Pavones’ First Multicultural Fair
Feria Multicultural
The design of every small village in Central America, it seems, is based on the central soccer field called the plaza. Even traveling through the tiniest of rural villages, I have always seen the plaza as the center of town activity. In Pavones, our plaza is the stage for not only weekend soccer games, but also elementary school P.E. activities, young children learning to ride their bikes without training wheels, late night hang-outs, as well as cloud-gazing and the general relaxation in the sun.
The multicultural fair that took place in Pavones last week was a brand new way to utilize our town square. It was a delightful celebration that sought to bring all parts of the community together and celebrate the multiculturalism of the Pavones area and, on a broader scale, Costa Rica as a whole.
Organized by the supervisor of the school district, each primary school was asked to research a different Costa Rican province, and then create an aesthetically pleasing booth with pictures, objects, and food from that area. Additionally, the myriad of foreign residents that make up the semi-permanent population of Pavones showed up to represent their nation, thus, producing a bona fide multicultural event. There was even an appearance by the Guaymi to represent the nearby Indigenous Reservation and Pretoma, the Costa Rican ocean conservation group.
Below is the Puntarenas booth (Pavones’ province). Yes, we have a lot of bananas and coconuts here if you’ve never seen them before.
Some more regions represented: I was impressed by the creativity and color that went into the booths and extent to which they were thoughtfully organized.
Other activities that toom place were children’s art tables, speeches, marimba music, and dancing. Photos below: Baile Típico of Costa Rica and the Guaymi Indigenous.
Last but not least, allow me to introduce our NEW pre-kindergarten teacher, Lisa! She took our adorable pre-k class to the celebration, particularly fitting because this class is the most culturally diverse of all the ECC classes.
We’ll see you next year, as this will hopefully become an annual event!
Pictures: Lisa
Tags: Community Event, ECC students, ECC teachers
August 9th, 2011 at 4:52 am
[...] Annual Feria Multicultural was the biggest one yet! The Fair started in 2009 (see blog post here) and aims to bring all parts of the community together while highlighting the multiculturalism that [...]