The other day, a good friend had posted her status on Facebook as: Looking to do a Costa Rican yoga retreat… Any recommendations?

What a brilliant idea. But wait. What if I’m not Facebook Savvy?

Why not Ask GoMad NoMad?

If you “don’t do” Facebook or Twitter, that’s why I’m here. You write me (Stephen) an email here at GoMad Nomad with your question and I do my best to answer it in this column: Ask GoMad Nomad. Email: gomadnomadtravelmag [at] gmail [dot] com

I’ve been traveling regularly and living abroad for much of the last ten years. In addition to that I’ve worked and volunteered abroad, so I have lots of ideas and knowledge at my fingertips.

While I have a lot of general knowledge of these aspects independent travel, I tend to reach out to others in my network to answer specialized questions.

By posting on Facebook, my friend did something very important. She harnessed the power of Social Media to get information about travel. These social media networks like Facebook and Twitter were not around 10 years ago and now we travelers have a whole new avenue of getting travel tips and information.

Facebook

Kristen did the right thing by posting on Facebook. Some of her friends posted their suggestion for her. I saw her status and mentioned that I would look into it for her. In turn, here’s what I did:

Use your network

In my nomadic lifestyle I tend to meet a diverse group of people that live all over the world. So I wrote an email to my old yoga instructor (who also just happens to be a very experienced traveler and writer at GoMad Nomad). And although she didn’t have any personal experience, her friend and teacher who does retreats in Guatemala highly recommended this one: Birmingham Yoga

Twitter

Twitter is about communication, albeit very brief communication. In 140 characters or less you need to get your point across or pose your question. Here’s a tip if you don’t have many followers: use hash tags (#). Here’s an example tweet I might use to in this situation: Looking to do a #CostaRica #yoga retreat. Any recommendations?

By using hash tags, anyone following the #CostaRica or #yoga tag has a better chance of catching your tweet.

Google

Additionally I did a Google search and also sought out my favorite independent travel magazines like the Matador Network and Transitions Abroad. These are both online publications that I trust, and know their recommendations would fit my friend’s personality. This led me to find: 20 Warm Weather Yoga Retreats around the World. I passed all this information to my friend. I hope soon she’ll be happily practicing yoga in Costa Rica, or some nearby country, and lets us know how it turned out.

By Avery Sumner

I was never really interested in France or French, preferring to study a less bourgeois language like Spanish in school. Not that my language prejudice mattered, because like most Americans I never mastered a second language at all. Sure, I later got by hitchhiking in Cuba with my rudimentary Spanish, but I didn’t speak the language.

And then I married a guy from France. Not able to muster even a bonjour when we met, I knew almost nothing about his native land. The first thing I learned from the French class of our relationship was that regular people speak French too. It’s not a land full of intellectual, castle dwellers contemplating life under chandeliers as I’d snobbishly expected. Learning French in France turned out to be more interesting than any Spanish speaking situation I’d conjured up in my youth. The trouble is, learning any language is a sweaty, humbling endeavor. Which leads to my first piece of advice regarding learning French: start working on it now.

I thought being married to a native speaker meant I’d have an advantage. I was let down to discover you don’t learn French by speaking English to someone with a French accent. So I signed up for a French class at a community college with a professor who seemed to think learning verb conjugation for more tenses than time can possibly exist was the way to go. And so I decided I’d have to wait to learn French. Total immersion would be better for me. I don’t know why I believed living in France would cure my monolingual status. All I had to do was look around at the immigrant communities in my own country to know that a native language doesn’t just fall upon those residing in the land where it’s spoken.

But still, I thought, I’ll pick it up when I get there. I won’t bore you with the depressing story of my first year in France without a tongue. I’ll just tell you it was a dangerously low point in my life, completely self-inflicted. You simply can’t practice speaking with real, live French people when you don’t know any French to practice.

