CMProbasco

Basque Dancing

here are the kids dancing some traditional Basque Dancing. You would dance this when you are in the presence of a distinguished person. Watch Amaia and Joane - the two girls in front, they are the real thing.....

Fun Stuff and Farewell Dinners :-(

Jon Larrea, Joseba, Chris on the Ferry to Seattle.

Chris helping some of the kids try "Dropping In" to the half pipe for the first time.

The hike with Rick and Lily.
Mireia and Amaia making food for the Farewell Dinner.
The Students pondering how small they should
cut the potatoes for the Tortilla they are making.

Ania posing with all the yummy food... Basque Salad, Bread, tomatoes, tortilla and steak :-)

Olga ready for her family to arrive at the table!

Mikel, Chris and I. Mikel came to Washington state this summer. Mikel's older brother Inigo, came to S.F. 3 years ago. His family is San Sebastian really supports our program Summer in the USA. Eskerrikasko Manolo y Arantxa!

Camp #1 Arrival, Club and Cabins

Getting on the Bus (one of which broke down in the middle of the Oregon Desert...sweet)
The "Basque Corner" in the club Room at Wildhorse Canyon

Skate Ramps at camp. Club room...singing our hearts out!

Around the Dinner table.
Arm wrestle session in the Dude's cabin.

Camp #2 80's NIGHT!!!!!!!!

80's night is a total blast! We start the night by a getting ready in about 20 minutes, then go to dinner with everyone dressed up, followed by an all camp dance! And then........we all jump in the pool with our clothes on! The students pretty much think they have died on gone to heaven on this night :-)
Ugaitz as "the Fonz"(in the Gold).
Chris as "the Disneyland Dad" and I.

After the Pool!

Camp #3 Dress up night, Dance Party and Farewell

Crazy girls! Dance party the last night of camp. Look at all the luggage??!!

Seattle Day!

The Seattle day starts off with a ferry ride over to the "mainland", a walk up to Columbia Tower (the tallest building in Seattle.

Then on to Gameworks, followed by lunch at Pacific Center and ending our day with a monorail ride to Experience Music Project by the Space Needle! So fun!!
Myself, Sunni and Jessica (interns) and Bill Robinson counting students and money as we head over to Seattle on the 7:30 Ferry (too early to be counting money.....or anything for that matter!)

Welcome to the USA part 2

Kids arrive at Seatac airport to a sea of families.

The next day they are here the all attend a "welcome dinner" where they learn fun American games and get a chance at good ol' American Food!

Welcome TO USA

We have resurfaced from the underwater ocean of Summer in the USA!

Okay, we are back to real life!! We apologize again for the delay. I am sure you are beginning to notice that we aren't good at updating the blog when we are really busy. I know it's a lame excuse but it's the truth :-)

Many of you know that Chris and I work for an organization called Summer in the USA/Impact Alliance. "What is that?" you may be asking. Well, it is a language immersion program where high school students come over from the Basque Country for one month to live with American families and learn English. Part of their month here they attend a Young Life camp in eastern Oregon called Wildhorse Canyon for a week. Chris and I have been working as Area Directors this Spring under Bill and Jane Robinson who started the organization. There were 54 students who came to our area, 9 students were in Portland, and 20 were in Fort Wayne, Indiana for a total of 83 students (the most we've ever had). We find host families through local churches, which we call "home bases" and in our area we had 8 different home bases with 5-12 students at each base. Each home base creates a calendar with planned activities such as a welcome dinner, cultural activities, YL camp prep day/night, camp, Farewell Dinner and other various activities. Our real goal has been and is moving to Basque Country in October indefinitely to work as Summer in the USA workers.

To give you an idea of what we do, here are some of our responsibilities included this Spring/Summer: Plan, administer, and train the 8 Interns prior to and while the students were here with a 3 day training session and bi weekly discipleship meetings, Help the coordinators from each home base with trainings for their host families before the students got here/problem solving while students were here, Attend/help with the various home base activities with the students, host one of the Adult Helpers, Jon Larrea at our house, Camp/cabin leaders at Wildhorse (my favorite part :-)), hang out with students going for coffee, shopping, skate boarding, etc., helping the families interact/get to know their student and lots of other things.

Now, that the students have left, Chris and I have been able reflect and think about all of the GREAT conversations we've had with the students, formed legit relationships with some of the students, fun memories at camp, good times with the interns, and connecting with the families. It has been a "really hard at times that it makes you cry, really busy, laughing your head off because you're so tired and a SUPER fun" kind of a month. We were blessed with really rad students.We can't wait to get over to Basque Country to follow up the students from this year. I will post pictures of it all. Thanks for hanging in there with us.

Basque Restaurant and Bakery in Bakersfield

This is a famous Basque restaurant in Bako called "Wool Growers" we went in and spoke with the bartender Jose Mari, who is from Irun in Basque Country. By the end of our conversation he told us to stop in again before we leave and he would give some names of people to contact when we move there! SWEET!

This is the Basque Bakery, "Pyrennes" named after the mountains that border the B.C., it smelled like Heaven when we walked in! The family who owns it is Basque and has been in Bako for a long time now. So rad!