Young Storytellers in Russia

Major funding for this program is provided by the subscribers of KCTS Seattle. Additional funding is provided by this and other public television stations and by a grant from the City of Seattle and the Seattle Arts Commission. I was running one morning around this neighborhood and I went to the backyard and I was just sitting thinking and I had this image that came to my imagination of a globe with a hand on one side and a hand on the other and the fingers were interlocked and the words over top were pieced through story. I think I am going to miss going out on the boat with him but I am going to know that

I am only giving him so he probably went to my life and I am going to enjoy it and I am not going to think about the things I am going to miss. Well I am really proud to have her go to Soviet Union, I think a person on person relationship with Soviet Union is really a good way to do it, a good start. When our community of Mansfield and North Central Washington were about 60 miles north of Wenatchi, the community turned out wholeheartedly in support of this project so that many groups and individuals sent money prior to our even asking for it so Monica has all of her money raised now. Lots of people do talk about the Soviet Union, we want peace, we don't want to be blown up by nuclear bombs. I like to tell Paul Bunning's stories because I feel that he is kind of like there and

I can say hi Paul, how are you doing? I am worried that he will miss us, he has never been away from us this long, we have never been away from him that long and I am worried that he won't miss us, I hope he does a little. We as individuals raised our own money to go on the trip, I sure hope we make friends with our starts telling, I think everybody likes the story. There are 27 of us storytellers ages 9 to 15 and 15 adults that are going with this out of the Soviet Union. Michelle says we are going to make friends with our storytelling, I sure hope so. We met every other Saturday for the past 6 months, during our trainings we told stories to each other and several such as for Ericsson even learned to speak some Russian. We are taking 51 quilted story banners that were made in elementary schools and we are

leaving them in the Soviet classroom. This is a really thrilling moment because a dream that I had several years ago is now being realized by these children as they tell stories across the Soviet Union. We as individuals raised our own money to go on the trip, I hope he does not miss us, I hope he does too.

Okay, what we're trying to do right now, and we've never done it before, we are trying to check you in, so let's go to bed! I'm zonked, I just can't wait to get into bed, and I'm tired, and so we're gonna come tired from all the traveling. It's your stuff now. We're gonna have breakfast at 9 and 9.30 we leave. As we went on the bus to the first performance at the Pioneer Palace, I was really excited

because it was gonna be my first performance. I was kind of surprised to see so many television cameras around, but all these kids were gathered around, and it was really neat, and they were asking them questions. We thank you so much for the opportunity to share this program with you, giving us this chance to come together and celebrate the things that we share in common. The Soviet states, and as soon as they heard the first line, they all kind of clashed and cheered, and it was really neat because they recognized that that was their story, and we had taken the time to learn it in their language. The turn up is a story about a farmer who plants a turn up, and it grows up to be really huge, and so he has to call in his whole family, even his mouth, to help him pull it out. When you're telling a story, you're really opening yourself up and making yourself vulnerable, but from the first performance, I knew that it was really gonna be a big hit because

it was a Russian story in Russian. The Soviet children also told us stories, and when they did, they did so much action that we could understand it, even though it was in Russian. What you, you being school kids, school children, can you do something? Yes, we can do something, we're making as many heart connections as possible. Is it so? Yes. Do you agree that this one planet we've got, it's our common house, it's our house, do you agree? It depends on us, it depends on us, if it will stay safe or not, is it so? Yes.

I was amazed in the Soviet Union how many people could speak English, and how well they spoke it, the school started English right away when the kids were seven years old. We really like to get your letters, they are very interesting and sincere. They tell us many things about your life, many things. Some years ago, I think it was two years ago, we received a letter from your girl, Yvonne, and there was a poem, she wrote it herself. This poem is about peace, that's the flesh, I'm on the floor, it's finally come, it's in nuclear war, help me, please, I'm all alone, I'm going to die, I can see the radiation in the sky, and now here I go, my fewest breaths, I'm trying as weird to do my best, I don't like living in the world of dead, I was really thrown in the little kids, told the

turn up to us, and it was me because they were telling it English, these little teeny kids and they were acting it out, and it was kind of neat because I felt what they feel when I tell them the story in Russia, it's to be for us, grandad, grandad, help us please, I'm walking together. We communicated with each other, even without language, and it's because she wanted tell me to hurry up so she goes that was a way of telling me to move and I'm going oh yeah

