PSU students present Nigeria to the community

There are currently ten Nigerian students at Pittsburg State University and last Friday they put together an International Gathering filled with traditional and authentic food, music, and the presentation about the country was given by Yemisi Olubi, sophomore in Nursing.

 ‘’It took me three days to put together this event because I’ve been really busy with school, since my Major requires a lot of effort.’’ She said: ‘’The organization process includes getting to the African market located in Kansas City, to purchase all the ingredients necessary for the meals that people tasted today’’

According to Olubi, the dishes consisted mostly in ‘’jollof rice,’’ made with basmati rice, tomatoes, onions and special seasoning, we also made ‘’moi moi,’’ a Nigerian steamed bean pudding prepared with black-eyed beans and fresh ground peppers. The guests also had spinach soup, fried plantain, chicken and beef.    

She said: ‘’Fortunately, PSU gave me 50 $ to buy all the ingredients we needed to make the meals and then I was responsible of finding them.’’

Yemis Olubi also presented some information about her country to the audience, like the fact that Nigeria is located in the Western part of Africa and it is a very diverse and highly populated country, she said.

According to Olubi: ‘’the official language in Nigeria is English, but we have three major languages,’’ she said: ‘’the religion that is predominantly practiced is Christianity and Nigerian people are formed by tribes and several ethnic groups, distributed across our 36 different states.’’

She also mentioned what the major tourist attractions were, like the Gurara waterfalls, Zuma Rock, Buatura Oasis, Kajun Castle, and the Lagos Island, where most business transactions take place.

Yemis Olubi said: ‘’This time, the International Gathering was completely full so I was very surprised of that, and I believe they all liked it because they came up to me after the event was over to give thanks,’’ she said: ‘’I think the PSU community is brave for wanting to try new things, because that is something that sometimes scares me to do but they were very open about getting to know my country.’’

Bruna Pinhoni, senior from Brazil said: ‘’ I like that today I understood some more about Nigeria, because it was the first time I learned all this facts about the country, and just like every International Gathering, it was very informative and interesting.’’

‘’ My favorite part about the event was the presentation itself and the food was really good too,’’ said the International Studies and Criminal Justice student.   

According to the International Office, there are two more Gatherings scheduled for this semester; the next one will take place in October and it will be about Paraguay.