The United Nations in Iowa

We hosted a Christmas get-together for Kevin's engineer group from work on Friday evening. We have done this before--everyone brings their favorite hors d'oerves and we play some game like Guesstures or Balderdash--just a low-key fun time. I like it because I get to meet the people Kevin works with everyday, and I get a little more background of how things are going at work.

This time, things were a little different. Kevin's group is unusual--it is one of the most culturally diverse at the Product Engineering Center. In our gathering there was one woman from Nigeria, a man from Pakistan, a man & his wife here on a one-year assignment from Argentina (she struggled in speaking English), a man from Mexico, and a woman from Venezuela, not to mention one fellow from the Ozarks in Arkansas. Oh wait, that is in the U.S. And the engineer from India wasn't able to come. There were actually only two native Iowans here!

In planning this, Kevin and I were perplexed as to how to entertain our guests. Games were out because of the diverse language abilities of the group. Sing Christmas carols or talk about favorite Christmas memories? Not everyone was Christian.

So we just went around the circle and listened to the fascinating stories of the pathway each person followed from their homeland to work for John Deere in Cedar Falls, Iowa. One common thread that ran through their stories was that their families were well-educated--either medical doctors or professors in their home lands, and some were even educated in the United States. These were all good, decent people and it was fun to have them in our home.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the evening a great deal. No one left early, not even the part-time UNI student (I thought he'd leave early to go do something with his buddies, especially if this wasn't "fun".)

I guess I can say that the evening was a success!