Last Tuesday it was my turn to organize the Cultural Evening, the first one after the summer holidays. During this evening I presented various aspects of the Netherlands: its history, food, music, pictures, videos... For one evening, Centrum Sektor 3 in Wrocław was turned into an extremely condensed version of my country.
The first part of the evening was about the history of my country, up until the Dutch Golden Age. History in itself can be quite boring, so I tried to make it more interesting by connecting it to the present day. In what way did this part of history shape the country? What can still be seen nowadays? And - last but not least - where to go if you want to see more?
As I wrote before I consider food to be an essential part of culture, so of course there was some Dutch food to try. During the break, the audience could taste spekkoek (or lapis legit, a Dutch-Indonesian cake), Brabantse worstenbroodjes (Brabant-style sausage buns), and Gouda and Edam cheese.
I decided to make spekkoek and worstenbroodjes because they are nice opposites. Brabantse worstenbroodjes are savoury, simple sausage buns from Brabant, the Dutch province where I grew up. Spekkoek on the other hand is a sweet and delicate layer cake, developed during colonial times in the Dutch East Indies. Baking it requires a lot of time and patience. A lot. The recipe must have been developed by a desperate housewife, waiting for her husband to come home while an Indonesian nanny watched over their children... In other words, it's not meant for a busy EVS volunteer preparing her Cultural Evening, although the taste and the compliments afterwards compensated a lot of stress.
After the break it was quiz time! I prepared five questions, four about stereotypes when it comes to Dutch people - rich, tall, smoking weed and riding bicycles - and one about the links between Wrocław and the Netherlands. The winner would go home with real Dutch stroopwafels (syrup waffles), from a Albert Heijn supermarket. Pretty normal stuff for Dutch people, but over here... When I showed the prize, a lot of ooooooooh's and aaaaaah's came from the audience. Sky high motivation assured! :)
The quiz took more time than expected, so after the quiz I had to hurry a bit through the last part of the history, from the 18th century until the present day. Fortunately there was just enough time left to show everything. Meanwhile, all the answer sheets were checked so at the end of my presentation I could congratulate the two winners, who were so kind to share the prize, and after that it was time to wrap things up and go home.
On the day itself, and the day before, I had the feeling that I was living on another planet. The only thing I could think about was the Dutch Cultural Evening. It was one of the most nerve-racking experiences of my life, and heaps of work, but I look back on it with pleasure and pride. Not only because of the effort I put into it, but also because of all the support I got. Thanks again to all who helped me, in one way or another.
Na razie! / Bye! / Houdoe!
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