No Need for Translation

Last Friday morning Iraqi children who are currently vacationing and obtaining medical treatment in the Crimea by invitation of Ukraine’s Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych visited the Crimean Ukrainian Himnaziya to meet their peers. The guests were welcomed and accompanied by Oleksandr Videnko, Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Crimea; Oleksandr Hlushman, Acting Minister of Education of the Crimea; and school principal Natalia Rudenko. In the winter garden a children’s choir greeted the Iraqi guests with Ukrainian limericks and carols. According to folk custom, the guests were presented with bread and salt. After an exchange of greetings, the children split into two age groups. Teacher Olena Lesnikova invited the younger Iraqis for a fourth-grade Lesson on Peace. She told the class about the school’s history and the official insignia of Iraq and Ukraine. Sitting side by side, the young Ukrainians and Iraqis showed each other their countries on the globe. “Iraq and Ukraine are so close!” fourth-grader Iryna told her new friend Omar, pointing at the two countries on the globe. Although the interpreter was relaying what the teacher had said, Omar looked at the girl so tenderly that it was clear he understood everything even without a translation.

Oleksandr Burdin, staff monitor of class 11-b, conducted the Lesson on Peace for the senior pupils. After the senior-graders got acquainted and told each other about themselves and their hobbies, with the help of the interpreter they began to find out the specific features and details of life in their respective countries. Both the Ukrainians and the Iraqis were eager to know when peace will come to Iraq and what each of them could do to further this goal.