Carnivale a multicultural melting pot of fun
LALIT Bhujel thought he was going to die in a Nepalese refugee camp.
For 18 years he lived in limbo, unable to return to his native Bhutan but unable to get a visa anywhere else.
But on Saturday night he was just another face in the crowd at Wodonga’s Carnivale.
“Coming to Australia was beyond my imagination,” Mr Bhujel, 39, said.
“I was thinking I would rot in the camp, I gave up my hope.”
In Bhutan he was denied the right to speak his own language or to wear his traditional dress.
“We demanded human rights and we were evicted from the country,” he said.
He met his wife, Brinda, in the camp and the couple had their first child there.
But in 2008 the family were granted humanitarian visas and moved to Albury.
Mr Bhujel is now an ethnic school learning support officer at several Border schools and his wife is an interpreter for Centrelink.
“I consider myself to be a lucky person,” Mr Bhujel said.
The couple’s daughter Laxna was part of the dancing flash mob that captivated Carnivale audiences.
“Every year we come, we enjoy it very much,” Mr Bhujel said.
“We can find different people, different food.”
Under a perfect blue sky the smells and sounds of Africa, Cuba, Serbia, Thailand, India, Japan, Mex- ico and the Middle East permeated High Street.
Asanti Dance Theatre, a group of African drummers, had a cult following with members of the crowd helping carry their drums from one end of High Street to the other between performances.
Appiah Annan, from West Africa, said it was the group’s first time at Carnivale.
“Every time I see the audiences’ faces light up it makes me happy,” Mr Annan, 29, said.
“That’s why we do it.”
Their workshop, the last of the night, had High Street pumping.
“They’re so energetic,” Gradi Masudi, 15, said.
The Lavington student took to the floor and put on a show of his own.
“That’s my hidden talent, dancing,” he laughed.
Wodonga Council team leader of events Kellie Miller said the annual street festival attracted about 12,000 people.
Ms Miller said the hut to hut film trail at Bonegilla proved popular and would continue today.
Source: Border Mail, March 12, 2012