Mother’s day comes early with “A Taste of Home”
For most students, Mother’s Day celebrations fall on a Sunday, but for some international students, the special day started a day earlier. On May 11, they were invited to “A Taste of Home,” a dinner held for the international SCAD students at the Latechurch, which also included a discussion on mothers’ role in different cultures.
Ralph Stice, the event’s coordinator, explained that when his family had lived in West Africa, France and Turkey, they were always welcomed and taken care of by the locals. Stice, a writer and editor, felt that he wanted to extend the hospitality to the international students at SCAD. He added that when he lived in Washington, D.C., he grew up around many different cultures and he missed the cultural diversity in Savannah.
His wife, Charlotte, a teacher, made the food that included home cooked rice, beef with vegetables, couscous and chicken dipped in peanut butter sauce. Throughout dinner, the guests chatted about the different cuisines from their hometown and their experiences with food from different countries.
For dessert, Mary Negley made cookies and banana pudding, which the guests also enjoyed and helped themselves to more servings. There was an icebreaker during the meal, which involved guests picking out candy from a bowl and answering questions based on the color of the sweets they got. While Negley conducted the icebreaker, Stice served guests Turkish tea.
After dinner, Stice began the discussion by asking when Mother’s Day was celebrated in each culture. Carlo Motta, a second-year film major from Panama, explained that although Mother’s Day was celebrated in December, his friends still made him call his mom. Although the discussion was geared towards Mother’s Day, several students would sometimes bring up the topic of their fathers, which prompted Stice to joke that there should be another dinner for Father’s Day.
When asked what a mother’s role was in their culture, Tenielle Addlerly, a fashion design and fashion marketing major from the Bahamas, explained that a mother was always there to nurture you. Muunuu Nainaa, an animation major from Mongolia, admitted that she was more of a “daddy’s girl.”
Motta compared a mother’s role to that of a psychologist, saying that he felt more emotionally connected to his mom rather than his dad whereas Stice explained that during his time in Turkey, his students were more inclined to trust their fathers and grandfathers more in contrast to an American classroom.
Ziyad, a student from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, said that in his country children were more inclined to trust their mothers and grandmothers. He told the group that big families tended to live in the same house, adding that his grandparents, parents and brother’s family all lived under the same roof. He explained that in his culture, it was considered a blessing to have their grandmother still live with the family. Nainaa also said that she was close to her grandparents, who would always help her get out of trouble when she was a little girl.
For the other members in the group, they explained that it was a different experience being the mother (or father) in the family. Mrs. Stice said that becoming a teacher after having children helped her understand her students more and made her more empathetic to their problems. Mr. Stice said that since becoming a father, he now has a deeper understanding of God. Negley described her experience as being more of a mother figure towards her younger sister.
Regardless of the different Mother’s Day celebrations, the guests were able to gain more insights from the different cultures from Latin America to Saudi Arabia to Asia. They agreed that despite where they came from or how they grew up, their mothers were still an important aspect in their lives and would most definitely receive a Mother’s Day card this weekend.
