Music and Dance Class

If there is one thing these kids love to do, it is dance! Our theme for class this past week was "The Arts" and we did a different discipline of art each day. Our favorite day was music/dance. We made instruments, went on a parade around the orphanage, banged out rhythms on pots and pans, listened to different types of music and drew faces to show how it made us feel, and then learned different famous types of dances. None of us were quite prepared for how some of these kids can shake it. We put on a reggaetone song and they all leapt out of their seats. This video is from a different day but shows the same type of enthusiasm. The only thing this video is missing is Memo. He is a really chubby kid with Down syndrome who isn't normally in our class and came bursting in out of nowhere when he heard the song. He ripped off his shirt, whirled it around his head, and started body rolling his big gut. I was trying to stifle my laughter at first because I didn’t know if I should encourage him, but then I looked over and the Salvadoran teacher, Emperatriz, was absolutely rolling with laughter. By the end there were tears streaming down all our faces. What makes it so funny is that he has no shame. We saw him later with Hermana Umbelina and he was telling her that he had fun at our class and talking about dancing. He started rollin' it in front of the head nun!!! She laughed, pretended to swat his butt, and then just winked at us. She is spunky.

Me and Edwin workin' it

Check out our little thug, Roberto