If you have a passion, you do it. And if it’s something you can share, you share it. And in so doing, you make life fun.
Today I was lucky enough to be a recipient of Vanessa and Lucia’s (of the Latin American Spanish School in San Juan del Sur) passion for teaching and sharing both their culture and their joy. As well as Summer Shacklette’s joy in bringing her friends together.
We learned to dance Merengue (“you have to move the body sexy”), to make Pico de Gallo (you use LOTS of lime juice), Guacamole (in the Nica version you leave out the tomatoes) and tostones with fried cheese (you need a flat-bottomed glass to flatten the partially cooked tostones and you sprinkle them with vinegar before you finish frying them).
And Summer (a volunteer Art Teacher at The San Juan Day School) taught them how to make Sangria and Deviled Eggs.
There was no cost; it was not an official event. But rather, it grew out of the dancing and cooking lessons that Vanessa and Lucia are used to giving to their Spanish language students – to the ones that do their home stay program, or DID their home stay program before the travelers disappeared.
Vanessa, who’s had her school for 14 years, thought she was going to have to shut her doors and search for work in Costa Rica until Summer, her last remaining student, talked her out of it and pushed her to advertise more instead.
Vanessa’s been worried sick over the seven families that are dependent on the business (five are family members and two are close friends; all seven are gals), but bit by bit the students are returning.
And until they’re back in full force, I got to be the lucky recipient of teachers who, whether they’re getting paid or not, have a passion so deep and love teaching so much that they just have to teach…and dance and cook and have fun.
Want to learn Spanish (or dancing or cooking?)? Their school is on the corner of the Church square, across from the Chocolate Museum, upstairs.
Or check them out at:
www.lassnicaragua.com
