Day 22 - it was a busy week (sounds like the start of a Dickens novel). If I may, the "gives" over the past few days were associated with my Leadership Loudoun's team issue day presentation on Thur Jan 20. To back up, I am part of the current class of Leadership Loudoun (Loudoun County, VA), a leadership development program similar to that offered by many governments and chambers of commerce.

Our team looked at cultural diversity in our county, its roots, how it has evolved through the county's population explosion over the past 10-15 years (Loudoun is regularly listed as the fastest growing, or one of the top fastest growing counties in the country), experiences of first generational immigrants to the county, and specifically within the intertwined perspectives of family, community, business sector, and our diverse faiths. The event was hosted at the Northern Virginia Baha'i Center in Sterling VA. The Baha'i theme of "unity in diversity" tied in well with our issue day theme.

We kicked off our day by shuttling our guests off for a scavenger hunt at a local international food market. The thought being, get them out of their comfort zone and immerse them in other cultures. Most of the guests had not previously been to an international food market.

We reconvened and worked through our presentations and panel discussions, and ended the day with a Bhangra dance lesson. Bhangra is traditional music and dance from the Punjab region of India. It began as a dance symbolizing the coming of the harvest season, and is now seen as an expression of South Asian cultures as a whole.

Congrats to our team for pulling this off, after just 3 months of planning, and with a limited budget and limited resources. Hopefully our guests were able to take away something from this and put it to action in their personal lives!