Becoming acclimated and motivated are the two benefits of immersion learning. I just wish I’d activated the motivation prior to moving to France. Instead of interacting with the people I’d crossed an ocean to talk to, I found myself spending a lot of time with my nose in a book, memorizing  je suis, tu es, il est, vous etes, nous sommes and ils sont. I could have done that anywhere, having a French backdrop didn’t aid at all really.

Village learning

I lived in a small village in Normandie where Anglophones are rare and cause for suspicion. I also had a zero budget for language studies. I planned on learning French from everyday people with self-study at home. My situation made things both harder and easier, almost always painful. I didn’t have the support of a school or class of foreigners nor did I have a community where English was at least a little bit understood. This forced me to practice any pathetic French I could produce. In comes the pain. Sometimes I just had to walk away mid-sentence from someone I otherwise would have liked to get to know. Read on if you’re interested in seeing how my approach turned out.

Keeping in check with my budget, I decided to find a way to trade for language lessons. I posted my request at bulletin boards in grocery stores, at our local library and other places where I thought I might find someone with similar interests. In my case, I left my announcement at our tiny natural food store where the proprietor ended up becoming my pseudo-agent. My notice read something like Je cherche un echange conversational Anglais/Francais. Je suis Americaine. Je suis prof de yoga, puis je propose un echange yoga/Francais aussi. Let it be known that I was not posting this notice next to other similar ads. My request for a conversation exchange was the only of it’s kind.

I also did a google search for petites annonces, the French term for classifieds and stumbled on www.vivastreet.fr. This is where my first conversation exchange was born. (Let me note here that there were only two other responses from this site: another American wondering if I’d had any luck with my ad and a young man who seemed a little too eager to come to my apartment.) The one good reply introduced me to a French woman who had lived in Boston for several years with her American husband and father to their two children. Of course I learned all this when she spoke in English, because my ability to understand or say anything in French beyond “I am American. I have brown hair.” was non-existent.

I quickly realized I needed more than conversation. So my natural food store agent gave my number to a young Latin and French teacher at the public school in town. I paid Armelle 30 euros for an hour-and-a-half of instruction on French grammar in French. But it was contact with someone outside of my apartment and that was worth the 30 euros. I think Armelle felt sorry for me because she invited me jogging with a friend of hers, and she took me to see the historic sites of the nearest big town. I’d already been there on my own but I feigned ignorance just to have the opportunity for company. I practiced more French on these free excursions than I did during our lessons.

Get a job

Armelle was great but she was expensive for an unemployed immigrant. No one else responded to the numerous ads I’d put up so I decided to try finding a job. Perhaps working would get me talking. I worked on my resume every day for a week, then took it to places in town I thought might need an English speaking guide or clerk.

I also took it to places I doubted needed my help but that I wanted an excuse to visit. In essence, I used my resume as a sort of letter of introduction, a way to explain my plight without having to talk. In that way I met the women at a horse stable. I did the math and realized I could pay for an hour of horseback riding with interesting women talking all around me or I could sit and study grammar with Armelle. I started working on ways to let her down easily in French.

At this point in my French sojourn I’d fostered a few acquaintances, but I was still really isolated. My job search proved fruitless in the way of a job. Most of my contact with others was at the market or in shops where exchanges were limited.  My husband was working full time and being French, didn’t really know how to reach out. He nicely hinted that perhaps my requests for conversation and my boldness in inviting near strangers over for a drink made local townspeople uneasy. I remember asking: “If you can’t talk to people you don’t know, how do you get to know people?” He still can’t give me an answer. His joke is that in France (at least the region where he comes from) you have to go to the same cafe every day for six months before the staff will acknowledge that they’ve seen you before. For someone living on the cheap, going out for coffee every day to sit alone with not even the promise of a French greeting just wasn’t an option.

Get creative: Assimil at the library

In the larger library of a neighboring town I found my preferred language program, Assimil, a huge selection of French movies (classic and current), dual language books in English and French, as well as lots of books on tape. If your library is too small, do check out the nearest city library. Be prepared to pay for your l’inscription, as libraries are one of the few things in France that aren’t free.

