While visiting my parents in Houston, Texas, my daughter and my parents attended their annual International Festival (also known as iFest Houston) held within several downtown city blocks. This year’s theme was “Out of Africa”, so many of the booths and performances gave the visitors a spotlight on many different African cultures.It was a wonderfully organized festival, with plenty of room for the thousands of people in attendance.

We arrived early, just in time for the gates to open. That gave us a chance to wander through the festival with virtually no crowds. We first browsed the wonderful booths full of beautiful crafts and carvings from Africa. There were so many great colors surrounding us as we wandered. We attended the performance of Harrison Kumi from Ghana.

During this performance, I was distracted by a family of ducks making their way down to a pond on the festival grounds. My daughter Maysen was distracted too, and we followed them to get some good duckling shots.

The highlight of our time at the festival was watching the National Dance Theatre of Ethiopia who performed their wonderful native dance upon the main stage. The movement of their bodies seemed like impossible feats of rhythm and style. The second page of my iFest 2008 gallery features much of their dancing.

My older brother Michael goes by another name in his everyday life. To those he lives with on the Shasta Abbey Buddhist Monastery, he is Reverend Houne Sheridan. He is a Buddhist monk, and was ordained in April of 2006. I have only visited him twice before at the abbey, located in Mt. Shasta, California, but this was the first time I visited him all by myself.

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