The festival featured booths, displays and food from a wide variety of countries, and also featured presentations on different nations, as well as dancing and entertainment.

One of those presentations was on Vietnam, the country that was the focus of this year’s festival.

Nhat Anh, an Iowa Central Community College student from Vietnam, talked about his homeland for a group of about 15 during the festival.

Nhat is from Ho Chih Minh City, which is located in southern Vietnam.

-Messenger photo by Peter Kaspari
Denver Gardner, 6, left, of Moorland, gets a hand at making a Vietnamese lantern from his mom, Truly Gardner, during the Festival of Nations Sunday at Iowa Central Community College.

He talked about his home city, which includes the skyscraper Landmark 81.

“It’s one of the top 10 highest towers in the world,” Nhat said.

He also described a unique market that can be found in the southern part of the country.

“You can see here it’s a market, but it’s on the river,” he said as he showed a photo. “They’re selling everything and living on the boat. Every activity is on the river.”

Nhat also talked about two famous foods from Vietnam. According to him, the most famous food from the southern part of the country is com tam, which is a broken rice dish that contains pork, chicken, eggs and mushrooms.

-Messenger photo by Peter Kaspari
Miftar Pozhari, an Iowa Central Community College student from Kosovo, holds an item that contains the emblem of the Albanian flag as he explains the significance of it. Pozhari was representing the Balkans during the Festival of Nations at Iowa Central Community College Sunday.

In the northern part of Vietnam, he said pho is the most famous dish.

“It’s half special soup and it’s half beef, and there are some different vegetables in there,” he said. “If you come to Vietnam, you should get the pho and you should try the com tam.”

When it comes to education, he said there are major differences between the American and Vietnamese education systems.

“We study a lot,” he said. “We don’t have a lot of free time to play.”

He said he wakes up at 5:30 a.m. and doesn’t come back home until 10:30 p.m. He then spends the next hour and a half to two hours doing homework.

-Messenger photo by Peter Kaspari
Nhat Anh, an Iowa Central Community College student from Vietnam, talks about life in his native country during the Focus International Festival of Nations.

But there are breaks. Nhat said he rests on Sundays, and there are also major holidays in Vietnam that students have off. These include what he called the Tet Holiday, which is on Jan. 25 and is the Vietnamese New Year.

In addition to Nhat, other international students could be found throughout the festival celebrating their culture and customs.

Mariano Sosa is from Argentina, and called it a “really rich country,” adding that there’s a lot to do there.

“We have too much stuff there,” he said. “Too many different activities. And summer is so good.”

He talked about his favorite province of Argentina, which is called Mendoza.

-Messenger photo by Peter Kaspari
Antonio Ron, left, from Ecuador, shows a map of his home country to Susan Busch, left, and her granddaughter, Zoey Balm, 9, both of Fort Dodge. Busch and Balm were visitors to the Focus International Festival of Nations held Sunday at Iowa Central Community College.

“It has a lot of lakes,” Sosa said. “And in summer, it’s precious.”

At the booth featuring Balkan countries, Miftar Pozhari, an Iowa Central student from Kosovo, spoke about both that country as well as Albania.

He talked about the meaning behind the Albanian flag, which features a two-headed eagle on a red background.

“The story goes that it was white with the black double-headed eagle,” Pozhari said. “However, by war, it diluted with spatters of blood and it became red. And we never changed it since the 13th century.”

Pozhari is from Kosovo, but he said he is Albanian “by nature.”

He also said that, in Kosovo, the United States is well-respected for their role in helping Kosovo gain its independence.

“We have a national concert to celebrate the Fourth of July, just to celebrate the United States,” he said. “Every celebrity comes out just to celebrate the Fourth of July.”

Susan Busch, of Fort Dodge, visited the festival with her granddaughters.

This was her second year attending.

“We like to learn about the different cultures, different countries, learn the different languages,” Busch said. “I hope to instill a love of travel (in her grandchildren), and I wish I could visit all the countries.”