Hello, Spanish Language Outreach followers! This month the Missoula group joined us in Stevensville to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. There were over 20 of us at Fiesta en Jalisco. Great food, great conversation in Spanish, including with the restaurant staff. The managers bring young Mexican immigrants to the US all the way up to MT to work in their restaurant. While here, they practice learning English and familiarize themselves with our American culture. The Missoula group meets twice a week; once during the day at the public library, once at night at a local brew pub. Another gathering of those interested in Hispanic cultures is the bi-monthly "Salsa Dance" at the Elks club in Missoula. Last week several of our group (Ana, Marina, Joseph, Erika) attended the dance. We are in the beginning stages of planning our annual Hispanic Heritage month events to be held throughout Sept. We will submit a grant application the the Missoula Community Foundation and hope for the best. Alfonso, husband of our dear friend, Erika Schumann, is currently working on a landscape architecture project in China for 3 months. Erika was just informed by their landlord that they need to find a new place to live. She will be re-locating to Missoula soon. We will miss her warm personality, especially me, to whom she has helped in so many ways, particularly breaking the barrier to speaking in Spanish, even if it isn't perfect. We remain good friends for life. Here are a few photos of our Cinco de Mayo dinner.
