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| Brian with a group of friends |
The
teenager who was riding a horse in the fields bathed in moonlight in
Georgia, United Stated, could never have imagined that many years
later he would be responsible for creating a large language exchange
group in Malaga, Spain. Back then, Brian Justice was a boy who used
to get in trouble at school in the mornings, and helped out his
mother in the farm in the afternoons. During the sun-beaten days of
summer, they waited for nightfall to ride their horses and to observe
the stars on those fields with no light pollution. This place, along
with Jacksonville, Florida, is where he spent his childhood and his
teenage years.
He
wasn't too bothered about his status as a "problematic student".
What meant expulsion from school for other students, was usually
settled with a couple of spanks for Brian. “First my teachers
spanked me, and then my mother spanked me too,” he recalls. His
good marks always saved him from a certain expulsion. “It was a
dilemma for the teachers, how to expel a kid who gets in trouble
every day but who has excellent marks?” University was another
matter. Building was something he felt passionate about, so he
decided to study architecture. After finishing the studies, he
decided to pack his bags.
In
2005 he landed in Spain. Until then, his only experience in a foreign
county had been a week in Mexico. Without knowing a word of Spanish,
his life was about to change completely in Spain, and in ways that he
had never suspected. Some things that he had always considered
normal, started to change. For example, country names. He had thought
that the Germans called their country Germany, the French referred to
Germany as Germany and Russians used the name Germany when they were
talking about Germany. “I hadn't realized that there were Germany,
Alemania, Deutschland...” he recalls laughing. “Such things make
you think, how is it possible that I didn't think of something so
obvious before?”
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| In one of the last language exchange events |
At
the beginning, his new life in Spain was similar to the life he had
finished in the US. He came to study Spanish for a year. During that
time, he lived in many cities before coming to Malaga. First there
was Salamanca, where he spent 3 months, which was enough time to be
able to start communicating in Spanish. After that, Granada. He was
impressed by that city, because back then Granada was full of bars
that offered a beer and tapa for 1 euro. And the lifestyle was in
stark contrast to the lifestyle in the United States. “In Granada
you could go out with 10 euros, have a good time, have dinner and get
drunk”. After this Andalusian city came Valencia and Madrid,
neither of which convinced him to stay, so next he moved to Tenerife.
The life there seemed very relaxed to him. Even too good. “I was
there for 3 months, and they offered me a job working 30 hours per week in a bar, but I felt as
if I was retiring.” That's when he decided to go to Malaga.
A
year after his arrival, he started the language exchange events. At
first, it was nothing more than project to integrate the students of
the school where he was working. La Casa Invisible, a social cultural
center, was the first venue. There have been many changes since the
first step: they joined another group, and instead of five to ten
people a day, soon there were 30 or 40 people coming to the event;
after a little while they found their own place. “A run-down garage
that we turned into our little space”. Later they moved to another
space next door, which was a bit bigger and where they spent about
one year. This is where the language exchange group had its best
days. They organized auctions, art exhibitions, potluck parties...The
group became so big that they even organized barbecues and volleyball
tournaments at the beach. But more events also meant more work. Since
he needed help, Brian made a deal with people who were willing to
lend him a hand: food and lodging in exchange for a few hours of help
in the group. The place was on the ground floor and his house on the
first floor of the same building, so it was a reasonable deal. “In
total, I've had about 15 people helping me out—he recalls—. “A
guy from Korea, who is still helping me to this day. Also people from
Spain, Brazil, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Ukraine, Ecuador...” Some
of these people are still in Malaga. They were just passing by or
planning to stay for a short period but ended up finding their
destiny here: a job, an interesting activity, a partner...
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| In a barbecue last year |
And
that's how this multicultural experiment actually works. Not only has
it helped all kinds of artists and musicians share promote their art,
but it has also worked as a social filter. For the people who come
from other countries, it's easier to integrate. For those who live
here, it's easier to communicate with foreigners. This has been a
starting point for many groups of friends, brought together by common
interests; some people have managed to find a job; others found a
flat more easily thanks to the group. “If you get together a group
of people from different nationalities and put some alcohol on top,
these things happen. I don't have to do anything.
Now,
Brian's language exchange has returned to the place where it started:
la Casa Invisible. He keeps on looking for more alternatives to keep
this group going. He might have many plans, but only some of them are
immediate. Brian is not too worried about it, he's always moving step
by step. Right now he is working on his terrace, to fix it up for
weekly meetings of his group. He is also trying to reach an agreement
with the city council to get the right to use one of the many
abandoned plots that belong to the city. Meanwhile, the language
exchange continues, moving according to the circumstances. And even
though he might think that he hasn't done anything, the truth is that
he's done a lot. A lot of human stories have been created thanks to
his project; a lot of bonds of friendship have formed, crossing the
borders of many countries; many ways of thinking have changed; a lot
of humanity has been created.
Brian
from Florida, United States.
