International Food Festival

Last week we had International Food Festival at school. I just haven't come around to blog about it. Since we have 72 nationalities at our school, all the parents were asked to participate. Well 61 countries were represented during this food festival. We were all set up in the cafetaria and each country had their own food. It was amazing to see and to taste all these different food. We had to make enough for the whole school, so about 700 children who would come each with their own plate and they were aloud to have 8 different kinds of food. We were set up in a row and they would start with the youngest kids from elementary and go up to middle and high school. So each kid had a choice of 8 from the 61 choices....hard to choose for some.
We represented Thailand, since the Dutch is such a big group they had already many dishes. There are only 3 Thai children at school, and 2 are mine. So I made chicken satay...this is such a favorite amongst everybody, so when the middle school was finished and it was time for the high schoolers I was out of my satay, and I made 85 skewers!

There was food from all over Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa, Australia, I have never seen so much different kind of foods, it was just amazing. Think about all these youngsters being exposed to so many different cultures, foods, languages. When you enter the cafetaria at lunch time it really is a divers group; some eat with their knifes and forks, some eat with chopsticks, some eat only with a spoon, some eat with their hands.... I am so gratefull that our kids can experience such a diversity, it will give them a sence of belonging wherever they go, because they feel at ease with all different people at such a young age.

It was a great day at the American International School of Joburg!
Mireille