The Festival of Cultures

August 11-14

City Park

The Festival of Cultures is an annual event to celebrate the wide range of cultures found in our great state. People representing 40 cultural groups will share their traditions and customs. Here are just a few of the festival’s many activities.

Crafts: See the fine art of basket weaving from Vietnam and Zimbabwe. Watch the art of making paper umbrellas from Thailand and the decorative craft of papel picado, or paper cutting, from Mexico. All craft demonstrations provide a firsthand view of how things are made. You will appreciate the process involved in making these products.

Music and Dance: Experience musical instruments that you have never heard before. Listen to the music of a sho from Japan, a bull-roarer from Australia, a sitar from India, and a chakay from Thailand. You will also be entertained by folk dances from around the world, such as the troika from Russia and the Mayim Mayim from Israel. From 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM on August 14, special folk dancing classes for children will be offered. Children ranging in age from 6 to 8 can learn the kinderpolka from Germany. Children ranging in age from 9 to 12 can learn the raspa from Mexico.

Storytelling: Listen for hours as professional storytellers charm you with attractive tales. Fairy tales, folktales, and ballads from various countries will be told. By popular demand, Gwendolyn Washington, a famous African American storyteller, is back.

Food: Enjoy delicious foods from other countries, such as gyros from Greece, seafood paella from Spain, crepes from France, and tandoori chicken from India. These tasty dishes will be difficult to pass up.

The festival of Cultures is organized by the World Marketplace. For more information about the festival, call(800)555-0199.

Raised in a motherless home, my father was extremely tight-fisted（吝啬的）towards us children. His attitude didn't soften as I grew into adulthood and went to college. I had to ride the bus whenever I came home. Though the bus stopped about two miles from home, Dad never met me, even in severe weather. If I grumbled, he'd say in his loudest father-voice, "That's what your legs are for！"

The walk didn't bother me as much as the fear of walking alone along the highway and country roads. I also felt less valued because my father didn't seem concerned about my safety. But that feeling disappeared one spring evening.

It had been a particularly difficult week at college after long hours in labs. I longed for home. When the bus reached the stop, I stepped off the bus and dragged my suitcase to begin the long journey home.

A row of hedges（树篱）edged the driveway that climbed the hill to our house. Once I had turned off the highway to start the last lap of my journey, I always had a sense of relief to see the hedge because it meant that I was almost home. On that particular evening, the hedge had just come into view when I saw something gray moving along the top of the hedge, moving toward the house. Upon closer observation, I realized it was the top of my father's head. Then I knew, each time I'd come home, he had stood behind the hedge, watching, until he knew I had arrived safely. I held back my tears. He did care, after all.

On later visits, that spot of gray became my watchtower. I could hardly wait until I was close enough to watch for its secret movement above the greenery. Upon arriving home, I would find my father sitting innocently in his chair. "So! My son, it's you!" he'd say, his face lengthening into pretended surprise.

I replied, "Yes, Dad, it's me. I’m home."

At Bamfield, a coastal community in British Columbia, Canada, 84-year-old Louis Druchl is guiding The Kelp Express along the shore. For 51 years, the boat has taken him to Kelp Bay. There, ropes of seaweed are growing beneath the water’s surface. Seaweed is Druehl’s life. He has studied it, farmed it, cooked it, and written a book about it. Over the years, Druehl has seen interest in seaweed rise and fall. But as climate change affects the planet, the world is turning to seaweed as a possible way to solve that. “People have discovered seaweed,” he said. “They’ve discovered us.”

People think of forests as the best protection against climate change. But some researchers say seaweed is a better way. Unlike trees, seaweed doesn’t need fertilizers or fresh water. It grows faster than trees do and doesn’t require any land. It helps balance ocean ecosystems. And it absorbs carbon from the environment.

Seaweed could also become a key global food source. Many worry about the environmental influence of eating meat. Could seaweed farms provide enough protein for the world? Carlos Duarte, a professor of marine ecology, thinks so. “When you look at how we are going to feed the world population by 2050, in a way that doesn’t harm the environment, there is only one pathway,” he says. “Seaweed farming.” In the past ten years or so, global seaweed production has doubled. In British Columbia, there’s a long line of seaweed farmers waiting to learn from Louis Druehl.

Seaweed might fight climate change. But it isn’t without its risks. If it isn’t harvested, it can rot(腐烂)and put carbon back into the air or water. Growing too much of it could also affect the amount of light that reaches species living deeper in the water. That would be dangerous for underwater ecosystems. Halley Froehlich is an assistant professor at the University of California. She says   “seaweed can be a part of the solution to climate change, but it’s not a perfect solution on its own”.