From Russia with love

Last Saturday we had a rather special zoom meeting  between Sahar Salha's class at the Elementary co-ed “A” UNRWA school in Beit Hanoun, Gaza and Alex Guzik's class of kids in Krasnodar, Russia.It started with the Russian children performing their own excellent interpretation of the traditional Palestinian story, The Farmer who followed his dream. It was especially nice since the class in Gaza had worked on the same story themselves so they could compare the way they'd done things. After that the class in Gaza did a great performance of another well known story in Palestine - Juha and the donkey.

After that we were surprised to find out that two girls in Gaza were fluent Russian speakers themselves. Rania sang a beautiful Russian song and Aya interviewed the Krasnodar group - in Russian!  Then it opened up into a general question and answer session with them taking turns to ask each other questions. Sports and favourite animals came up and then they ended up listing the ingredients to each other for one of their national dishes - Borsch for the Russians and Musakhan for the Palestinians. A highlight for me was when  Manar in Gaza asked the group In Krasnodar, 'What do you hope for the children of Gaza?' The answer they gave was considerate and heartfelt. Despite the four power-cuts that we experienced during the one hour session, and the rather weak internet signal, it really felt like a strong connection was made.

Here's a short snippet of what happened..