When school convenes in the fall, some Glenelg Country School students will be telling youngsters in Afghanistan what they did over summer vacation.

The scene in that fall classroom will be the same scene that occurred this spring:  Glenelg fourth- and fifth-graders huddled around a computer screen with fixed gazes on another huddle of excited students halfway around the world.

Before breaking for summer vacation, Glenelg Country student Kazeem Anifowoshe said he enjoyed the early morning exchanges between his school and Roshan High School, in Afghanistan.

“I thought that it was cool that they can get Internet connection and talk to us from across the world,” he said.

In February, students in Glenelg’s lower school began communicating online with students at the all-boys school in eastern Afghanistan’s Laghman Province. The Internet chat sessions were part of a wider program at Glenelg Country School, which aims to help those who are suffering in the war-torn country and spread awareness of Afghan culture and challenges faced by its residents.

A Glenelg Country-sponsored German shepherd trained to detect land mines was the impetus for the informal partnership between the private Howard County school and Roshan High School. The partnership, which Glenelg staff members hope to continue in the coming school year, also inspired a Kite Day that focused on Afghan culture in April.

Glenelg teacher Linar Etemadi, who was born in Afghanistan, oversaw the early-morning Internet chats during which students’ discussions run the gamut from music, food and sports to the dangers of living in a war zone.

One topic discussed between the students is the danger of land mines, as the area around the Afghan school is heavily laced with the hidden explosives. Ten of the Afghan high school’s students are survivors of land mine blasts.

“I learned that you can survive a land mine,” Kazeem said of his exchanges with the Afghan students. “Your friends will just be there for you and support you.”

According to Etemadi, the Afghan students often asked what their American counterparts thought of them, as many Afghan teens are self-conscious about their image to the world. She said they wanted the Glenelg students to know that not all Afghans are terrorists and “were so eager to clarify, for the kids to know their true spirit.”

Sometimes, due to technical difficulties, the two groups of students could only communicate online in writing, using chat programs such as MSN Messenger. At other times, the groups chatted verbally with one another through Skype, software that allows users to make international calls and video conference.
 
‘Thirst for understanding’

 In spring 2008, Glenelg Country became the first school in Maryland to sponsor a mine detection dog through the Children Against Mines Program, according to lower school principal Anne Wooleyhand.
 
Although Glenelg Country’s canine — named Dragon after Glenelg Country’s mascot — is currently serving in Afghanistan, students got a chance to meet a similarly trained dog, Utsi, at the school’s Kite Day in April.
 
Wooleyhand said she is proud of her students for getting involved with the Children Against Mines Program.
 
“Our kids are making a difference,” she said. “The impact this dog has is really, really significant.”

Etemadi is glad the young children also are able to learn about Afghan culture and gain awareness of what many Afghan students have to face on a daily basis, she said.
 
For instance, an unexpected disruption during one of the chat sessions made her students aware just how volatile an environment their counterparts live in, when a bombing led NATO to abruptly shut down Internet connections within the high school’s area for security reasons, Etemadi said.
 
Even on typical days, Etemadi said she worries about the students’ safety. Because of a nine-hour time difference between the two schools, on chat days the Afghan teenagers must walk home in the evening, sometimes under dangerous conditions, Etemadi said.

“Their kids are so excited to see us that they sacrifice their safety to talk to us,” she said. “They have to walk home with raids going on, and bombings and Taliban.”

Etemadi believes the current war in Afghanistan has distorted many people’s view of Afghan people and culture and hopes the chats allow her students to open their minds regarding her ancestral land.
 
“The kids there (Afghanistan), they thirst for understanding and friendship from America and the world. They’re so worried about what we might think about them because of some of the crazy people there,” Etemadi said. “I think it was their goal to really open our eyes to what they’re really like, the truth, that they are friends.”

Etemadi, who immigrated to the United States at a young age, orchestrated a special Kites for Kids event, held in April, to share a recreational, traditional part of her heritage with Glenelg Country students.
 
Etemadi’s father, mother, brother and cousin brought imported Afghan kites — colorful, fragile swaths of thin tissue paper glued to thin bamboo rods — to the event. Etemadi described kite-flying as a leisurely and competitive former national pastime.

Before the Taliban outlawed the flying of kites years ago, Afghan residents often enjoyed flying their colorful, flowing kites from the ground and rooftops and engaged in kite “fights,” during which competitors tried to cut each others’ kites down with string coated in finely crushed glass.
 
Etemadi’s family members and some faculty members demonstrated how the kites are flown, but were only able to get the feather-light pieces to soar for short periods of time. Strong winds, which caused the fragile aerials to crash, prevented the children from competing in a planned kite relay.
 
After the kite presentation, students ate traditional Afghan fare, sipping hot green tea and nibbling on crispy Elephant Ears, a traditional Afghan pastry consisting of large pieces of thin fried dough covered in powdered sugar and pistachio nuts.
 
According to Wooleyhand, the school plans to continue the Afghan-related activities in the coming school year and will start collecting money to benefit Afghan teachers and students through the Pennies for Peace program.

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user comments (1)

user sarahjohangiry says...

Wow! What an amazing partnership. My father is from Afghanistan and I am very proud of my heritage. Each year I share the Afghan culture with my students with the same goal of helping them understand that their is so much more beyond the information that is presented daily on the news. It is wonderful to learn that an entire school is making such a difference. Thank you for sharing this story...it is very inspiring!

Posted 10:48 PM, 07.09.09 | Permalink