Base Borden Goes Multicultural

There is a little known and even less publicized bi-annual event that takes place here in Canada. I am talking about the multicultural event that was put on at Base Borden on March 5th, 2009. This is an event, I am told, that takes place twice a year where more than twenty countries participate and show off their cuisine, culture and wares. This event is put on to honour the countries that participate.

This year was my first visit to the event so I had absolutely no expectations. All I knew was that there would be food served by the various communities. I knew that the ladies auxiliary from the St. Clement Macedonian Orthodox Cathedral would be coming to serve the food and that my friends Major Mile Dimitrievski and Captain Igor Gelev, visiting officers from the Macedonian Army, from the Republic of Macedonia had invited me to be there so I decided to go.

Base Borden is one of two military bases here in Canada that plays host to foreign soldiers from over twenty countries. The soldiers are brought here so that they can learn to speak English. Canada picks up the tab for countries that are NATO members. Canada informs each country interested in participating in the program of the number of its soldiers it can accommodate and the country decides who to send. In Macedonia´s case, soldiers who want to participate must first apply for the program. Participation is voluntary. After the application is put in it has to be scrutinized and approved by the chain of command. The names of those approved are placed in a queue until their turns come. The program is held twice a year; January to June and August to December. Canada provides all accommodation including recreation, outings etc. There is also a local gymnasium and a swimming pool available to the soldiers for physical activities. On weekends there are periodical planned outings and shopping trips to Barrie and other places.

Twice a year the Base invites local ethnic communities to participate in - what can only be described as – a "multicultural event" where each country participating is given a booth to display its wares and serve food. I think this is what our Macedonian revolutionary Gotse Delchev had in mind when he said, "I envisage the world only as a field for cultural competition among nations." Delchev would have been proud of this event.

Among the various countries that participated, in order of my visit; were Macedonia, Bolivia, Montenegro, Chile, Benin, Mali, Senegal, Croatia, Malaysia, Latvia, Estonia, Albania, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Russia, Mongolia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Paraguay, Korea, Thailand, Romania, Slovakia and the Ukraine. I apologize if I missed anyone.

Now imagine all these countries competing for the attention of not only the visitors from the various communities, but also for the attention of every Canadian officer and soldier on the base. Every visitor I spoke to was a repeat visitor who enjoyed being there and would not miss this event for anything.

Imagine twenty-four countries serving their national dish, each attempting to show something unique about their culture and imagine you, a visitor, attempting to sample foods from every country. Believe me it is a connoisseur´s delight.

In my opinion Estonia had the best fish and Bosnia Herzegovina had the best baklava. Speaking about Bosnia Herzegovina, the lady serving desserts there told us a story about each of the half dozen delightful sweets she was serving.

The hottest pepper award goes to Romania but I have tasted hotter. It only brought one tear to my eyes. But the most food served award is a tie between Macedonia and the Ukraine. The Ukrainians even had a lady demonstrating egg painting.

After I had my fill with everything I could taste and I could eat no more I drew my attention to the various cultural displays; to the artifacts that ranged from dolls to dishes to pottery of all shapes and colours. Everyone had something unique to show. There were also books, booklets, pamphlets, pictures and most booths even had one or two laptops with music and videos with all sorts of stories to tell. The loudest laptop I would say was Bolivia´s; with sweet sounds of a flute.

But there was more. If anyone has told you that Russia puts on a great performance believe it, it is not an exaggeration. If I had paid more attention I could have told you the name of the folklore group performing but I didn´t. It was a group of a dozen or so performers mostly young ladies all dressed in beautiful, colourful traditional Russian dresses. They sang songs, danced and told stories about home. Not to be outdone, the Bulgarians and Croatians too did their part dazzling the visitors with their performances and colours. There were more performances that followed, including one traditional kick boxing but again I did not catch the country names, I apologize for that.

Last but not least, I want to mention that this after all was a military affair with all visiting officers and soldiers and our Canadian officers and soldiers dressed in uniform, each wearing their country´s colour, flag, crests and emblems with pride. It was a wonderful sight to see.

The event lasted from about 2:30 pm when the booths were set up until about 10:00 pm when the facilities were evacuated. The event was open to visitors from 4:30 to 8:30 pm.

When the booths closed most visitors left the base. Those who remained clustered in various common rooms in the officer´s quarters for an after party get-together.

I forgot to mention no alcoholic drinks were allowed to be served at the booths, and as one officer put it; "imagine if each booth served alcoholic drinks and you went around from booth to booth sampling…" You get the point!

All in all this was one of the better events I have attended and was very pleased to see so many cultures come together at the same time under the same roof.

Kudos to Canada for offering such a program to so many countries and making events like this possible. Also many thanks to the Base Borden officers and staff for their part in organizing and carrying out such a fantastic event. See you at the next one.