Our villa
Eating and meeting area
Jan and group activity
Hotel Abadía de los Templarios,
which is a four-star modern
rural complex. Participants at La
Alberca can enjoy the convenience
of two-bedroom chalets...
circled around the main dining
and meeting room, and a pool
available in the summer months.”
Over the following week, they
proved that Diverbo (once known
as Pueblo Angles) has refi ned
every aspect of the schedule.
Every minute of every day ran
more smoothly than the best-ever
PD Day. The entire cadre fi rst met
in the bar–restaurant adjacent
to our accommodations, were
welcomed, and told what to expect.
All meals were at tables of
four: two Anglos, two Spanish.
Couples, like Janet and I, were
encouraged to dine together
only once a day. On the honour
system, we seated ourselves with
diff erent people at each meal.
Janet and I were assigned a
hillside villa that we shared with
the eff ervescent Francisco.
And we talked. And they talked.
We all talked and talked. We
were given conversation starters,
idioms to explain, scenarios to
enact, activities to get us off our
duff s... all of great variety to make
the time fl y. An experience like
that might not be for everyone,
but it was great for us.
We loved it so much that
several years later we successfully
applied to a sister program in
Germany: Englischhausen. It was
a day shorter, set in a country inn
about an hour from Frankfurt,
and was equally enjoyable.
Since those two adventures
we have heard of other similar
programs. One called Angloville
was recommended by a friend
of a friend but apparently has
a diff erent time frame. Their
website states, “Typically, a
volunteer spends with us from
four to eight weeks, combining
various three to eleven-day
programs into a longer package.
We recommend taking a
one-week break after each two
to three programs to explore
the local regions and do some
travelling.” Over thirty-fi ve
sites are spread across Poland,
Hungary, the Czech Republic,
and Romania — with another
in Malta.
Worth investigating? I
think so! ●
news&views AUTUMN 2018 | 41