Culture is a huge part of a country’s pride, and is important to learn about different cultures to be able to know what surrounds us. Today we learned about the Nicaraguan culture by doing different activities through out the day. After breakfast, as a group we had a seminar about the culture of Nicaragua. We named a couple of different cultures that we have seen as a group the days that we have been here like, food, music, dance, religion, language, tradition, and government. We then involved cultures about our country, U.S.A. Our discussion lead to compare and contrast both cultures and what we think about them. We ended the seminar by going around the group and mentioning where our families are from.

To learn a little more about the culture of Nicaragua, we went to a dance class at the school INEP. During the dance class, we met the dance teacher, and there were a couple of students who were there to teach us some steps. We first started off with a couple of warm ups. Our first dance steps that we learn was salsa. We then learned to cha-cha. Both of these dances are very popular in the Nicaraguan culture. The dance teacher thought us two traditional dances that show part of their culture. These dances were welcome to the Nicaraguan culture a long time as part of trades with Europeans. Before we left the class, we thought the students how to dance Soulja Boy as part of our culture. The group had practice a couple of days before to be prepare when the day arrived. The students and teacher were very excited to learn the dance, and we were willing to teach them.

Later in the day we had a jewelry workshop by the Mujeres de Plomo. They are women that live in the rural area of Matagalpa, and create jewelry to be able to support their families. There are four women and two kids who are involved in creating jewelry and art. The women focus on making bracelets, earrings, and necklaces out of recycle material and seeds. The art that the kids paint are of landscapes of Nicaragua. We all had the chance to create one jewelry item with the help of the Mujeres of Plomo, and a lot of us bought jewelry that was already made by the women. Overall cultural day, was an excellent day to all of us. We had the opportunity to learn about the culture of Nicaragua, and for us to share a little about our culture.

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