In Sight

Kerry Sherck/For the Advocate

By Wynne Parry
Staff Writer

STAMFORD – Half a dozen soldiers with tall hats and mice in gray leotards crowded in front of a small television, watching a rehearsal of “The Nutcracker” ballet as it happened above them on stage at the Palace Theatre.

“Listen, you can hear them stomping their feet because they are right above us,” volunteer Johanna Steinberg told the costumed dancers as they waited in the basement for their chance to practice in the first full dress rehearsal Tuesday of the Stamford Center for the Arts’ annual performance of “George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker.” (more…)

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the third of a three-part series about the 20-year Norwalk-Nagarote Sister City Project, founded and run by Fairfield County residents. Staff Photographer Kathleen O’Rourke and Staff Writer Alexandra Fenwick recently spent seven days in Nagarote, Nicaragua to observe life in one of the poorest communities in one of the poorest countries in the Western hemisphere. A translator assisted them.

By Alexandra Fenwick

Staff Writer

NAGAROTE, Nicaragua – When Norwalk Community College professor Angeles Dam proposed a Spanish-immersion class in Nicaragua, she was met with raised eyebrows.

“Everybody said, ‘You’re crazy,’ ” recalled Dam, who lives in Darien. (more…)

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second of a three-part series about the 20-year Norwalk-Nagarote Sister City Project, founded and run by Fairfield County residents. Staff Photographer Kathleen O’Rourke and Staff Writer Alexandra Fenwick recently spent seven days in Nagarote, Nicaragua to observe life in one of the poorest communities in one of the poorest countries in the Western hemisphere. A translator assisted them.

By Alexandra Fenwick

Staff Writer

NAGAROTE, Nicaragua – Five years ago, Barrio Jeronimo Lopez was considered one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Nagarote.

Streets were covered in litter and teenage gang members loitered on corners. (more…)

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first of a three-part series about the 20-year Norwalk-Nagarote Sister City Project, founded and run by Fairfield County residents. Staff Photographer Kathleen O’Rourke and Staff Writer Alexandra Fenwick recently spent seven days in Nagarote, Nicaragua to observe life in one of the poorest communities in one of the poorest countries in the Western hemisphere. A translator assisted them.

By Alexandra Fenwick

Staff Writer

NAGAROTE, Nicaragua – In this city about 2,100 miles from Connecticut everybody knows where to find Norwalk.

Ask the driver of a bixi – a bicycle-taxi hybrid that is the transportation of choice in Nagarote – and he’ll tell you. (more…)