Saturday Morning Breakfasts

A wonderful tradition has started at the MC Flat. Every Saturday morning all interns, friends, friends of friends, are invited to come for breakfast. Each week Nadya and I, with suggestions from others, select a topic to discuss during the breakfast. So far, with the intern group we have discussed:

Perceptions and Misconceptions: What stereotypes do you think exist about your country? Which ones are true, and which are not? From an outside perspective, what are the perceptions of a given country?

This discussion took us everywhere, from the impacts of Danish cartoons on violence in Nigeria, to the different perspectives in different geographical regions of Ukraine, to religion in Malaysia, to aboriginal land claims in Alberta etc…

Kids of the World: What games were popular when you were growing up? Who raises kids in your home country? What is the common “family” in your country?

This topic led to the discussion of the “outsourcing” of parenting in Hong Kong and other countries, to the still underdeveloped child care system in Germany, that is resulting in the low glass ceiling for the country’s women, to the rise of Fathers as the predominant parent in some countries, and the complete absence of fathers in parenting in others etc…

This week we are planning to discuss New Year’s resolutions. We are hoping to come out with a list of them that we can keep on the wall at the flat, and help keep each other motivating on achieving what we dream for ourselves in the next year.

It is so fantastic to be able to sit around the table with such a wonderful, open, extremely diverse group of people from literally ALL around the world, to gain perspectives into the issues we are all going to face going forwards!! I REALLY want to keep this tradition alive when I go back home! So Amber, Irene, Diana, Ala, Erwin, AIESECers, can we have weekly breakfast meetings in Calgary?