By Ryan Thompson, Fort Leonard Wood Public Affairs Office
FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (September 30, 2024) — International military students from 38 countries are preparing to share their cultures with the Fort Leonard Wood community from 6 to 8 p.m. Oct. 4 during the 22nd Know Your World event in Nutter Field House.
Hosted by the International Military Student Office, the event will feature booths created by Fort Leonard Wood’s international students, who will highlight cultural pride, music, informational displays and even food from their home countries.
“There will be food, drinks and lots of fun. The students will set up tables and have display boards that will display portions of their culture and their country,” said Micah Pereza, IMSO Field Studies Program coordinator. “A lot of (the students) will have maps and military related items on their boards. Some will have geographical information that shows how their country is laid out, what their economy is like in their country. We have a few that will dress in their traditional clothing from their country and the rest will be in their (military) dress uniform.”
Kenneth Howard, IMSO Field Studies Program manager, said the purpose of Know Your World is twofold.
“No. 1, it’s to allow the students to meet people from the community so they understand more about us,” Howard said. “And it is to allow the community, both local and military, to get to know our students and to know a little bit more about their countries and their traditions so we can create more of a community.”
Capt. Abdulaziz Al-Kharafi is a combat engineer school instructor in the Kuwaiti army. He arrived at Fort Leonard Wood in March to attend the U.S. Army Engineer Captains Career Course.
He said this is his first time in America, and he is excited to showcase his country’s culture and history.
“I’m going to teach (the community) about how we do the food, because everyone likes food,” Al-Kharafi said. “I’m going to show some sort of history like how people used to work to bring food to the table.”
Al-Kharafi said he wants to show how other cultures have influenced his country.
“Most of my ancestors used to be pearl divers and they would take the seashells and sell the pearls in India. That is why we got the spices from India that changed the food traditions in Kuwait,” Al-Kharafi said.
Capt. Kemajl Haliti, a planning and budgeting officer in the Kosova national guard who is also attending the ECCC, said in addition to sharing his country’s food, culture, traditional clothing and music, he also wants to learn about the other countries represented at the event.
“I want to be able to see what others bring,” Haliti, who is also in America for the first time, said. “I want to try different countries foods. I want to try Arabian Gulf type of food. They have special spices they put on their food, so anything from the gulf.
Howard said Know Your World provides a unique opportunity to learn about many cultures in one place.
“The goal of this program is to give people the opportunity to travel around the world without actually leaving Fort Leonard Wood,” Howard said.
-30-
About Fort Leonard Wood
Fort Leonard Wood is a thriving and prosperous installation that has evolved from a small basic training post more than 75 years ago to a premier Army Center of Excellence that trains more than 80,000 military and civilians each year.
Fort Leonard Wood is home to the U.S Army Maneuver Support Center of Excellence and three U.S. Army schools: the U.S. Army Engineer School; U.S. Army Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear School; and the U.S. Army Military Police School. In addition to training engineer, CBRN and military police specialties for the Army, Fort Leonard Wood also provides gender-integrated in-processing and Basic Combat Training for new Soldiers.
Fort Leonard Wood also hosts and trains with the largest Marine Corps Detachment and Air Force Squadron on any Army installation as well as a large Navy construction detachment.