The children at the girls' school have been studying the Middle East this term. They have recently had a focus on Iran, and I have been invited in to share some things about the Persian culture. I have pretty much been given the day and the kids have been helping me prepare for tomorrow. We are planning to make ku-ku sibzamini (a potato omelet), as well as sholeh zard (saffron pudding) to accompany the Persian tea. We are bringing in our samovar and have borrowed a costume from A. that Anisa will wear to demonstrate traditional tribal garb. We are bringing some black material that will come in handy as a table cloth or chaddor. I have been searching the Internet and picking people's brains to come up with positive facts on Iran for a true or false game I am making to play with the whole school. We are bringing in some works of art and will be making paper flowers as well as reenacting a story from 1001 Arabian nights.For now the girls are helping to wrap up little sample pouches for the kids to try some traditional Persian snacks. 
My little mermaid has been busily laying out cellophane squares and placing one ingredient list on each,
while Ruhi has been meticulously placing the same number of dried apricots, figs, dates, dried mulberries (toot) white raisins (yes, white, or perhaps a pale, creamy, yellow) and dried chick peas in little patches of glad wrap. 
We are wrapping these in the cellophane and will be giving one to the students and staff tomorrow. Provided that we finish our preparations of course.
Later:
My little mermaid has been busily laying out cellophane squares and placing one ingredient list on each, while Ruhi has been meticulously placing the same number of dried apricots, figs, dates, dried mulberries (toot) white raisins (yes, white, or perhaps a pale, creamy, yellow) and dried chick peas in little patches of glad wrap. We are wrapping these in the cellophane and will be giving one to the students and staff tomorrow. Provided that we finish our preparations of course.Later:
The day went really well, if I do say so myself. We got to school early and I started making the sholeh zard. After recess I had the girls dress up 
and began by asking what the students thought of when they imagined Iran. We got the usual response of deserts, camels and terrorists and from there started talking a little about the history of Iran, about Mehran's personal experiences and the Baha'i Faith and about how there are good people everywhere. I showed them some of the things that I had brought and had them make the flowers while I began taking small groups into the staff room to make the ku-ku sibzamini. We managed to find a job, albeit some very small, for every single person and by the time it took to finish cooking (we made a triple batch) and eating them (there were none left) it was almost lunch. The kids were then introduced to Persian tea, with its soft spices and unique technique of sucking the tea through sugar cubes- they really got into this. (Some kids even had thirds) - Which was good because although the sholeh zard smelled really good I think the flavours were extremely unusual for the children. Most people managed to finish their portions but no one asked for seconds. I think young J. summed it up when he poked his head through the door and instead of the usual "thank you" that was said as bowls were handed back instead went this route: "Wow! That was disgusting!" Never mind, Mehran's parents took half of what was left and Nushan and her friends polished off the rest.
and began by asking what the students thought of when they imagined Iran. We got the usual response of deserts, camels and terrorists and from there started talking a little about the history of Iran, about Mehran's personal experiences and the Baha'i Faith and about how there are good people everywhere. I showed them some of the things that I had brought and had them make the flowers while I began taking small groups into the staff room to make the ku-ku sibzamini. We managed to find a job, albeit some very small, for every single person and by the time it took to finish cooking (we made a triple batch) and eating them (there were none left) it was almost lunch. The kids were then introduced to Persian tea, with its soft spices and unique technique of sucking the tea through sugar cubes- they really got into this. (Some kids even had thirds) - Which was good because although the sholeh zard smelled really good I think the flavours were extremely unusual for the children. Most people managed to finish their portions but no one asked for seconds. I think young J. summed it up when he poked his head through the door and instead of the usual "thank you" that was said as bowls were handed back instead went this route: "Wow! That was disgusting!" Never mind, Mehran's parents took half of what was left and Nushan and her friends polished off the rest.The most successful part of the day was after lunch when the whole school came together and we played the dorost ya eshtebah (true or false) game that I created for the occasion. I played this with my students when we were studying Mexico and they loved it. There are two teams and each team chooses a person to sit in a hot seat (which are positioned so competitors are back to back and cannot see the other teams response. ) There are two cards for the people in the hot seat to hold. One says true (dorost) and one says false (eshteba). I say a statement like: Iran's second largest export is flying carpets, or the first charter for human rights was written by King Darius of Persia and they have to work out whether that statement is true or false and hold up the correct card. Each team that gets it right gets a point and if a player gets it wrong they sit down and another team member has a turn. The kids really seemed to enjoy it and everyone had a shot. But better than this was the reenactment of Ali Cogia and the Merchant of Baghdad, one of the stories from the 1001 Arabian nights. I had another teacher pick the two main characters (I didn't want to be accused of nepotism you see) and fortunately one was Ruhi (who was devastated, but held it together most maturely, that she only had a little shot at the true and false game.) Getting to play Ali Cogia perked her right up and R. was perfect as the greedy merchant. The kids were spellbound while I narrated portions of the story and laughed in all the right places. It was awesome. (I wish my regular students would do that.) At the end we handed out our little snack gifts and also extra tea bags. Apparently they really liked the tea. But they also got to learn positive things about another culture, especially a culture that is generally portrayed in an extremely negative light. They left with positive experiences, tasty snacks and a better understanding of a group of people who are not so very different from themselves.
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