Picnic brings cultures together
Olde Forge Junction hosts event to honor neighborhood residents' many cultures
Date published: 5/26/2008
BY AMY FLOWERS UMBLE
-The Free Lance Star
The Rev. Theresie Houghton took the microphone and addressed the nearly 200 people about to enjoy a picnic. "Welcome to the Olde Forge Melting Pot."
On either side, two people stood to translate her words into Swahili and Spanish. There was one problem: The translators weren't so sure the target audience would get the idea of a melting pot.
"A melting pot? They did not have such things in Africa," said Munira Marlowe, refugee services coordinator for the Catholic Diocese of Arlington's refugee resettlement program. "They would wonder, 'Are we going to melt a pot? And then eat it?'"
Greg Smith, who runs LUCHA ministries with his wife, Sue, had a similar concern. He and his staff searched for a good Spanish word to convey the right meaning and finally settled on crisol, which refers to melting metals before forging them, a process which makes the metals stronger.
However, most Latinos wouldn't know the seldom-used word and so Smith--as Marlowe did before him--opted to instead translate the idea behind the melting pot, that the cultures of Olde Forge would join together for a few hours and bond.
The idea came as Houghton and her staff at Olde Forge Junction, a nonprofit that works with residents in the Stafford County neighborhood, developed after noticing the different ethnic groups stayed to themselves.
A diverse group makes up the townhome development off U.S. 17. The group includes whites, blacks, Hispanics and newly arrived African refugees. Race and ethnic groups tend to stick together, said Michelle Carroll, community organizer for Olde Forge Junction.
They organized a potluck yesterday where everyone would bring a dish representative of their culture, to slowly break down the barriers.
"We can share what we have, whether it's food, whether it's dance, whether it's song, and not be threatened by our differences," Houghton said.
Carroll knew going into the event that it would take baby steps. "All I desire is for the residents to smile at one another," she said days before the melting pot.
Early into yesterday's event, it looked as if even that would be a stretch.
Black youth played on the basketball courts; Latino families sat under umbrellas at white plastic tables; and refugee women sought shade under the trees on the edge of the community field where the picnic was held.
The ethnic groups only mixed at the children's table, where more than 20 children colored printouts of flags.
"What is this supposed to be?" one girl asked, looking at an unfamiliar flag.
"That's the country of Burundi. It's in Africa," an adult replied.
Across, the field, near a map of the world, a few more groups were mixing it up.
"How are you, my brother?" a man asked, reaching out to shake hands with three Burundian refugees.
He handed them each stick pins, so they could mark on the map where they were born. Pins were predominantly sticking out of America, but a few poked out of Mexico, Guatemala and the Bahamas when the men put their three pins in Burundi, a small African nation next to Rwanda.
Then, Julita Mendoza walked up to the map. The men tried to ask her where she was born but she didn't speak much English--most residents say language barriers keep the ethnic groups from befriending one another.
So the men pointed to the sign above the map, which asked "Where were you born?", "¿Dónde estuvo usted nacido?", and "Umezaliwa wapi."
She put a pin in Mexico, then she and a friend got in line and loaded up on potluck fare--curried chicken, African rice, mole (a Latino chicken dish), tortillas and cake.
Back at the table, Mendoza's friend, Dominga Gomez, said (through a translator) that the Olde Forge residents usually stay in groups by ethnicity. She assumed it's because of language issues.
Gomez moved to Fredericksburg in 2003 and got a job cleaning in a hotel. It's hard to get to work when she doesn't drive, and that means she spends more time in the neighborhood.
She notices many people in Olde Forge are in the same position, and thinks that makes community even more important. So she was happy Olde Forge Junction hosted the melting pot.
"It is good to have other friends from other cultures, to get along with each other, to learn from each other, to understand each other," she said.
Later on, as the children gathered for a piñata, Bukuru Essau, a Burundian refugee, watches the kids and shares a similar story. He also walks to his job Wal-Mart and stays in the community.
His neighbors, he said, tell him "Hi" but not much else. Essau also assumes the language keeps people from making deeper friendships.
He came to Olde Forge with his wife and six children in February. The family left Africa after 36 years in a Tanzanian refugee camp.
Essau's parents took him and fled Burundi during a civil war. Soldiers shot his dad, but he and his mother made it to the camp, where he grew up, married and raised his family.
He is eager to acclimate to American culture, he said, as the children behind him burst open the SpongeBob Squarepants piñata and scrambled for candy.
Children swooping in to grab candy provided the first real glimpse of what organizers had hoped to achieve.
They were all together--African-American children with braids ending in colorful beads joining with refugee children with closely-cropped hair joining with Latino children with black, glossy locks.
Many of the adults had said the kids would be the ones to break the ethnic barriers. Many attend after-school tutoring at Olde Forge Junction and ride the school bus together. The kids have been quicker to pick up English and to acclimate.
But there have been some tensions in the neighborhood among the youth.
But as they raced for candy and danced to tunes popular to each culture, their mouths all stained from cherry ice cream, the children seemed more ready to mingle than the adults.
Amy Flowers Umble: 540/735-1973
Email: aumble@freelancestar.com