At my smaller local library I made use of the children’s section. I checked out children’s non-fiction books on subjects that interested me, as well as stories that were recorded. My favorite was called Au Revoir Blaireau and came with a CD of a woman reading the touching tale of an old badger coming to the end of his life. When the librarian noticed my books of choice she invited me to the children’s story hour where I sat amongst elementary school children listening to a rather talented woman tell stories about scary witches. It was humbling to realize that even the littlest amongst us were more advanced than I.

Get a hobby

Studying alone in my apartment with few outside distractions prompted me to find some more active hobbies in the area. The tourist office provided me with maps that showed day hikes or circuits traipsing all over the countryside. This was a perfect way to practice what I’d learned. My ability to get home by sundown depended on my understanding of written directions. My first day out was so satisfying that I’ve thought seriously about leading language tours that employ similar situations.

I had to study and figure, but I never spent time memorizing vocabulary. I learned it naturally and can still easily recall all the different verbs French uses to convey “turn left or right.” And there are many ways, as I learned that day. You can veer, you can follow, you can take, you can direct and you can do all of these things just before or after the little wooded area, field, meadow, pasture, bog, pond, lake, stream, creek, gate, fence, statue, enclosure, you name it.  Sometimes I would make inferences and then be facing a solid stone wall commenting on my glaring error. Me and the wall, no one else around to scorn or laugh at my mistakes. Save the sheep and horses whom I talked with in French. We discussed the trees I identified using my children’s book on les arbres.

Do something you already know

Another active approach I took was enrolling in a weekly yoga class. Being a trained yoga instructor, I could guess what the teacher was asking in French. Though yoga is a natural way to loosen up and pull out of the ego that keeps you nervous and stuttering, studying anything you already know, in French, might provide a similar experience.

In most French towns, big or small, there are numerous ways to participate in a group activity, cheaply if not free. The first place to go is la mairie, or city hall. They’ll tell you about all of les associations sportives. The options are wide-ranging. Our town had soccer, basketball, hiking, karate, swimming and much more. La Maison de la Jeunesse et de la Culture is also a place to look for ongoing activities. Our MJC offered things like painting, music, aerobics, yoga and family-oriented services like after school study hall and something I learned much later…French lessons for citizens who aren’t fluent.

And then there’s the Accueil des Villes Francaises which is a club whose mission is to welcome newcomers and educate them about the town’s services and attributes. I joined our AVF because they did a 15 km hike every other week and I thought it would be a great way to continue my kinesthetic language studies. It was interesting and enlightening but I still wonder if maybe I learned some old-fashioned expressions from my time with these senior citizens.

Six months into my rigorous self-study and community-member-want-to-be-act, I sulked over the fact that I was not yet fluent. I was frustrated and losing confidence more than gaining it. And then I got my first Carte de Sejour (similar to our green card) appointment. Having gone through the process with my husband in the US I wasn’t looking forward to this ordeal. To my surprise I was not given the run down on obligations at this appointment, rather I walked away with a binder full of resources, in it a list of government organizations devoted to seeing all foreigners fluent in French, most of them free.

Government organization for learning French

At first I couldn’t believe it. I mean, why would all of those expensive language schools exist if anyone could take classes for free in every department in France? I still don’t fully know the answer, but I do know one deterrent to these free lessons is the hassle. You do have to deal with the infamous French bureaucracy to sign up. It’s not easy to get clear answers on where and with whom one should talk. You’ll often get transferred to another person or office, or if in person, get a look like what you’re asking for doesn’t and never will exist. Get used to heavy exhaustive sighs. The reward is free French classes in France.

Not every organization is the same and I’m sure they all vary in each department. I tried several groups in my department and found the Groupement d’Etablissements pour la formation continue (GRETA) to suit me best. I’m not sure it was the organization so much as the luck of the particular teacher they had under contract. Her name was Nadia and she came from Russia, having studied French and linguistics. She married a Frenchman and knew all about feeling lost in a different culture. She was loud and animated, all that the French people I’d observed were not. I loved her, though I often came home with a headache after class.

