Multicultural Dressing

One of the many reasons that I love being part of our international church is because the first Sunday of each month we have a Feast. Though we share a meal together each week before church, once a month we encourage lots of people to cook traditional foods from their home countries, dress up in traditional clothing, and all come together to have a feast. It's so wonderful, and I look forward to it each month. Not only have I eaten some AMAZING food in the past 2 years, but I get a glimpse into cultures in a new way as I see the variety of clothing from all corners of the world. 

What's even cooler is that some friends have been truly generous and brought me back clothing when they've been home on breaks. So now I can feel like I have some festive "traditional" clothing to wear too, instead of my "plain" American clothing. I think I've posted some of these before, but in the past I've been Malaysian and Nigerian for the day, as well as American. Some photos in that order:

 

Oh but there's more. Two dear friends brought me back great outfits from their time at home this summer, so for the October and November Feasts I was able to be particularly fun and festive. First my custom-made Nigerian dress, which I love love love. Sadly, I didn't get a picture with my friend Mary who had it made, but here is one with Femi in his Nigerian attire and Lilian in her clothing from Zimbabwe:

And then this month I busted out the Aladdin pants. Maybe the coolest pants EVER. No but really. This outfit from Malaysia is amazingly beautiful, and I loved wearing it. And my roommate Anna acquired a really really traditional Romanian outfit for the night, so we rocked out together:

This time I was able to get a photo with the benefactors of my awesome Malaysianness, Shamini and Danny:

I'm truly thankful for such generous friends, and I love being adopted into various cultures in this small way. I continue to learn so much about a variety of cultures, and I'm thankful for each opportunity to see and experience and understand a little bit more of the lives my friends live all around the globe. Now, if we could just get someone in our church from Japan...