International Cultural Festival

There's me at the Refugee Resettlement info desk talking to potential volunteers about the program. We had a booth at the Auckland International Cultural Festival which is a chance for all different nationalities to share performances, information and of course food (my favorite). I had some yummy Ethiopian food and some Vietnamese tofu spring rolls, and when I spotted the Finnish tent I thought, "baked goods" and was not disappointed, mmm-mmm! This was the first year of the Ethnic World Cup soccer tournament which got pretty intense from what I heard.

It was great to see how many different groups were represented. There were people from Africa, El Salvador, Brazil, Eritrea, Afghanistan, places I've never even heard of because they haven't achieved their independence! Sometimes Auckland can feel quite divided, downtown is devoted to the Asian students studying here, while everywhere else in the country is predominantly European with pockets of Maori or Pacific Islanders...guess that does sound diverse...but you rarely see everyone mixed together like we did at the festival. A really enjoyable afternoon and hopefully some good recruiting got done too.

On another positive note, our first Kiva loan has been repaid. Donations to volunteerevolution that aren't needed immediately are put through the microloan program first so we get multiple use out of the money.