Yesterday, my daughter and I ventured out to Little Rock where they were having a Turkish Food Festival at the Raindrop Turkish House. They had bouncy houses for the kids, cultural music and dance, arts and crafts booths, henna tattooing, and plenty of food booths with all types of Turkish food and deserts.

I stopped at one table, where a guy was writing peoples names in Turkish style calligraphy on a large piece of colorful paper. I had him write my daughter’s name for me of course. We moved on to another booth, where a guy was painting colorful pictures on a giant plate. I couldn’t help but stare as he dabbed his pen every so carefully on the plate. I was mesmerized by the beautiful artwork he was doing, as well as the other pieces of artwork they laid around him, on top of his table.

We ventured to the desert booth and I had my daughter pick out something, then walked outside to see what else we could find to fill out plates. We watched a small group of young women, dressed in beautiful cultural costumes, dance to some cultural music, then listened to a Mariachi band play.