The Magic of Cross-Cultural Connection

This past weekend David and I had the chance to be part of a cross-cultural exchange between high school students. Billy Byrnes, who was a VMM volunteer in San Nicolas before us, brought a group of American high school kids to San Nicolas for a few days to learn about what life is like in the Nicaraguan campo. This being quite an ambitious weekend goal, we set about packing in the cultural experiences.

When the students arrived on Thursday, we went to evening mass with them. They did a good job of enduring the long service, all in Spanish, with the occasional excitement: a stray dog bounding up to the front of the church, the congregation singing a Spanish, religified version of Bob Dylan's “Blowin in the Wind,” and of course the constant battle against flying ants.

On Friday the American students joined their Nicaraguan compatriots in their three-mile walk to school. This three miles is a daily stroll for many Nicaraguan high school students, but most of the Americans were completely worn out by the time they reached the paved road.

At school, we started the day with a ceremonial ribbon-cutting for the new athletic court roof. The mayor's office pulled out all the stops for this event, blaring patriotic music through human-sized stereos and hanging clumps of balloons from the court posts. After a few folkloric dances, Ruben Dario poems, and flowery speeches, we divided the American students into small groups and took them into the Nicaraguan classes, where we held Q and A sessions. We had the students ask each other questions about their various interests and high school experiences and then played a round of English/Spanish charades.

At first the Nicaraguan students especially were really shy about relating to the American students, but this shyness quickly dissolved during recess when they all got together to play soccer and basketball. By the time lunch rolled around, they all had crushes on each other. The Americans ate lunch with the Nicaraguan 11^th grade class and the two groups performed for each other the songs in English that they had prepared for this occasion. This turned into an impromptu dance party that resulted in lots of bonding and, eventually when it was time for the Americans to leave, facebook name exchanging.

It was interesting for me to sit back and witness all of this, and to realize the profound differences in these kids' experiences. It was immediately obvious to me that the American kids, even though they were on turf that was not their own, all had so much more confidence in themselves than the Nicaraguans. The Americans were the ones asking all the questions during the Q and A; the Americans were also the ones who belted out their songs with little self-consciousness. Even though most of the American students had only taken high school Spanish classes just like the Nicaraguans had taken high school English, the Americans were far more advanced in their second language abilities. They were able to carry on basic conversations in Spanish whereas our Nicaraguan students were too embarrassed to utter even a single word in English.

But beyond all of this inequality and difference, a beautiful bond formed nonetheless. This felt immense. This felt like a true exchange. Both groups of students had so much curiosity about each other. Both groups overcame the smallness of their worlds to connect across cultural boundaries and wealth gaps, to reach a fuller sense of the what the world is. This is the idealist's dream.

For David and me, and for Billy too I think, this was an amazing opportunity to share that idealist's dream with these students. We have experienced the magic of cross-cultural connection during our two years here, and in doing so, we have come to cherish this community. We weren't sure if it would be possible for this group of students to form these bonds and realize the world-broadening power of cross-cultural exchange in a single weekend, but I think it was possible. A day of interaction can't form friendships that will survive the years, of course. But what I hope will survive in all of these students, American and Nicaraguan, is an awareness of a bigger world.