SAFA was built right after the end of Spanish Civil War in order to help the province of  Andalucía to recover from a high rate of analphabetism.  Many of the Andalucian families lost their fathers in the war.  Many children lost both of their parents to the war and lived at the mercy of their neighbors.  The lack of schools in Andalucía led to a higher percentage of crime and thefts. 

Rafael Villoslaba Peula who was a Spanish thinker saw the need of building the school.  SAFA was then created in order to help the poor children of the region to have access to education.

Today SAFA has 27 schools all around the province of Andalucía and has about 20,000 students in all of its schools.  SA.FA includes elementary and secondary education as well as studies to become a professional teacher. It is a semi private school and it is very selective in the process of choosing students.

SAFA is a Catholic institution so you find religious decorations all around the building.  The school has a very nice facility with the charm of a 16th century building  but with well equipped classrooms and nice sports facilities to play soccer, tennis, basketball, etc.

Our classroom was very big and it was a smart room.  We had a computer and could project movies and power points on the wall.

Prior to departure Isabel Ruiz and myself organized a conversation partner program.  The students corresponded over email before leaving, but today they actually met in person.  Students met every day for 30 minutes to an hour for 3 weeks.  They talked about everyday subjects but also each couple developed a common topic on different social issues which they presented to the class the last week.  The objective of the program was to allow the students to practice Spanish with a native speaker. At the same time the Spanish students practiced English.  The conversation partners were Isabel's students and they were all seniors in the tourism program.  They all were all also studying English.  They all became good friends and several of my students visited their conversation partner's family.