We met Monday through Friday for three hours each morning. I was the only English speaker in the class, others coming from Tunisia, Algeria, Angola and Morocco. Though not the France I’d envisioned, this was France too, a side I felt lucky to witness so intimately. My husband will attest to the fact that my language ability increased by bounds during this course. I didn’t feel I was learning more than I could have with my library books and CD’s, but I did feel like I had somewhere important to be, and I felt surrounded by others with similar needs. I believe it was the support of that group that made the difference.

Immersion…but not total immersion

Immersion is surely the best way to learn a language, but total immersion can be isolating and even crippling. I was determined not to seek out and rely on English speakers in my region, not wanting to give up my sense of adventure. I wanted to be independent, thus have a richer and fuller experience. Instead, I lost my confidence, and began to feel insurmountably stupid. Just one encounter with someone in similar circumstances would have reminded me that I wasn’t stupid, just mal-equipped.  My classes with Nadia showed me that. My confidence returned as did the independence I was trying so hard to maintain.

I was coming up to the one full year in France mark when in one week I received three responses to my ad posted at the natural food store. Martine, the store proprietor, had been talking about me all winter. Turns out people like to cocooner until spring in Normandie. The first sign of a returning sun and my phone began to ring off the hook. It was all good timing because now I actually had something to say in French. My new contacts had similar interests as me and so my network expanded exponentially. I had leads for volunteer posts, jobs and activities that only a month before I’d felt excluded from. And so my last and perhaps most important bit of advice is this: have patience.

More Info:

Organizations to find free classes are:

Groupement d’Etablissements pour la formation continue (GRETA)

Institut Inter Regional d”Education Permanent (INIREP)

Femmes d’Ici et D’ailleurs

Service Informatique recrutement, formation (SEIRF)

Association Nationale pour la Formation Professionnelle des Adultes (AFPA)

If all else fails, go to the prefecture in your region and ask for a list of all organizations that offer formation or cours de langue. Also try your Agence Nationale de l’Accueil des Etrangers et des Migrations (ANAEM) for a list. Or you can register with Agence Nationale pour l’Emploi (ANPE) which is the national employment agency. They’ll help you find job skill classes, language courses included. Also go to the public school in districts with a large immigrant population. Sometimes principals will organize classes for foreign-speaking parents and they’re always happy to have regular attendees as it helps keep the programs funded.

Again, be prepared for confused looks at all of these offices. Be persistent and have patience. In time, you’ll find a course and a prof that meet your needs.

Other possibilities

Though I encourage serious language learners to stay put in one community to develop relationships and continuity rather than constant travel where conversation never goes beyond how much do I owe you and when do I have to check out, extended stay trips are a nice way to practice and learn with others. I stayed for one month on a farm in Brittany as a volunteer through WWOOF and had the opportunity to work in the farm’s cafe as a clerk. Talk about a crash course! I also stayed at a yoga retreat called Centre de Yoga de l’Aube where meals and rooms are cheap in lieu of karma/action yoga. You have daily duties assigned to you during your stay. It’s a beautiful, clean and inspiring place, a safe environment to practice your French. But if you’re not serious or interested in yoga, perhaps this is not the best choice. Other similar situations are the Sivananda centers in Orleans and Viveka Yoga Retreats in the Pyrenees. Viveka accepts WWOOF volunteers during certain months.

