What do you get when you put 400 women from dozens of countries in one big room with some great food, and tell all the men they can’t come? A very fun Women’s Cultural Festival, which we recently had at our International Evangelical Church (IEC).

The IEC women’s ministries committee had been trying to think of some event that would be an opportunity to reach out in friendship to the various nationalities in Addis Ababa’s large international community. Our young Ethiopian director of women’s ministries came up with the idea of an evening of singing, dancing, drama and national foods. We all told her she was crazy, that it would be absolute chaos and wouldn’t work. She convinced us to try it anyway, and we're glad she did.

It was a fabulous gathering! Several of the embassy communities used it as an opportunity for their women to do something special together, so we had lots of people there who don’t ordinarily attend our church. Some of the highlights were:

• The Kenyan contingent performed songs in Luo and Swahili.
• Then two South Indian women in gorgeous silk saris sang in Tamil.
• The Ethiopian women dressed to represent the different regions and ethnic groups of Ethiopia.
• A group of American, Canadian and Australian young girls demonstrated the Virginia and Highland Reels they’ve been learning in a weekly after-school dance class.
• The Dutch had us all laughing at a skit satirizing the ‘coolness’ of Dutch culture versus the warmth and spontaneity of Africans.
• The Malawians did a performance showing how they honor the mother of a bride who’s about to be married. This involved a lot of exuberant singing and dancing while carrying gifts like parcels of firewood and a live rooster!

You must remember that most of these women are here with the diplomatic community, and we usually see their smooth, polished professional sides. With it being a women-only gathering, they felt freer to cut-loose a little bit.

The most stunning performance was by the Namibian women, who sang worship songs in gorgeous southern African harmony. But because they were singing in the San Bushman language of their region, the beautiful harmonies were punctuated with the mysterious clicking sounds of that language. We were all mesmerized.

After the performances, we had tables of food from about twenty different countries outside in the church courtyard under the stars. The whole event was a rousing success, and lots of fun for all.