MultiCultural Day

Lat year, the local town concil decided to have a multicultural day. Everyone at the school was asked to participate, but not enough people were willing to. Even though there is a great mix of cultures in the town, there was not enough intergration to make the day work.

This year, they tried again. Each country would have a stall, and could fashion it in any way they wanted. Banners, flags, maps, whatever. The main suggestion, was to provide taster food from the relevant country. The cost of the food would be met by the council. Tickets would be sold, and people could sample the wares, on production of the ticket. (5€ each)

Thankfully, this year (probably down to Marie-Jose's persuasiveness) the event went ahead. There was an English stall, with lots of buffet nibbles, such as sausage rolls, cheese and pickled onions on sticks, tiny pasties, and a selection of other savouries and then another table full of gorgeous cakes (including lovely scones with jam and cream). The town had a table of it's own, with a selection of Spanish cakes and savouries, and there was also a separate table with colouring for the children. Then, there was a stall for the Morrocans and another for the Bulgarians. The Morrocan stall did very well. As well as some lovely sweet cakes (made with lots of honey and sesame seeds)and Morrocan tea, they had a lady doing hand painting with henna. They only charged 1€ each, but the queue never seemed to go down. One estimate, was that they must have painted over 200 hands! The Bulgarian stand had lovely food too, all made by one single lady. She must have been exhausted. Thankfully, they found someone else to help her run the stall on the day.

The council also organised some entertainment for the day. There was dancing by various 'local' groups; Spanish as well as Bulgarian. There was a folk group and also some drummers. It was all very entertaining (especially the man who turned up dressed as a horse!).

As normal for a big event, there was a giant paella for the guests (which was included in the price). We all sat down to eat, and discovered that there was a selection of tapas on the table, along with water, fizzy soda and a bottle of wine for every 6 people. Then, when we went to get the paella, there was extra pop or beer for each person! The paella was very nice, but after sampling all of the other wares, I could hardly eat it! Then, to my horror, we were presented with a tray full of various cakes, for dessert. The worse thing was, I only had a small handbag, so I couldn't take any home with me!

The weather was glorious, I got a month's worth of sun-tan in one day, and everyone afterwards complimented everyone else, on the wonderful day. Doubtless this will be repeated next year. I certainly hope so.