As soon as I arrived in Houston to take up my position as Head of The Awty International School, I began hearing about the annual International Festival.  I was told that it was wonderful, one of the highlights of Awty’s year, one of the best things that Awty does, and that I had never seen anything like it.

To be honest, those comments sounded somewhat over-hyped to me at the time.  I appreciated the enthusiasm that underpinned the remarks, but I had just completed seven years service as Head of the United World College in Hong Kong, and I had experienced a seemingly countless number of cultural evenings and international shows, almost all of which were of

excellent quality, especially considering that they were largely organized by the students with minimal assistance from teachers.

Nonetheless, with everything I had heard, my expectations for this week’s International Festival were understandably high.  Having just experienced the two day event at the end of this week, I can honestly say that it even surpassed anything I experienced during my seven years in Hong Kong - and those who know the excellence of the United World Colleges and the emphasis that they place on international understanding and celebration of diversity will understand that this is an extremely powerful statement!

Yes, my very high expectations were abundantly exceeded.

The preparations for the International Festival began even before the start of this school year.  The International Festival is coordinated each year by our parent organization, the APPA, and we had two energetic, visionary and brilliantly organized

parents taking the responsibility for planning this year, Ms Ana Escalona and Ms Claudia Fernandez.  They were a pleasure to work with and I attribute much of the success of this week’s Festival to their inspiration and meticulous attention to detail.

The main part of the International Festival took place on Thursday and Friday this week.  It began with a ceremony in our Courtyard attended by many of the consuls and consuls-general who are based in Houston, including Mr Frederic Bontems, the Consul-General of France and an Awty board member, and Mr Daniel Deodato, the Consul-General of Argentina, the country that was being especially recognized at this year’s International Festival.  Other diplomats present represented Austria, Belgium,

Egypt, Germany, Mexico, the Netherlands, Peru, Sri Lanka, Switzerland and Turkey.

The ceremony began with the very moving parade of flags, in which every one of our Grade 12 students carried a flag which honored the presence of the almost 60 nationalities of students currently at Awty, plus many of the nationalities of former students.

There were several short speeches, including remarks from Mr Deodato, our Proviseur (Mr Boualem Maizia) and myself as Head of School, before our guest speaker, Ms Patricia Gras, addressed the gathering.  Born in Houston to Argentinean parents, Ms Gras speaks five languages, has visited over fifty countries, holds three masters degrees and has received over 170 journalism awards for her media work, especially highlighting the plight of orphans in Romania, the challenges faced by Taiwanese immigrants to the United States, and American medical

efforts in post-conflict Vietnam.  In 2008, she was voted one of the most influential women in Houston by Houston Women magazine, and she has interviewed such well known personalities as former Presidents Bush and Carter, former Secretaries of State James Baker and Madeleine Albright, and a long list of international dignitaries that includes Desmond Tutu, Carlos Menem, Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia, Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus and Queen Anne of Romania.

As you might expect, Patricia’s address was entertaining, provocative, challenging and inspiring - it was a genuine delight and honor to listen to her words.  It was also very encouraging to accompany Patricia on a short tour in the PAAC after the ceremony to see our IB students’ exhibition of art works - seldom have I met anyone with such a breadth of experience who has been genuinely taken aback by the high quality of student art.  It was a great tribute to the quality of our students artistic efforts (and those of their teacher, Ms Becky Johnson) that Patricia did not want to tear herself away from the display, insisting repeatedly that “the media needs to come and do a report on this”.

But back to the ceremony… As part of our honoring of Argentina this year, we were treated to several performances by dancers, drummers and musicians from Luna Tango through the ceremony, first in the form of an emotive drum accompaniment to the flag parade, then in a breathtaking tango performance, and finally by an outstanding folk and malambo presentation that had our students rising to their feet.

Following the last performance by Luna Tango, I recognized each of the participating booths that had been set up around our courtyard.  As I called out the name of each participating country, a student from that country stood and held high an olympic-

style sign with the name of the nation, always to the enthusiastic clapping and cheering of their fellow students.  In addition to the 33 national booths we had - Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Iran, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Trinidad & Tobago, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay and Venezuela - we introduced something different this year, a Peace Booth to promote the ideas of international understanding and peaceful resolution of conflict, supported by the +Works program that we have also introduced into the school this year.

I was especially pleased to support this initiative, as it provided an opportunity for our students to reflect on peace and learn

about the Nobel Peace prize and Nobel Peace prize winners.  As a symbol of peace between nations and here at Awty, we concluded the opening ceremony by releasing a peace dove.  This was done by four students, one from each school, two from the International Section and two from the French Section.  The peace dove was a beautiful white dove, also known as a Rock Dove and it had been raised and trained at the Bencal Loft farm, not far from Awty.  As I explained to the students during the ceremony, after the Dove was released it was supposed to circle the sky, after which it would return to the farm where it had been raised and where it would be cared for very well.  As it turned out, someone forgot to share these clear instructions with the dove, who seemed so keen to return home that it forgot to fly a circuit of our courtyard, and flew instead in a purposeful, fast and very straight direction back to its home.

Following the ceremony, I spent a thoroughly enjoyable few hours exploring the 34 booths that surrounded the courtyard.  I had seen photos of these booths in previous years, but photos can never convey the atmosphere of this great event - the

sights, the music, the smells of the food, and the sheer exuberant enthusiasm!  I have been very fortunate in travelling extensively, and for me, one of the great joys of travel is experiencing local food in different countries (yes, I know, the pathway to my heart remains my stomach!).  Every one of the booths boasted a mouth-watering array of 100% authentic national dishes, all lovingly home-cooked by the parents who were proudly sharing their national cultures on the booths.  It was an enjoyable and educational insight into a great cross-section of the world’s cultures.  I am still savoring the memory of the ample samples I tasted, and I must especially congratulate the French, Indian, Egyptian and Iranian booths - I would be very happy to nominate all them for a “Top Eats in Houston” award if I were to be asked.

Wonderful though all this was, however, it was just the beginning of a two day celebration of cultural diversity and international understanding.  All of our students were assigned times to visit the booths, taste the food, answer the quizzes, collect the

souvenirs, have their arms stamped with each booth’s “passport stamp”, and broaden their understanding of the world and the backgrounds of their fellow students.

Friday was national dress day, and all our students were encouraged to come in the national dress or the sports uniform of their home country.  As the photos show (see link at the end of this blog), it was wonderful visible expression of the internationalism that our students experience every day as part of their Awty education.

The International Festival finished on Friday afternoon with an international cultural show in the Courtyard that lasted for two hours.  Starting with some Argentinean dancing by Luna Tango, it progressed through some beautiful and gentle Japanese dancing before proceeding through a range of performances by Awty students.  The climax of the cultural show was a fashion parade in which over 50 of our Primary School children modelled their national dress, to the cheers of the wildly appreciative audience and a very informative commentary.

It was the culmination of two hectic and memorable days.  I am already looking forward to next year’s event - indeed, I can’t wait!

To view a gallery of 99 images showing the International Festival, click HERE.