Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 30, 1995 TAG: 9504010010
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: AIMEE RATLIFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
``Diversity is our future,'' Jim Sears, president and general manager of Center in the Square, said during a recent news conference to announce Local Colors.
Activities will be held at the City Market and Center in the Square on April 8.
Even though 28 countries will be represented, there are people from more countries than that ``who work and live in the Roanoke Valley. We truly have an international community,'' Sears said.
Roanoke's Egyptian community will be featured for the first time during the festival, which begins at 9:30 a.m. with a Parade of Nations from Church Avenue to the market area. The parade will feature Scottish bagpipes and a Chinese line dance.
``This is a community effort. Area colleges will be contributing, as well as the Boy and Girl Scouts, local businesses, school children and Explore Park. WFIR's 'Murphy in the Morning' talk-show hosts Frank Murphy and Bob Clark will help me emcee the festival,'' said Pearl Fu, chairwoman and coordinator for Local Colors.
Throughout the day, visitors will be able to experience authentic music, foods, crafts and fashions from the different countries, such as singing by Bosnian children and drumming by a Haitian group.
Local Colors concludes at 5 p.m. with Girl Scout troops singing ``Let There Be Peace on Earth'' and ``We Are the World'' on the market.
``It will be a time of good will and peace in the valley. It would be wonderful to see the market full of people singing and holding hands during the finale,'' Fu said.
Soheir Seifein and Susan Hanna will tend the Egyptian booth, which will have samples of Egyptian foods.
The booth will have a display of Egyptian relics including jewelry, which is as large and ornate as that worn by the pharaohs, decorative plates that have been hand chiseled with hammer and nail, and papyrus, the material that the Egyptians wrote on.
Seifein, her husband, Adel Salama, and their two daughters moved to Roanoke three years ago from Bahrain, Egypt, an island in the gulf area of the Mediterranean Sea. He came to complete a medical residency.
``In Egypt, many women keep their family name, but the children take their father's name. When I came to America, I was encouraged to change my name to my husband's, but I did not want to because it is a part of my family and I want to keep that with me,'' said Seifein.
She also said that some families still have arranged marriages, in the sense that a couple's first visits are scheduled at the woman's home. The couple then decides whether to become engaged or not.
Hanna, her husband Sameh Hanna, and their two daughters moved from Alexandria, Egypt, a harbor town of the Mediterranean, to the United States in July 1987. They lived in Miami, and Wilkes-Barre, Pa., before settling in Roanoke three years ago. Hanna's husband is a physician at the Veteran Affairs Medical Center in Salem.
The two women met three years ago after their husbands became acquainted and have remained close ever since, not only because their daughters are close in age, but also because they discovered that they were both from Alexandria.
Seifein, Hanna and their families were instrumental in establishing St. Mary's Coptic Christian Egyptian Orthodox Church in August 1993. The church includes six or seven Egyptian families, some of them coming from Blacksburg and Staunton.
The group meets the third Saturday of each month and has a priest who comes from Raleigh, N.C., to lead services at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church.
During Local Colors, Seifein and Hanna will have stamps at their booth for children to spell their names in the old Egyptian language of hieroglyphics.
``Each stamp is a letter of the alphabet in hieroglyphics. We will have guides so that the children can match up English letters with the Egyptian letters. They will then know which stamp to use to spell out their name on a piece of paper they can keep,'' Seifein said.
Face painting will also be offered.
''We will be painting Egyptian symbols such as the palm tree, black cats, lily flowers, and the ankh. The ankh is the key of the Nile and resembles a cross. It is associated with the pharaohs.''
Soona Ark, Hanna's sister-in-law, and her husband, Ron, will provide a sampling of Egyptian cuisine - including baklava, falafel and kahk - from International Fair, a business they operate in Cherokee, N.C.
``[Kahk] are cookies made from balls of dough, filled with honey and nuts, pinched around the edge, baked, and sprinkled with powdered sugar. They are usually eaten at the three Egyptian feasts - Christmas, Easter and Ramadan - although some newly weds serve them during wedding celebrations.
Falafel is made from fava beans, which are similar to soy beans. ""Fava beans in Egypt are like the hamburger and french fries in America," Hanna said
by CNB