Last year in September students from Norway came to our Nenets Agrarian Economic Technical School where we have a project called “Peace Painting”. Young people from many countries such as France, Sri Lanka, Finland and Russia participate in this project. The project is supported by the Barents Secretariat in Naryan-Mar, and it receives financial support from the Norwegian Barents Secretariat.
The idea of the project is that children from different countries worry about the future and they may attract the attention of the public with their drawings. They paint pictures of how they imagine the world. Pictures are drawn in a specific format, and the top plank is frame of the Earth where we live. The pictures are then posted in the various agencies of participating countries of the project.
From April 28 to May 7, 2013 members of the English Club "WSSE" participated in the second part of this project which took place in Norway, in Terråk (Nordland) and Brønnøysund. The project manager there is Catrine Gangstø. During the trip students introduced Norwegians to their culture and staged a performance called "The Sun of the New Year", based on Nenets tales. The performance was in English, and it was a great success! "For them, our folklore was awesome, and they just didn’t let students go, trying to take a photo," Irena Ulyanitskaya says.
Colorful costumes, music and dance scenes gave the performance unique flavor. The dance part of the show was prepared by Podbolotskaya Eugene, who dances in the ensemble "Youth of the North". Musical director was a 2nd year student Andrew Volkhonsky. The director of the performance was Elena Nikitina, head of the club. The performance was staged four times in city schools and in the forest. All performances were a success! In Terråk, at an official meeting with the mayor of the city, there were many kind words about friendship between peoples. Local newspapers have written a lot of good feedback on our performances.
The project gave us a lot of new people, a lot of friends, especially among the members of the youth community theater who we met during the trip.
During the stay, the students were asked three questions:
1. Your opinion about the trip
2. What did you get?
3. Do I need this project?
Here are some of their answers:
1. Kanev Nikolay
- There was a fear when we went to Norway. How do we meet? Do they like us? People are different, especially in another country. But we were lucky. People that we met were wonderful, friendly and emotional, they became our real friends.
- The trip gave us a lot. The desire to get better, the desire to learn something new, and, of course, the motivation for language learning.
- The project is needed. It is needed by people to support each other in difficult times, so as not to feel lonely.
2. Andrew Volkhonsky
- I liked it very much, the nature was wonderful, the people were very welcoming and warm, and I’d love to go there again!
- The trip gave us a lot of new contacts, new friends, as well as language practice.
- The project is needed in order to allow people to communicate with each other and find new friends.
3. Rustam Nasrutdinov
- It was very impressive, especially how they treated us. People were always smiling and happy that we came, not a single negative emotion on the whole trip.
- Thanks to the trip, I expanded my horizons; I felt self-reliance and responsibility, talked to new people and got a lot of positive emotions.
- People should not be indifferent, because this project is needed – we can do more together than in isolation.