My favorite lesson books

Assimil New French with Ease, book and CD’s—an immersion approach that encourages short daily lessons

Usborne Easy French, Fast Track French for Beginners—a small, pack-able book with short easy lessons introducing the basics including helpful internet links where you can practice what you’ve learned

French Made Simple by Eugene Jackson and Antonio Rubio– a good introduction to the basics with written and oral exercises and a superb pronunciation guide in the first two chapters with diagrams showing where certain weird French sounds come from in your mouth

Suggested minimum basics–

·                   Present tense forms of to have and to be

·                   Basic pronunciation, this takes time so practice now

·                   Numbers, hard to purchase without them

·                   Basic polite phrases like hello, goodbye, please, thank you, you’re welcome

·                   Alphabet, makes it easy to spell out your foreign name for bureaucrats

·                   Directional words like left, right, straight…where’s the bathroom

·                   As much vocabulary as possible, start by labeling all the contents of your house in French

Related Material:

The Story of French by Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow– An interesting book on French, why it is the way it is, why it has the reputation it does and how it has influenced its speakers and the world

Living France a British magazine devoted to Brits who own property in France. A great resource to help English speakers assimilate in France. Offers advice on buying property, but also settling in France and all that’s involved from learning French to finding the right school for your children. Each month there’s a section on lingo where they give all the words one might need to get a task accomplished like going to the hardware store or perhaps visiting a doctor’s office.

Me Talk Pretty One Day By David Sedaris– A collection of essays that humorously discuss the author’s experiences learning French while living in France. An essential read one should visit regularly, like an English-speaking psychologist.

As a child, Avery Sumner spent many solitary hours in the stillness of nature and credits these early experiences for directing her to the life she currently leads as a writer and yoga instructor. Avery presently lives in the mountains of North Georgia, having moved there from Normandy, France where she lived with her French husband Alain. When she travels she looks for the natural and simple.

buses in Nicaragua

The border crossing at Peñas Blancas is the typical chaos: money changes with huge wads of cordobas, dollars, and colones, a mother and son beggar team, long lines of tired Nicaraguan laborers, and a nun asking for offerings.  Before and after the 200-meter Noman’s Land one tractor trailer after another is lined up, most with goods, some overfilled with scrap metal. The authorities of both countries, with aid from the U.S. are trying to make this a transportation bottleneck to keep drugs coming up from South America. A young Nicaraguan going home leads us through the confusing Costa Rican out-line and on to the Nicaraguan in-line and finally out through the last gate into the even more chaotic mercado/bus station area.

Immediately swarmed by eager taxi drivers, my instincts keep me walking through to the only bus waiting. Bound for Rivas in fifteen minutes we sit patiently inside to the blaring Nica music. We are sitting on an American school bus. Still painted yellow, it’s been modified with a roof rack, a high exhaust pipe, and interior luggage racks. This is the way nearly all Nicaraguans get around their country; by sitting on the buses that we rode to school twenty years ago.

San Juan del Sur is a lively beach town with plenty of foreigners and Nicaraguans on holiday, lots of beachside bars, and a beautiful crescent-shaped harbor and beach. The sweet surf breaks keep young Australians, Americans, and Canadians here for weeks at a time. Cheap hotels are seven bucks per night and fantastic beaches line the coast north and south of town.

We’ve come here to study Spanish. We were hoping the surf wouldn´t be too much of a distraction. And it hasn´t been. There are at least four schools that offer week-long classes and full room and board packages. We opted for Rosa Silva´s Spanish School and have had no problem showing up at 8am the past five mornings for our four-hour lesson. My teacher Oscar and I have been reviewing basic Spanish grammar and practicing basic conversation as well. Rosa put us up at her friend Margarita´s place. Either Margarita, her daughter, or her son-in-law cook us three meals a day downstairs in their cafe. Full week-long tuition, room and board is $180.

What do we do with the rest of our day? On Saturday I tried surfing for the first time. The Lopez brothers from Arena Caliente Surf Shop drove about 10 of us in their packed van five miles down to Remanso Beach. With surf board piles high on top we bounced our way on the winding dirt road. Their buddy Shaggy, a real Nicaraguan surfer dude, gave me an hour-long surf lesson. On the beach he taught me jump to my feet and then 15 minutes later I was catching waves and standing on my own.

