As student volunteers painted delicate patterns of henna onto students’ hands, the onlooking crowd listened to recitations of international poems during lunch today. The festivities kicked off Global Village week, which was cut short due to the snow day. Since winter weather interfered with the pre-planned schedule, the International Poetry Day and Arts and Crafts Day were grouped together in a joint activity.
Freshman Mariyum Hussain participated in both the poetry recitations and the henna booth, performing a passage from the Quran and applying geometric patterns to both herself and her friends throughout lunch. She thought the activities turned out to be far more successful than she anticipated.
“It actually wasn’t as scary as  I thought it would be because I performed “Surah Duha” and it’s my favorite and I know it well,” Hussain said. “I liked [the henna] because it was really fun and everyone was good at doing henna. I had a lot of fun doing it for other people, because lunch is when all the freshmen came.”
As one of the artists at the henna table, junior Yasmeen Taranissi said she was excited to participate in the Arts and Crafts Day. She said she thought applying henna designs to her classmates’ hands was a great opportunity to share aspects of her own culture with the rest of the school.
“I think [today] was successful. Everyone was so interested in the henna and it was really cool that they were interested in something they normally might not notice,” Taranissi said. “Although the poetry was a bit ignored, I thought it was pretty cool and exotic.”
Among the flock of students surrounding the henna table in hopes of getting a henna tattoo was sophomore Alice Yu. This is Yu’s first Global Village experience, and she had been looking forward to today’s activities with enthusiasm.
“I have a fascination with skin ink, and so ever since my oldest sister came home after her first Global Village with henna on her hand … I’ve always wanted to get henna,” Yu said. “I had been anticipating getting henna all of last week and today in second hour I couldn’t stop talking about how excited I was.”
Tomorrow, March 5, is International Dance Day, followed by the International Fashion Show on Thursday, March 6, and Global Village on Friday, March 7.
By Afsah Khan