I really enjoyed the dancing by Los Hijos de Maíz and the day prior to them performing they talked about how much work they put into it and it showed during their performance. They put in about 7 months worth of practicing and would practice generally about 5-6 days a week. It was interesting to see the traditional and cultural dances of Nicaragua right here at Dartmouth. I thought it was extremely helpful and empowering to have the video playing on the screen throughout the dance performance. It gave the audience a glimpse of some of the people that live in Nicaragua. It allowed us to take a "virtual" tour of the place and gave us an idea especially for the CCESP students on how Nicaragua and its people are like.
When we spoke with the dancers it was interesting to hear what they thought and had to say about the United States and our school. They pointed out how we had seven projectors in our classroom and made the point that they didn't need all of that stuff because they were happy with what they had. I loved how they were genuine and humble about their life and experiences and gave us an honest look into their lives. It was also interesting to see how they would never move to the United States if they could. They thought it was very busy and people rarely said hello as opposed to Nicaragua where they would go outside and say hi and talk to everyone that they met. It's' more inviting to them to be in their community as opposed to coming to a city in the U.S. and feeling like no one really smiles or says hi. It was an amazing experience to hear about this and their overall thoughts and concerns. I really would like to see them perform again in the future if they come back to Dartmouth any time soon. For the meantime here is a video of traditional Nicaragua dances (they are not the hijos de maíz dances but they were similar to what was performed on the day of the performance).
Additionally, our class had skype sessions with the students of URACAAN and the people who are affiliated with Bridges to Community. When we spoke with the students it was enjoyable to be able to listen to their questions because a lot of the skype calls and visits we've had with the people who come and speak to our class have been us asking the questions. It was nice to be able to hear what questions they had about our school and us students in general.