Goals: Every year the International festival brings together different cultures to have the Greensboro community come out and learn about different countries. This year I hope to broaden my knowledge about different countries while developing my global awareness of what life is like in other countries. Since there will also be performances, I would like to see how different countries express themselves through music and dance and compare rhythms and styles to one another. By volunteering, I want to encourage people to explore new countries and try new food so that they too can become more knowledgeable and gain access to a whole new world of customs, flavors, and traditions.
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| Before the festival started |
In the past, I had attended the International festival solely as a Turkish girl wanting to know more about different countries. I liked it so much that I decided that this year I would like to volunteer and help the festival as much as possible. I arrived at the host site, The University of North Carolina-Greensboro, at 8:00am with some other classmates. We were all really excited to be there and help out so as soon as the trucks arrived, we began unloading all the tents and setting them up in their designated locations.
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| Unloading tents |
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| Setting up tents |
Everything was going well until we got one tent that was just rods and connectors, meaning we would have to build it on our own. After numerous efforts and lots of tape, we finally managed to assemble the tent and keep it stable so that it could last the entire day. Then after we set up all the tents, we went to the loading dock to wait for people who needed help unloading all their booth materials and decorations. The very first lady who we helped was from Malaysia. As we carried her food and decorations to her booth, she told us how to prepare spicy Asam Pedas, the dish that I was carrying. After helping her set up the booth, we went back and started unloading the items for the Germany and Columbia booths. We continued setting up numerous booths until all of them were complete. Throughout the festival, we were in charge of picking up any trash and changing trash bins once they had been filled up. We also got to watch the back-to-back performances they had on the stage, which was my favorite part of the festival. One of my classmates even da
nced two traditional Chinese dances. My favorite performer was a girl from Madagascar, I had talked to her previously and I learned that red is the most popular color in Madagascar and that everyone loves wearing it and having it on their houses so when she performed on stage with a red dress on, I loved that I knew why.
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| Experiencing Bubble Tea! |
Later, we got to walk around and try the different foods and I discovered some really neat dishes and treats! I tried Bubble Tea from Taiwan, then a sweet frozen yogurtlike dessert from South Korea and fell in love with both! After the festival was over, we stacked all the tables and chairs for the workers to come and get and we took down all the tents. After a final survey of the land to make sure there was no more trash, our service at the International Festival came to a close at 6:00pm. I had such a great time and cannot wait to do it again next year!
Learning Outcome: Engaged with Issues of Global Importance
Nowadays everyone has such busy schedules trying to balance school, work, and social live that sometimes they tend to forget that we are not the only country in the world. By participating in this festival, I helped bring people together to get away from their busy lives for a day and have them open their eyes to the cultures and people around them. I hope that the people who came learned some really cool stuff about a country they came in knowing nothing about.
