This year’s Around The World organizers held a contest for most creative table, most educational table and best overall display. We caught up with the winners of each award.
Canada: Most creative
My daughter Sydney, 7, was super excited since she didn’t think anyone would be interested in Canada. Her favorite thing to teach people was that Canada has so much diversity with more than 200 ethnicities making up the country of 37 million people.
The thing that surprised people the most was that Canada is the second largest country in the world and so close to the U.S. Many kids and parents also discovered they really liked maple syrup in the maple cookies that we served. — Michelle Thomas
Eritrea/Ethiopia: Most educational
Ethiopia is the only country in Africa that was never colonized. And because of this, Ethiopia and Eritrea still use their own alphabet called Ge’ez. A lot of the people were surprised to learn that we have churches in Ethiopia that date far back to 300 A.D. (Over 1000 years before America was discovered)
Adults loved the Ethiopian/Eritrean Tea and bread we served. Kids were surprised to learn the Grammy Award winning artist The Weeknd is from Ethiopia. — Nardos Gemechu
Mexico: Best Overall Display
We asked some Spanish words to the people that visited our table and if they did not know any at all we taught them some. We also asked them if they have ever visited México and about half of the people said yes.
The food and the crafts that were on display surprised people. The food, especially El Guacamole, was a hit. Spicy candy, the Mexican dolls, the wooden masks, el molcajete. Also, people compliment our moms’ outfits, very traditional dresses from our country.
El Guacamole and the salsa were a success. Our moms were asked for recipes and lessons. The children were hesitant at first to taste the spicy tamarind candy but then they keep on coming to get more.
People learned the Mexican-American History that goes along with the history of México. They also learned that there are more than other 60 languages besides Spanish that are still spoken in México. —Javier y Santiago MolinaPaulina y Samantha Linan
