International Night

After math game night, I was very leery about taking the girls to International Night at Kt's school. The truth is, had I not invited one of Kt's friends to spend the night and her mother not promised to take a friend's child to it, I would not have gone!! This is T's thing and he was a bit annoyed that he had to miss it for a bunch of other commitments he made. To make matters even worse, the mom of Kt's friend ended up not having to go, but didn't tell me until yesterday morning, when both my girls already knew about it and were very excited to go!!

Enough about logistics. We went, and it was fun. It's quite impressive to be at a suburban school with so much diversity. There were parents presenting culture and food from 12 different countries - Sweden, Ukraine, England, Greece, Israel(actually a no show - maybe due to the Sabbath?), Egypt, Turkey, India, Thailand, South Korea, Italy and Japan. All the food that I tried was excellent and the girls really enjoyed getting their passport stickers and collecting their globe bubbles at the end.

One of the interesting things that didn't really hit me until the drive home was just how important religion is in many of these other cultures. You always hear about it and see evidence of it, but in talking to one presenter, I began to see how religion was a way of life, it defined her world and culture and I began to see more clearly how in America, that is rarely the case. In our country, it's all about separation of church and state which also permeates our culture. If I were to present my "culture" at this event last night and even utter the word Christian, there would be a price to pay I'm quite certain!!

Last night, I sensed a desire in many of the presenters to share a pride they had in their roots, in their home countries. I never did ask any of them how and why they ended up here, but you could see the love for their homes all over their faces as they shared. What a wonderful opportunity to make the world look a little bigger for these elementary school students. I'd have to agree with T in saying that it is likely the best event they do at Kt's school. I'm very glad I went!