On the Road Again...: International Festival

Just got home from a wonderful celebration of the international flavour of our school. We have students from 45 different countries. There were food booths from 17 countries (mmmm - Ole had an Argentinian filet sandwich and I had a Jordanian chicken shawarma followed by Columbian coffee) and our students and parents entertained us with dances from many countries. There were games and tombola and prizes to be had. This is a combination celebration of our international community and a fund-raiser.

Before I add the pictures I need to write one wonderful custom from Ecuador. The cheek kiss! Now that I have met all of the parents of my students, when I meet them, we always greet each other with a kiss on the right cheek. The same when I meet colleagues. OK - we don't necessarily kiss each other as we pass in the hall, but when we meet outside of our daily job, we always greet each other with a cheek kiss. If you are a newcomer when you arrive at a function, you go around the whole room and shake hands with those you don't know and cheek kiss those you do. However, at the end of the evening, you go around and cheek kiss everybody, because by then you are no longer strangers. The most startling experience for me was one parent meeting I had where we shook hands at the beginning of the meeting. After a fairly acrimonious meeting where parents disagreed with everything we said, we agreed to disagree and everybody got up and cheek kissed as we took our departure. Isn't that incredible? I love this culture!!!!

Sadly, there was no Canadian representation, other than a flag, even though there are 7 Canadian teachers...next year maybe we can do something.

Here are the pictures.