Jo Green

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August truly is Fiesta season in this corner of Spain.

The first 2 weeks of August is dedicated to Fiestas in our local Town, where our daughter goes to school, and the third week is Fiesta week at my local Village.

I may have explained before how my Finca is located in the campo, part-way between a tiny Village - where we rarely frequent due to lack of parking – and our Town, where we shop, socialise and go to school etc... Hence we feel more a part of the community in the Town than the Village.

And then the next village up the valley – all of 2km away – has it’s Fiesta on the last week of August.

Given that the Valley is home to the Town and 4 small Villages – probably no more than three thousand residents at most – it is not unusual for everybody to basically drift around the Valley for the month going from one fiesta to another.

But before everything gets underway on the 30th of July, the kids and teachers from my daughter’s summer school wanted to hold a little fiesta of their own.

As before, I strongly suspect that there were three reasons behind the act of planning and holding such a Fiesta:

* Something for the kids to focus on and prepare for whilst at school: Dancing, Singing, decorating stuff etc...

* Something for the student teachers themselves to be assessed on – maybe part of their final exam, or something...

* Good old fashioned ‘community sprit’

This ‘pre-Fiesta’ involved a ‘Merienda’ for the kids, Boccadillos, Empanadas and Pizzas etc... Sponsored by various local shops and banks (who must dread this time of year) and each school year was expected to put on a song and dance routine.

I wasn’t expecting great things as she had only been at Summer school for the four weeks – she had been practicing her end of (Proper) school dance, for that fiesta - all of 5 weeks ago, for much longer!

But as with most things in Spain, your attitude and enthusiasm in how you approach such things quite often influences the overall experience.

Fifty or so kids, and their parents, camped around the main town square outside the church, stuffing pizza down their throats like there was no tomorrow and then splashed in the fountain and danced along to what can only, at best be described as ‘Europop’.

It was a nice way to spend a Thursday evening.