LIS International Day

Saturday we attended the Luanda International School (LIS) "International Day."  Sponsored by the kids’ school, it was an event that correlated with the school’s theme of the month of “Being Internationally Minded.”  The kids have talked a lot in their classrooms about what it means to be “internationally minded” and supported it with different activities throughout the week and this festival on Saturday.  Ideas like understanding and accepting differences in beliefs, showing empathy to others that are different from you, appreciating their customs and ways of life, etc.  Savannah said that her class carried heavy buckets of water around for a class period to experience what a lot of people in Africa do on a daily basis to provide water for their families. 

I love the design of the passport and t-shirts.  It is the shape of Angola in the center of the circle.

They didn’t have to go very far to have different countries of the world represented at the festival.  In fact, at LIS, we have students from 24 different countries.

Angola, Egypt, Brazil

Canada, China, Indonesia

India, Israel, Colombia

Italy, Ecuador, Japan

Mexico, South Africa, Nigeria

Spain, Norway, England

Pakistan, USA, Portugal

Venezuela, Russia, Vietnam

 We started off with a parade first with all of these countries showing off their colors, clothing, and patriotism for their country.  It reminded me a little of the Olympics!  Our kids loved yelling, “U-S-A!!  U-S-A!!” over and over.  It felt good to be able to be loud and proud of our country in a safe environment.  We try and “blend in” here in Angola, so it felt good to let our hair down and be vocal about our love for our own country!

Each country set up a booth with food, drinks, decorations, items to take, etc. that are specifically from that country.  It was amazing to see and taste all that we did in just a few hours.  The colors, smells, flavors, and music were so intense and passionately and energetically shared by everyone.  A few countries in particular, Venezuela and Mexico, stood out as they turned their music volume up and danced in and around each of their booths.

The kids received a “passport” that they could take around to each country table to get stamped as they sampled the food, looked at the art, listened to the music, etc.  They received stickers, pins, etc. from the different countries.

China

Portugal

Brazil

Russia

Woman from Norway getting a picture at the Indonesia table

Rhea receiving a dot or "bindhi" from India.

England had awesome lemonade--just what we needed with the heat of the day!

Columbia--great salsa!

Angola--they served ice cream but ran out right as we got there.  :(

South Africa--interesting meat.  We tried Gemsbok, a type of antelope.  :)

Israel--they served falafels.  Took me back to my days of studying abroad in Jerusalem.  Too bad I'm gluten free now though!  I did taste the hummus before handing it to Briant.

It was a very fun, hot, humid, and sweaty morning.  It was hotter than we have yet experienced here, made worse with the humidity.  Despite the sweat, we had a wonderful cultural experience.  We had fun seeing our friends and visiting with them as well as the kids' teachers.  We might just base our next post request off of the food we sampled there. Vietnam?  Russia?  Italy?  :)