"Indo kareh"

(that's "code" for Indian curry. . .) One of the families from church spent 4 years in India, and so I asked Keiko if she could lead the cooking class this month and teach us how to make curry. We made chicken curry, yogurt salad, flavoured rice with peas in it, and tandoori chicken. I had no idea how to make Indian curry, since at home we used tomato soup, and in Japan they use a flavour block that already has the thickening "built in".
Guess what it is in Indian curry?? (we didn't use any flour or cornstarch) -- onions!!! Yeah, we cut about 4 big ones into chunks, and fried on high for about 1/2 an hour until they had browned and shrunk down into almost nothing -- and then started adding the spices (pretty, eh?), chicken, yogurt and tomatoes. Fry another 1/2 hour and then add some water and there you have it. I was impressed, and let me tell you, the authentic stuff made from scratch may take a lot of time, but it's worth it!
Keiko, on right, with Kumiko (the pastor's wife)
Everyone at the cooking class this time. It was a really small group since the flu has been going around. . . and almost all of the kids in my kindergarten class are going into grade 1 next year (no, it's not a pass-fail thing, but the kids here usually go for 2 years, sometimes 3, and kindergarten is totally unconnected to "school") So, those mothers all had a meeting at the school that day, which was too bad!! Kaori, the woman in the orange came for the first time, even though Tomoko from church, who invited her, couldn't make it. So that was neat and hopefully she keeps coming!
This afternoon, I had the chance to talk to a group of grade 6 kids about. . . Canada and Canadian "culture". They had come to ask for volunteers at the Japanese class I'm taking. . . and at first I thought they just wanted someone to answer questions for the kids so I agreed. . . it was only after I was "hooked in" that I realized it was a presentation! But, it was a lot of fun, and a good experience -- the kids had done some research on their own, and I even found out a few things I didn't know about our country!! ;-)
I was a little worried about not having anything to talk about (the other two women going were from Korea and Taiwan -- must be nice to have traditional culture, I thought!). But, I tried to introduce the idea to them about Candian culture being a whole bunch of different cultures existing and interacting together (ok, well, I couldn't say things quite as eloquently as that, but you get the idea!) In a country where there aren't many days when I'm not looked at wonderingly, or don't hear comments about English, or "look at the foreigner" "is she ever tall!", these kids have no idea about what a "German Canadian" or "Chinese Canadian" or an "East Indian Canadian" is. Here is pretty clear-cut who's a foreigner, well, at least the white ones, which really make up a small minority of foreigners. Out of the one percent of so of the population that is foreign, the majority are Chinese and Korean.
Makes me realize that even though we may not have the "distinct identity" of the same language and way of life, or may not have specific clothing and arts that have been carefully passed down from generation to generation, we have a richness and uniqueness that we can only fully appreciate by valuing our own culture and that of those around us.
They asked us to teach the kids a game or song in English too, so we did "Shake a Friend's Hand" -- I added in "Give a high 5" and "Link a friend's arm" ;-) and played "Red Rover". The game didn't go quite as well as I hoped (they weren't quite as serious about it as I used to remember being in elementary. . .), but fun, nonetheless!
I think it's neat how they want to introduce the kids to other cultures to try and promote understanding and acceptance. . . something we can all learn!