39 women, young children and volunteers from the St Georges Road and Shepparton English Language Centre Community hub climbed aboard a bus for a Cooking Excursion to travel to a property on top of a ridge with 360 degrees views in the Strathbogie Ranges. (The women who attended this excursion are originally from South Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Kuwait, Malaysia, Phillipines and Nepal).
There were many smiles and laughter as women enjoyed having fun being together. Many shared stories of happy memories from their childhood of their homelands far away.
We learnt how to make pizza and cooked in the outdoor woodfired oven. Many were surprised how easy it was to make and look forward to trying to cook this at home for their families.
We enjoyed eating, chatting and sipping on tea on the picnic rugs and hammocks under the warm winter sun and also taking time to wander around the property to see the chooks, rabbits, fish and food garden.
With comments like-
“it was the best day ever”
“I was not feeling so well this morning but I think the fresh air made me better”
And from one of our volunteers sent me this message, “I had an absolute ball so THANK YOU for letting me meet these wonderful young women”
Many women said, “This day makes me very happy. Please Liz can we do this again: ”
During the school term one of our hub programs is a cooking program with women taking turns to be ‘chef of the week’ teaching one of their favourite recipes. It is a wonderful activity to learn more about each other and each others cultures.
We look forward to beginning a Family Gardening Program in term 3 and extending the kitchen garden to include a multicultural kitchen garden and use in our cooking program. The weekly family gardening program will begin on Thursday July 25th 2-3.15pm with Bunnings doing a family activity (and then once a month from then on) to kick start us.
Thank you again for this wonderful opportunity for the excursion. We are all very grateful.