Besides surfing, there are evening trips to La Flor Beach Wildlife Refuge to see sea turtles laying their eggs in the sand, a zip-line canopy tour just outside town, and plenty of beach bars in San Juan del Sur with ice cold Toña and Victoria beers for $1.25. Most nights we watch the sunset from chairs in the sand at The Pier bar while enjoying a cold one.

And there’s always reviewing the days Spanish notes and doing homework to prepare for the next morning’s lesson.

Stephen Bugno,  03 Dec 2009

Read the article: Volunteer in a Himalayan Village

click photo for a Nepal and VEC slide show

By Beau Miller

Volunteering in the Himalayas has never been more accessible, affordable, or important.

“As dew is dried by the morning sun,

So are mankind’s sins at the sight of the Himalayas.”

-         The Puranas

In this world there are mountain people and there are beach people. This one is for the mountain people and for the mountain people who don’t know they’re mountain people. There aren’t a lot of chances to live in an honest-to-God Himalayan village these days. Here’s one: Village Environment Community Gangkharka (VEC), a small NGO with a long name.

Based out of Gangkharka village in Helambu, Nepal, this organization has ten years experience performing healthcare and education projects, as well as sustainable development and heritage preservation. Helambu is a neglected region of Nepal, and VEC is the only NGO working in the area. While much of Nepal’s aid money goes to the Everest region, Helambu twiddles its thumbs. Or at least it has until now.

VEC built a school in Gangkharka last year, in the face of an exodus from Himalayan villages. Its president, Dorjee Netup Sherpa, a former trekking guide, has committed himself to the development of his home region. His commitment shows from the very moment he meets you at the airport in Kathmandu.

photo credit: Anna Tomasdottir

Where is it?

Helambu is located about fifty miles north of Nepal’s capital city, Kathmandu. But it takes about ten hours to get there on the windy mountain roads—four-and-a-half by jeep or bus, and the rest on foot. Perched on a Himalayan mountainside is Gangkharka, a tiny village whose extinction in the near future might have been guaranteed if it weren’t for VEC. Now it’s the site of a boarding school with 108 students, ages 4-15, and a full faculty and staff, including a Buddhist lama who teaches the students Tibetan and meditation.

Distressed by the lack of jobs in Kathmandu and unwilling to go abroad, many families originally from the Helambu area are now returning to Gangkharka and nearby Bangdang village, encouraged by VEC’s progress.

Volunteering

Volunteers with VEC can fill any number of roles in Gangkharka, and they can do so without the costly program fees of volunteering with many other organizations in Nepal. For about three dollars a day, volunteers are set up with a host family close to their volunteer placement. They are given Sherpa or Nepali language lessons to help ease communication, and they have the opportunity to leave a very tangible and positive contribution to the lives of the Helambu Sherpa, Tamang, and Yolmo populations.

Volunteers can choose between teaching at the Pasang Memorial Community Boarding School, Gangkharka’s first and only boarding school, working on the village’s organic farm, or serving as a member of a team of medical volunteers. Opportunities abound. Any number of projects could be going on during a volunteer’s stay. VEC currently has funding proposals being reviewed for a new addition at the school as well as for the micro-hydroelectricity installation.

The organization is also working on creating athletic fields for the students at the school, so coaching may also be a possibility. Another project VEC is working on is the Helambu Histories project. Teams of volunteers and VEC staff, as well as some students from the boarding school will be interviewing elders in several Helambu villages to talk about their life experiences. The goal is to gather folk stories and the unique perspectives of Helambu people on crucial events in the region’s history, such as the Chinese invasion of Tibet and the increased contact with the West.

Upon arrival in Nepal, volunteers are met at the airport by Dorjee or a VEC staff member. Housing is coordinated prior to arrival, and a VEC volunteer has the chance to unload and rest before receiving an in-country briefing with VEC staff. Then, early one morning on an agreed upon date, the volunteer(s) and a guide make the trip to Gangkharka. The trek to Gangkharka is not terribly strenuous, but it is recommended that volunteers be in reasonably good physical shape. Gangkharka’s altitude is lower than that of Denver, Colorado, but it is possible to go as high as 14,000 ft. if one takes advantage of the discounted trekking available to long-term volunteers.

