To begin this year’s annual Global Village celebration, students were able to participate in henna and international artwork in the main commons during A and B lunch today. Students and faculty members alike helped create intricate designs on students’ hands, patiently squeezing out tubes of henna and instructing participants on how to let the designs dry.
Senior Afnan Hussain, who has been a part of Global Village since her freshman year, said she first got involved because she “wanted to help spread cultures around the school” and represent her Middle Eastern heritage. She has been doing henna since she was in middle school and said “it’s a fun way to represent cultures,” along with her participation in the international fashion show, which will take place Thursday.
“My favorite part about doing henna was doing it on people I have never seen before at Rock Bridge. I got to make small talk with them and get to know more about them,” Hussain said. “My favorite design to make was this twisty flower. It [had] leaves that [fell] into the fingers, and it started from the middle of the hand. Then the petals took up most of the space on the hand. It’s stem reaches until a little bit below the wrist.”
In addition to henna, three Chinese interns from the Confucius Institute with the University of Missouri — Columbia (MU) provided art materials for a table about Chinese culture. Hanban, a subsidiary of the Chinese Ministry of Education, establishes Confucius Institutes around the world, which aim to expand knowledge of Chinese language and culture, according to the organization’s MU website. Chinese teacher Junko Oba said a few students currently enrolled in Chinese 1 helped run the table.
“We showed and helped RBHS students do some craft and Calligraphy,” Oba said. “The craft was ‘cutting and folding paper’ to make some animals. It’s a traditional craft that children do. It’s similar to Origami, though it requires cutting.”
Students could fold templates into a “2020 Year of the Rat Bookmark” by following eight simple steps. Confucius Institute volunteers and RBHS students used calligraphy to write people’s names or other words in Chinese and showed interested passers by how to write calligraphy, too.
Tomorrow continues the celebration with international dance shows happening at both lunches.[TS_VCSC_Lightbox_Gallery content_images=”328455,328454,328453,328451,328450,328449,328448″ content_images_size=”large” content_images_titledata=”caption” content_title=”A glimpse into international art day” data_grid_preloader=”-1″ lightbox_effect=”simpleSwitch”][/TS_VCSC_Lightbox_Gallery][penci_text_block block_title_align=”style-title-left”]What Global Village event are you most looking forward to this week? Let us know in the comments below.[/penci_text_block]
