Day 5: Cultural Presentations

There is a church near our house that has a bell that rings at 7 am everyday; when it goes off, it rings 3 separate times, with 50 rings each time. 😒 We split up for breakfast today but we all met at a local sports complex to catch the bus since UNACH was closed. We didn't teach today because all the students did cultural presentations. It was hard to understand what they were saying since most of us don't understand Spanish, but each class had its own table with its own topic, poster, and food/plants. We were able to try food from everyone; most of it was a raspberry marmalade with bread or crackers. After that, each class gave their own presentation, which ranged from reciting a poem, playing the recorder or the guitar, dancing, and enacting cultural displays with elaborate costumes and props. We had about 1-2 hours of free time as well so we were able to interact with the kids outside of the classroom. A few of the UCF students made a circle with some of the Corazon de Maria students. They were asking us our names, ages, where we were from, and if we liked sports. Denielle and Ash started dancing in a circle together and Denielle did the wave and moonwalk. Miguel taught some of us to salsa as well. Irene did some dance moves and gymnastics and all the little kids were impressed. Later on, a few girls tapped Ash's shoulder to ask her if they could take a picture with Irene. More children showed up and wanted pictures of everyone; the whole photo-shoot took about a half hour but we all felt like celebrities afterwards. Later on, we went back on our bus and got dropped off at a supermarket called Chedraui. All of the UCF students bought pastries that were super fresh and tasty. Dr. Wang, Cecilia, and Shai came over to our house later and we had a family dinner again with chicken, salad, rice, and beans. We then had a discussion about our week, how we felt about the program, and what we want to achieve next week week. It ended up being a very sentimental and touching, yet intellectual, discussion.

Presentation Day!