Nicaraguan Idol

The whole San Nicolas high school crowded into a room in the mayor's office this morning, sitting on the floor, sprawling out the door. They had been practicing for the last six weeks (some more than others), and finally their singing-in-English abilities would be put to the test.

Apparently, the English song competition is both an annual and national event in Nicaragua. As part of the curriculum for all public high schools in Nicaragua, every year around this time, students have to get together in groups and sing a song in English while also performing some kind of dance. It's like a Nicaraguan-accented, slightly off-key version of Glee.

This year, the songs that the students chose ranged from classics like “You're the Inspiration” to Enrique Iglesias' “Heart Attack” to Miley Cyrus's “Butterfly Fly Away.” (Our Beatles and Bob Marley suggestions were shot down right away with bored looks and thumb-jerks to go to the next song).

Planning for the contest became a little more complicated when the normal English teacher stopped showing up at school because of some health issues her daughter was having. Davie and I took over the contest as best as we could, but details like when the contest would be and how we would grade the participants somehow didn't reach us until the last minute. Add to that all kinds of technology crises (The electricity is off today, I guess we can't practice), and the whole thing became a bit rocky.

But there were also some pretty cool results. For one, this contest brought out some of our most apathetic students to produce some of the best performances; it was perfect proof that everyone learns in different ways. There is a group of girls in 10^th grade who spend most of their time in class staring down into their laps, hiding their cell phones behind their notebooks. But if you had wandered by the school just after classes let out any day during the last few weeks, you would have heard this same group of girls belting with all their might, “It's too late to apologize . . . It's too late!”

Davie also noted that the different songs that each grade chose reflect their varying identities or life stages. The 9^th graders who sang “Heart Attack,” for instance, have just begun dating and accordingly are just experiencing their first heartbreaks. The 10^th grade girls who sang “Apologize” have by this time had some discreet dating experiences and are feeling a bit of jaded nostalgia for their romances-gone-bad. And then there is Alondra, the quiet, amazingly intelligent 11th-grader who sang “Butterfly, Fly Away” (and who will also probably “fly away” herself one day to much bigger places and things).

Today as we sat at the elaborately-tableclothed judges panel, watching our nervous students get up and sing, all of the stress we've been feeling because of this contest became worth it. Cheesy as it sounds, it is totally true. One by one, each of the five groups did a little introduction in English, passing the mic around to announce their favorite English phrase: “My name ees _____.” Then they got their game faces on, rolling their eyes up to the ceiling to remember their words, beginning to sway back and forth with the music, and finally, in front of all their classmates and several fluent English speakers, singing and dancing their hearts out.

In the end, the 10^th grade girls won the competition with their elaborate dance moves and belted singing. They will go on to represent San Nicolas at the departmental contest in Esteli in September. But the thing that impressed us most today was the amazing courage it took for all of our students who got up and, in front of the whole school, sang a song in a language that they aren't fluent in.