There is currently no internet in Gangkharka, but volunteers schedule guided trips to Kathmandu and relative civilization. There is a landline phone at the school where calls can be received, but otherwise volunteers may find themselves without many of the 21^st century comforts they are used to. There are bathing facilities available, if one considers a small shack with a big pot of heated water a bathing facility.

Why Volunteer Here

In Gangkharka, a volunteer’s time is rewarded with spectacular views of the Himalayas and a unique opportunity to live in a community renowned for its hospitality. What little the host families have, they share. Sitting inside a tidy, if more than a little smoky, Sherpa home, there will be plenty of opportunities to acquire a taste for the butter tea for which Himalayan communities are (in)famous. Few people on earth can make a stranger feel more at home than the people of Gangkharka—though a volunteer may find life more difficult to bear during the summer monsoon season.

The development work conducted by VEC may be a last ditch effort to preserve Helambu communities like Gangkharka. The culture is facing its greatest crisis as many parents pursue job opportunities overseas, leaving their children in the care of boarding schools often much less keen to the idea of cultural preservation than the school run by VEC. Instead of the colorful pullover jumpers, smart little ties, and shiny black loafers that constitute many school uniforms in Nepal these days, the students in Gangkharka where traditional Himalayan dress: chubhas for girls and Tibetan-style tunics for the boys.

The potential for sustainable development gives Gangkharka an advantage to ensure this can happen, and international volunteers have the opportunity to contribute to its revitalization and the preservation of a culture that has long captured the imagination of the West.

If You Go:

Website: www.vec.org.np

Recruiter/FAQs: vecvolunteers@gmail.com

There’s a $75 processing fee for VEC (airport pickup, guide, housing coordination, language lessons, etc.). The $3 a day goes directly to the host family.

Beau Miller is a Master’s candidate at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs. He has worked as a volunteer Project Manager for VEC, and his writing has appeared in The New Brewer and Adbusters.

By Stephen Bugno

Learning vacations are now more popular than ever; from Thai cooking schools to studying Spanish in Guatemala to practicing meditation in India. But how about somewhere a little closer to home and a place you can still get a rich cultural experience as well?

The answer: The John C. Campbell Folk School. Whether it is mountain dulcimer, digital photography, or quilting, you will find something of interest among the 860 courses offered.

Located in the scenic hills of western North Carolina, the school, a registered non-profit situated on a serene 300-acre property in the hamlet of Brasstown, specializes in courses rooted in the traditions of southern Appalachia. But it offers a fine selection from other cultures of the world as well.

I initially made the trip to Brasstown for a week-long Southeast Asian cooking course. The class tackled the appetizers, main courses, desserts, and drinks of Malaysian, Indonesian, and Thai cuisine. “And we cover Indian and Chinese as well, because they are the foundations of Malaysian cuisine,” added our instructor Mary Lou Surgi. She would know, too, having lived in Southeast Asia for several years following a two-year stint as a Peace Corps volunteer in Malaysia.

Based on the concept of the Scandinavian folk school system, the Folk School is geared towards the development of individuals and their communities by offering courses in performing arts, agriculture, and crafts. Since 1925, the school’s well-established reputation has attracted both students and instructors from across the U.S. and even from overseas.

After my course finished, I ended up staying a couple more weeks after meeting lots of friendly folks. The overwhelmingly positive attitude by both students and instructors alike really grew on me.

And I’m not the only one. “One of the best things about being at the folk school is the community in Brasstown. Everyone is so willing to help out with whatever you might need and everyone gets together to socialize often.” says Emily Derke, a 21-year-old from Minnesota.

She came for a nine-week work/study program, and reckons it might not have been enough time. Work/Study students live at the Folk School and in exchange for each two-week work period, they take a one-week class of their choice. This provides an alternative to paying the normal registration fees and allows you to linger in the community longer and become a temporary local.

