Recent Tutoring Visit to San Luís Potosí...


An article from the Burlington Times-News.

Ever since Ben Ansbacher began serving on the board of directors of the Burlington/Alamance chapter of Sister Cities International last January, he’s been looking at ways to make the program more personable. “I had a model in mind,” Ansbacher said. Ansbacher wanted to move from sending delegations of city officials and send people from the community to Soledad de Graciano Sanchez, Burlington’s sister city in Mexico. He also wanted the future trips to be service-oriented.

After talking with teachers and social workers from this Mexican town located in the north-central part of the country, Ansbacher discovered what people really wanted, and needed, was to learn English. With 184,000 inhabitants, Soledad de Graciano Sanchéz is part of the San Luís Potosí state. Demographic and economic similarities with Burlington led to its selection as Sister City in 2004. Ansbacher started recruiting people among his circle of friends and last month he, his wife, Caroline, and three other couples spent a week helping students from the Universidad Tecnológica de San Luis Potosí polish their English.

The university offers a two-year program and is designed to produce senior technicians. The local team of volunteers met with four different groups every day and worked with students in a variety of ways, from teaching them the basics of English grammar to having discussions about movies and world events.

As part of the school activities, participants were able to taste samples of local dishes while students tried to explain the recipes in English. They also visited some of the architectural attractions of the region.

Lyn Sutton, one of the eight people who went on the trip, said she was amazed at the students’ positive outlook. “They have such great attitudes toward life and learning,” Sutton said. She added that though they may not have the latest equipment, students were always eager to make the best with what they had.

But Ansbacher and his friends were not the only residents from Alamance County walking down the streets of San Luis Potosi in April. A group of nine people, including three Burlington police officers, two Burlington firefighters, two 9-1-1 operators and two people who work with the Weed and Seed project, attended classes at the Universidad Tecnológica de Monterrey for four weeks. The full language-immersion trip was designed to give participants a better understanding of the language and the culture, said Patricia Reyes-Farmer, who works with the Weed and Seed program. As opposed to the trip Ansbacher went on, in which each participant paid his or her own expenses, Reyes-Farmer said their trip was financed by a federal grant and by money the Burlington Police Department received from their participation in drug busts. Before the trip, participants received 100 hours of Spanish classes at Alamance Community College. Once in San Luis Potosi, they received four hours of Spanish classes every day. The group also stayed with local families and participated in an array of cultural activities.

Burlington Fire Capt. Matt Lawrence said the trip not only helped him with his Spanish skills but also gave him a better understanding of the culture, something he feels is going to make it easier to relate with people in the community. Before the trip, “I had some reservations about going,” Lawrence said. That all changed after the first day there, when he realized how hospitable people were. “My whole regard for Mexico has changed tremendously,” he said. “It was an absolutely wonderful experience.”

Though the trip was not a Sister Cities project, Reyes-Farmer said the police department and ACC chose San Luis Potosi in support of the program.

She said that in the near future, ACC will be receiving professors from the Universidad Tecnológica de Monterrey in San Luis Potosi.

“They have learned many things,” she said. And though they are going to need more than 100 hours of Spanish and a month in Mexico to master the language, Reyes-Farmer said it has been a good starting point. She said the experience has given them a special sensibility towards immigrants in the county. “They now know how it feels to be away from home,” she added.

Understanding other cultures and having mutual respect for one another is what Sister Cities is all about, Ansbacher said. “Sister Cities is about interchange of people,” he added. He said he hopes to have two trips to the San Luis Potosi area each year, one in the fall and one in the spring. The next trip is scheduled for October or November. He added that they are working to have a group of Alamance County high school students visit the area as well. He said anybody from the community is welcome to go on the service trips. Knowing how to speak Spanish is not a requirement, but an interest in the culture and a desire to learn is a must.

For more information about this and other Sister Cities events, call Ansbacher at 226-8124.



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