16 de junio de 2005
Queridos padres,
Saludos de El Lago del Bosque, Marine on St. Croix “Wilder”. Me llamo Kika y soy la directora del programa en el cual participa su hijo/a. This is my 6th summer as dean of El Lago del Bosque. I was dean of the first-half program at Oak Hills, just South of Bemidji, for four years before coming here to Wilder Forest last summer. We are thrilled to be back at Wilder this summer! It is truly a beautiful site and it is well-suited to our program. The villagers and staff have already made it home.
Each year, my first goal as dean is to hire an outstanding staff.
I hope to have a balance of returning and new staff members who come from all over the Spanish-speaking
world. This year the staff is even more phenomenal than I anticipated when I read their applications and
interviewed them! Each one brings enthusiasm, energy, experience, ideas, a love for children, and
an impressive variety of skills, talents, and interests to the team. I am assisted by a very
talented group of people in the office who help to ensure that everything goes smoothly. The counselors
come from five different Spanish-speaking countries this year – Argentina, España, los Estados Unidos,
México y Perú. Not only are the counselors bilingual, but so are most of the kitchen and health
care staff. That adds so much to your child’s immersion experience. It is truly a pleasure
and a privilege for me to work with such a talented group of people who have a heart for youth and who
are committed to making your child’s El Lago del Bosque experience wonderful.
At El Lago del Bosque we learn lots of language and lots of culture and have fun doing it. We also examine ourselves and our place in the world. We are excited to learn, reach, grow, and reflect with your young people over the course of these two weeks as we strive to achieve the mission of Concordia Language Villages: “to prepare young people for responsible citizenship in our global community” as they learn about the Spanish language and the cultures of the Spanish-speaking world. This summer’s theme is “Creating Cultures of Peace” and we are working with your children to recognize what we each bring to the culture of El Lago del Bosque and how we can take the idea of peace home to our communities when camp is over.
You can see that your child is involved in learning español
throughout the day in a variety of ways. Las comidas (meals) are a highlight of the
day. Our kitchen staff is spoiling us with delicious, culturally authentic food from all over the
Spanish-speaking world. We learn a lot of Spanish as we eat with our casa and our
familias. Aldeanos participate in a variety of encuentros led by different
consejeros. The goal of each encuentro is to learn Spanish, though the means for
achieving that goal are different. The encuentros are either lingüísticos, culturales,
deportivos,or encuentros por casa. Some of the encuentros include sports such
as disco volador, fútbol, or canoas, while others are more cultural, such as música,
baile, and arte. The three themes that we are working with during this session are:
Yo(Myself)
Tiempo Libre(Free Time)
Medio Ambiente (Environment)
These themes will be evident throughout the day in encuentros, canto, and portafolios, as well as in the evening. In the evening, aldeanos gather before la cena to watch the telenovela (soap opera), Pepa la Fea! We will see and hear more about our session themes as we learn about each character, about their free time activities, and how they interact with their environment. La telenovela is a great way to bring the village curriculum to life for the aldeanos.
Every night after la cena, aldeanos have the opportunity to participate
in cultural and village-wide programas de noche. This is a time for the entire village to
gather and play and learn. Some of this session’s activities include songs and dances, a Mexican
feria, team work sessions, cultural simulations, games, restaurante and banquete.
This is a brief glance at what we are doing every day and every evening in El Lago del Bosque. Thank you for sharing your child with us for these two weeks! Gracias for your support of Concordia Language Villages and of El Lago del Bosque
Sinceramente,
Kerisa “Kika” Baedke, Dean
El Lago del Bosque– Marine on St. Croix