It isn’t by chance that such strong community bonds grow here. The recipe: plenty of knowledgeable, creative, and passionate people mixed together with lots of positive energy. Simple things like having home states printed on nametags, helps everyone get into conversation at mealtimes.

Another alternative to coming as a student is applying to become a host. The student hosts live at the school for a six-month period, and are responsible for making sure that students have a good experience. In exchange, student hosts may take classes each week. At any given time there are two hosts. They can be found running around the campus doing odd jobs like answering phones after hours, carting tables and chairs for events, or making mealtime announcements.

Most people, however, be they professionals from Atlanta or Raleigh or die-hard knitters from Vermont, come for the week or weekend-long courses.

Although he was busy teaching for the week, I found time to catch up with Norman Kennedy, a world-renowned weaver and folk singer. During an evening program we listened to him sing traditional Scottish songs. “They used to sing these while they were working in the mill or factory” he explained. Surprisingly, audience members jumped in when they could to enhance the chorus. No doubt he’ll be back for Scottish Heritage week at the end of the summer.

After a needs assessment in the rural south in the early part of the last century, John C. Campbell and his wife, Olive Dame, talked of establishing a school based on the concept of the Scandinavian folk school system. The school would be an alternative to the higher-education facilities that drew young people away from the family farm.

John never lived to realize their dream, but after a visit to Europe in order to study the folk school system, his widow and her friend, Marguerite Butler, established this one in 1925 in his honor with popular local support and in-kind contributions. Nearly a century later, the Folk School continues its mission towards the development of individuals and their communities in a non-competitive environment.

The Folk School earned its spot in National Geographic’s 100 Best Vacations to Enrich your Life and I was amazed to find young and old, from all economic classes mingling and sharing genuinely good times together, be it at meals, walking around campus, or hand-in-hand on the dance floor.

One of the unexpected pleasures of the week was an introduction to contra dancing. After being dragged onto the dance floor against my will, it only took an hour before I didn’t want to leave. The live old-time music and dance caller was definitely the highlight.

Also part of the weekly program is Friday afternoon’s much anticipated “show and tell.” It’s a time to gather and show off the fruits of the week’s labor. As I drifted around the room with samples of quickly-disappearing vegetable curry puffs, I admired the quilters’ patterns, the woodcarvers’ creations, the elegance of the stained glass, and enjoyed a live performance from the mountain dulcimer class.

During my few weeks in the area, I acquired a greater understanding and deeper appreciation for traditional Appalachian culture. Besides the contra dance, I also caught the Asheville-based old-time string band Blue Eyed Girl for a fantastic show, featuring local, Annie Fain Liden on the banjo. The community gathers for free weekly concerts of bluegrass, old-time, or folk music.

If it’s foreign culture you’re craving, consider Bonsai pruning, Scandinavian blacksmithing, Italian cooking or one of the themed weeks, like Scottish or Scandinavian Heritage.

Originally I went to learn a cooking tradition from half-way around the world, but ended up taking home an appreciation to the Appalachian culture that I didn’t even know existed in my back yard. And I took with me the much more important lesson of the importance of how a sense of community can enhance our life back home.

If you go:

The John C. Campbell Folk School is located in Brasstown, N.C., about a 2-hour drive from Atlanta, and offers 860 courses rooted in the traditions of Southern Appalachia and other cultures of the world. A free history center and archives, free weekly concert series, seasonal festivals, bi-monthly dances, a craft shop, and nature trails are all located on the premises. If you are not taking a course, the school is open to the community and welcomes visitors for self-guided studio tours. Courses are offered all year and run from $512 for week-long and $290 for weekend courses, plus materials fees. Room and board starts at $402 for 6 days. For more information see www.folkschool.org.

Stephen Bugno first journeyed to western North Carolina in early 2009 and hasn’t left yet. His writing has appeared in The San Francisco Chronicle, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Transitions Abroad, and the Matador Network.