Cafe Lingo’s international food festival proved a big success at Promenade Methodist Church in Douglas.

The event attracted a large turnout and featured foods from all over the world, including Thailand, Italy, West Sahara, Peru and beyond, including the Isle of Man.

Cafe Lingo was launched in 2016 and offers free English language classes to non-native speakers, encouraging socialisation and providing information about the Manx way of life.

The idea for the food festival came from Wahba, who is one of the students and hails from North Africa.

As well as offering a selection of exotic foods from around the world, the festival also held a raffle with prizes generously donated by companies such as Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, Robinson’s, Shoprite, Tesco, Busy Bee Italian Language and Culture and many more.

Organiser Karen Norton was pleased with how successful the event was and already has plans for another special function at Christmas.

’I was delighted with the turnout. Everything we do at Cafe Lingo is optional, we don’t put any pressure at all on people to attend, but it was a lovely occasion. So many came and shared food from their cultures - home-made food - and people enjoyed them together - the atmosphere was great. There was also plenty of Manx produce on offer, such as bonnag, kipper pate, Manx stew as well as local bread and butter.

’For the first time we’d widened the invitation to include students’ and volunteers’ friends and families too, as well as supporters, so it was good to see them all and everybody interacting happily together.’

Karen was quick to pay tribute to Wahba who was instrumental in the event: ’Wabha’s originally from West Sahara but spent a few years living in Spain before moving to the island because her husband works at the hospital.

’This was her idea to bring everyone together - it was a very happy and open occasion.

’Another one of our students, Anna, was brilliant as she helped with the organisation of the event and also involved Culture Vannin who very kindly lent us material for learning and speaking Manx. Peel Centenary Centre and Dave McLean generously loaned us international flags which added to the atmosphere.’

Plans are already well underway for another event which is to be held on Christmas Eve: ’We’ve become aware that there are some people living on the island, far away from their extended families, who feel lonely particularly on Christmas Eve.

’For the first time, this year Cafe Lingo is holding a ’meet and eat’ at Paparazzi on Douglas Promenade where interested people - volunteers, students and family are invited to come and meet us there at 5.30pm to enjoy a meal at Christmas.

’This is to offer people the chance to have a celebratory meal in a comfortable and safe environment with people from different cultures.’

For more information on Cafe Lingo or the Christmas event, contact Karen on 458340 or follow Cafe Lingo (Isle of Man) on Facebook.

Classes take place at the church from 10.15am to 11.45am on Saturdays