By Nate Jones

Staff Writer 

Fourth grade students at Helena H. Dyer Elementary School in South Portland proved they can move, as they learned a traditional African dance during a visit from Malawi-born, Godfrey Banda.

Banda is one of many actors, storytellers and dancers to have visited Dyer Elementary this year as part of a school-wide Cultivating Cultural Diversity program. 

“The cultural fabric of Maine is changing, so we decided to look outside the box,” Principal Colleen Fleming said. 

Fourth graders Abbey Iroux, 9, and Andy Coffin, 10, studied animals native to Malawi.

“An ostrich only has two toes,” Iroux said. “It balances on one and uses the other to walk.”

Coffin said although he didn’t study alligators, he thought they were one of the more interesting animals native to the country. 

“They’ve just been around for a long time,” he said. 

Iroux and Coffin were ecstatic to share the wealth of animal information they had collected over the year, including facts about wildebeests, sand cats, monkeys – and of course – elephants and lions. 

“We have a lot of stuff,” Iroux said. 

Samantha Clark, 10, studied more than just Malawi local wildlife. 

“To us their clothing would be just rags,” she said, adding that the average life expectancy of a Malawian is about 43 years due to diseases and the lack of medicine.

In addition to listening to visitors at the school, students have traveled to the Museum of African Culture in Portland to learn about the different customs of the Malawi people.

“If a woman is seen in public with an elephant ear, something is wrong with the tribe,” Iroux said. 

Clark said she was surprised to learn that the woman is the stronger member of some African tribes. Coffin said he found out what different masks worn during rituals meant depending on how they are constructed.

“Horns mean strength,” he said, adding that he is looking forward to making his own mask as part of the ongoing study. 

Clark said she thinks Malawi was far away, but was “pretty sure you could get there by boat.”

Funded by the school’s Parent Teacher Association, the program was spurred in part by the scheduled return of several English Language Learner (ELL) students previously attending the Brown Elementary School to Dyer as part of the city’s school redistricting process.

“It was just one of many factors which inspired us to raise the cultural awareness, knowledge and appreciation of our students,” Fleming said. 

Each grade chose a different culture to study. 

“Kindergarten students are doing the U.S., because it just makes sense developmentally, the second grade chose China, the third is studying Spain,” Fleming said. 

The fifth grade students worked with a local artist to create different birthday cards which will be sold to benefit children in Guatemala, their chosen country. 

The school year has included Chinese language lessons, Guatemalan art shows, and Australian actor residencies, and will culminate with a May 29 event where students will share their discoveries with each other and be entertained with music and dancing from other cultural artists. 

“It’s the culmination of our efforts not only to celebrate diversity but to recognize how much we are the same,” Fleming said. 

Parents are encouraged to attend the evening portion of the event, which will include a student-generated art fair and an ice cream social beginning at 6:30 p.m.