I’m volunteering at a learning centre in a southern district of Granada called La Sabaneta. Away from the cheerfully painted colonial centre of the city, here the roads turn to dirt tracks and skinny horses roam about eating the grass that grows from cracks in the stone.

The walk to the centre is about twenty minutes – the last five of which are always nice because the children greet you along the way. There is always a small group of kids waiting eagerly outside the centre who run up and hug you when they see you coming. That’s a great thing about teaching here; the enthusiasm. Attendance to the centre isn’t obligatory like school so the students are only there because they really want to be (though at times it can be difficult trying to channel their energy into learning).

I’m teaching Spanish at the moment to a group of children ageing five to eleven. Sometimes it’s hard to understand them because they speak very quickly and quietly but like them, I’m there to learn and I pick up new words and phrases every day. They’re teaching me just as much as I am them.