The Art of Entertaining, Kurdish style

For some time I have wanted to invite friends and have a big dinner party. But recently I lost my house helper and realized that this would be a huge job to do by myself. Still, I decided to take the plunge and started inviting...We ended up with 20 guests + 2 toddlers. I cooked for 2 days and still felt like I didn't have enough food. When one entertains in this culture, one is expected to have an abundance of food to show people how much you honor & love them. Thus, I had 6 main dishes, 4 salads, 4 desserts and fruit to finish off the evening. Of course at least 2 rounds of tea also. The trick was to come up with a menu that I thought they might actually eat. I was pleasantly surprised at the positive comments I received about the food! We began the evening by standing in a huge circle in the kitchen and giving thanks to God for the food and our friendship. Some commented on what a nice thing this was. After eating the main course, tea was served and awhile later the desserts, then more tea. When it looks like people are getting ready to leave, the fruit should come out. This is the last thing served in any gathering. Even after being in this part of the world for a long time, I still feel intimidated by the process of offering hospitality because they do it so much better & with seemingly little effort. There definitely is a protocol that they expect & I'm always afraid I'll mess up. When I came out with the fruit at the end, one guy said "now, I'm really impressed!" As if I had passed the test of proper hospitality etiquette. During the course of the evening, it was fun to watch all the camaraderie as some played a game in the kitchen, some sat and talked in the living room and others played with the babies in the classroom. (which opens onto the living room) It was a fun evening and though a lot of work, well worth it. I had help from a couple gals on our team and Darrell helped a ton with cleaning the house & washing dishes. All of the people that we had for dinner are on our "hit list" and we would love to see them join the family. Here is a picture of some of our guests playing a game at the kitchen table.