Day 6

In the morning we played with the Sonadores and helped them practice a play based on the community's traditions around the nearby Cerro Negro volcano. It was fun holding hands in a circle and trying to recreate how a volcano looks and sounds. Mostly, it was a day of meetings with parents and teachers. Topics of discussion ranged from plans for celebrations, to field trips, to discipline issues, to the costs of a potential computer lab for the school. Some of the parents have committed to raising money for the lab and looking after it. Our goal is always to engage in dialogue and partnership with the community, offering our perspectives as educators and activists, but creating a space in which our non-profit and those we serve make decisions and put them into effect collaboratively.

Took the group into Leon, the big city just a few kilometres from rural Chacraseca, for some relaxation at a coffee shop and then a quick trip to a large mural depicting Nicaragua's history. The section here depicts the massacre of protesting university students by the Somoza regime in 1973. Nicaragua has a long history of oppression, carried out in different forms by politicians and conquering armies of all stripes, as well as a deep tradition of creative resistance. We want participants to not only to serve, but also to learn the history, culture and geography of Nicaragua (or wherever we may be.) The other image is the Leon Cathedral, one of the biggest of its kind in Central America.