the petrol was running low and we had been on the look out for petrol stations, with no luck. Sam prayed that God would help is out, it it was His will and as we said 'Amen', the car started to slow down.

Did God want us to break down? 

Was it worth even praying?

I believe it was worth praying, and I also believe there is a reason for everything. Whether it was because there was an accident we missed or because we had to talk to the friends we made in a petrol station further on I don't know, but I believe God replied in assuring that we stopped on a part of the motorway with a sliproad and providing us with a beautiful sunset to enjoy while waiting for the insurance company.

Today, setting up for camp. It's hot, but there's a bit of refreshing wind and nice views! We've put signs up, hung up a timetable, set up the dining room, assigned bedrooms among other things. After the siesta we'll get on with the last few things to set up this evening and then all that's left it waiting for the children to arrive tomorrow! 

Countdown

Yesterday I finally got round to booking my flights, and in three weeks I will be home. The flat contract ends at the end of this month, so I've packed almost everything up into bags and am preparing myself for the next few weeks out of the city. On Saturday I leave the flat for the mountains where Sam and I will be monitores (kid's workers) at a summer camp southwest of Barcelona. The following week we'll head to a small village on Catalonia's border with Aragon to relax and to be with all his family.

It's a strange feeling packing up everything after spending a long time in a place. I feel like Barcelona's become my home, and there's so much I'm going to miss: the weekly, or maybe even daily, debates and speculations about the independence of this small country/region* that has hosted me for my year abroad, cycling everywhere, the beaches, the people, my church, uni, teaching english, the languages.. The man in the fruitshop who now lets me cycle into his shop and park my bike among the fruit before choosing what I want that day, and the lady in the swimming pool who gets annoyed with me because I never have change for the lockers.

*delete according to political views

I'm going to miss the Catalans too. This morning I cancelled my bank account with La Caixa (pronounced /la casha/). Talking in Spanish on the bus yesterday with Sam, I mentioned the name of the catalan bank and what I was going to have to do. The man in front of us turned around, grinned and asked Sam where I was from. He congratulated me on my knowledge of Catalan (i.e. that I could correctly pronounce the name of my bank) before turning back round. Without realising, Sam and I switched language and continued our conversation in Catalan. Five minutes later the man turned round again, slightly embarrassed and says to Sam: 'oh.. she actually does speak Catalan'.

Swimming

Today was my last day at my swimming pool. This month has been slightly strange compared to normal because of the World Swimming Championships that are currently taking place here in Barcelona. My swimming pool's one of the official training pools for the event which means the opening times have changed to allow the athletes to practice. So over the last few weeks half of the pool has been taken up with world class synchronised swimmers practising before heading out to the competitions which has made the odd break between lengths a lot more fun than usual. On Monday I swam with the belarus team, then watched a soloist syncrho swimmer, met some of the Italian team in the changing rooms and met a volunteer of the Japanese team smoking outside as I left.

The posters and leaflets all around town made me look up the event online and I found some tickets for the individual synchronised swimming finals. The events are taking place in various points of the city.. we went to Palau Sant Jordi, which is in the Olimpic Park on Montjuic which was built for the olympic games in 1992. I'd been to the olimpic park before on walks and was used to a quiet, empty space with good views towards the airport... This was different though. On the outside escalators that take you up the mountain there was already an atmosphere building up; at the top stalls selling food, lots of people, children playing football, booths with shops and things to do, restaurants, a small bridge over the water display.. and lots of advertising for the event!

The swimmers were amazing!! The Catalan girl, who of course had the most applause during the event, came 3rd and after all 11 swimmers we got to see the medal ceremony. The medals were presented by a lady who I guess was famous. Unfortunately we didn't hear her name because the boo-ing and whistling began before the loudspeakers could tell us... I therefore guess she was something to do with Spanish politics.

Lloret de Mar

(For Granny - an update of what I've been up to in Spain :))

It's summer so naturally the weather here in Spain is unbearably hot (quite like England, I imagine).

In order to gain temporary relief from the heat, yesterday Sam and I headed up north to the Costa Brava, to Lloret de Mar in search of refreshment.

We found the beach quickly after arrival and you could tell it was popular with tourists because in shops the people talked to us in English. There were boats to hire, deck chairs and umbrellas and lots of languages on the beach. We went swimming to cool off after just under 2 hours of public transport to get there, and then went up around the cliffs to have a look at the castle and the coves further around.

The colour of the water was beautiful and there were lots of places you could go swimming. In the next cove around from the main beach there was a massive rock in the water and some teenagers had swum out to it, climbed up and were daring each other to jump, waiting to see who'd be brave and go first. Away from the main beach it was less touristy and you could hear the birds making a racket in the trees, and every now and then see the tourist boats sail past as they do a quick tour of the coast.

Having eaten lunch on a cliff looking over a cove, we spent the afternoon in the town and looking in some of the shops and cooling ourselves down with some ice cream before heading back down the coast to the city..

Montseny: Hiking

Last Saturday Sam's parents took us to Montseny, a nature reserve/small set of mountains about 60 kilometres from Barcelona. Driving around the windy roads as we made our way further and further up, we met cyclists going up and down, and got to enjoy the beautiful views of the surrounding towns and countryside. When we arrived in the little town of Santa Fe de Montseny it was amazing seeing the difference in temperature and climate on the mountain compared to the big cities, and all the greenery which reminded me of home!

After lunch we went for a walk. Every now and then there was a bang of thunder or a flash of lightning in the sky, but as there was no rain we continued our hiking around the woods and around the lake... There were lots of mosquitos and cockroaches which we had fun avoiding, and the shade from the trees seemed almost heavenly after weeks of summer, sun and no air conditioning in Barcelona.

We got back to the car and went for a coffee on the outside terrace of a small restaurant and about half an hour later the skies opened and we were forced to enter the bar to take cover as we watched the hail fill up the car park and bounce of the road.