Culture Day

Today was 'Culture Day' at IMC. Yesterday, we were told of some new cultural rules that we were expected to adhere to during the course of today. These included dressing smartly, and the men having to be accompanied by someone else if they wanted to travel around. Also, they could only speak to a woman if she initated the conversation. It was a good learning experience to help us to think about the norms and expectations of different cultures. Daniel and Sophia got involved as well, although Sophia as a girl was meant to wear a dress that came below the knee. The dress I chose for her used to be long, but it seems as if she has grown! Daniel was also meant to wear a shirt, but the only shirt we had was part of a pirate costume, so he went off to nursery dressed as a pirate. Although I explained briefly that we were taking part in a culture day, some things got lost in translation and I picked him up later to discover that the children at nursery has also been joining in with 'Pirate Day' and following Pirate rules! Tomorrow, they are even having a treasure hunt! I love the fact that the nursery got involved - a true cross-cultural experience - and I also love the fact that the nursery leaders may have thought that we were having a pirate day here at IMC; I have images of us all chasing around the place looking for buried treasure. Maybe later in the term?...