it's amazing how creative you can get. I couldn't believe that we were actually going through the Moscow circus. I've heard so much about it. Well we've been here two or three days now. What do you think about it Heidi? Like when we went to the circus I like Michelle said it's when I think it's when the

circus is in the world. I thought it was fabulous. I think it's really just it's really interesting to meet the people. I thought they'd be like you know stirner you know and they aren't they aren't as stern as I thought. Can I ask you a question why do you think they would be stirner? I guess it's the impression I get off of American TV and movies and stuff like that and so I thought they were just going to you know be really super stern but they're they're really nice. Yeah because it's also like when I first thought of soldiers I thought to be really really strict and like would let you do anything or something because as soon as I met I'm like most of them smiled and then and they were all really nice and I was glad that I could be friends. Yes they told us the soldier upstairs by the room number four YSP room number four had a machine gun. We believed him and we went up there and I was sitting there kind of looking at him straight because he did the machine gun. He was so friendly and he was just sitting here reading his book

and writing it also. He was just really friendly like we go hi he goes ah ah. I don't think he's empty. I think that they have to be up in the places where there aren't very many people to make sure that the black market isn't going on or anything like that. There's been a lot of that and we've gotten to are some of the people in our group have gotten offers for the black market and I mean it's kind of freaky. Some guy came up to me to dance I'd want to trade I want to trade and I said yes. Every day about 10 million living this big city. So now we've walked the bus here we'll get off the bus and sometime there try to stay together please don't go far. You're that kid. Oh when I first saw the dones of the crème wood and I saw that gold they kept on telling me that it was real and I said what this can't be real there's too much of it.

I felt like I shouldn't be there because it was just too beautiful and all this gold was surrounding me I felt like I had died and gone to heaven. We walked into the peace committee and they had movie cameras and cameras and all sorts of stuff.

We didn't expect any of this we've been told that they were getting the treat us really nice and everything but we didn't ever expect this at least I didn't. We thank you so much for this beautiful welcome. It is our belief that through the stories we tell we can make peace together. 99 years passed and the king returned his hair was gray and his face was wrinkled but his eyes glistened with wisdom. One day a little red engine was going across the valley towards a great big mountain and on the other side of that mountain was a village. I felt sometimes a little bit uncomfortable using the Russian language because I knew my grandma was really bad but it seemed that the Soviets really appreciated it. In our school we study English and we are the members of the English choir.

In this choir we sing American and English songs and today you'll hear some of them. Who do you like them? May they're all will be sunshine may they're all will be blue sky may they're all will be funny may they're all will be pink. I think that we got all the special treatment simply because we were Americans and because we were coming for peace. I'm in the 8th grade it's really fit my image so far it's what I thought it would be. Will you write to me annulators yes and I'll write to you my a great friend and I think it's a very important occasion to me to speak with you. It was terrific it was wonderful. I made a lot of new friends and I feel more comfortable now in the city

even though we only met these people and I made about 13 pen pals and I got all these pens and so I thought I thought we really communicated really well. For us and for you it's a T-shirt. I'm in the 8th grade it's really fit my image so far it's what I thought it would be. I'm in the 8th grade it's really fit my image so far it's what I thought it would be.

When it came to my story I was just sort of afraid because I did the guy's good to do good compared to what they had to offer. As I went on with my story I just realized we all have our talents in our special ways of a professional or not and that's what sort of gave me the courage just to go on. I don't believe it.

And we did and the whole thing came up. The story of the whole piece is one of my favorites because I get a change of characters and it's funny because like when I do the half in the path in the blowing everybody laughs and when people laugh it makes me happy. The style of radio is in charge of all the states radio and television and this whole performance was just for us so special it was just for us. And the style of radio I get 600 children dancing and singing in four groups, all the children from the choir from Las Vegas girls.

And we did and the whole thing came up. And we did and the whole thing came up. And we did and the whole thing came up. The story of the whole piece is one of my favorites because I get 600 children dancing and singing in four groups.

We are the creation of the joy of Christ to thee. Thank you. Applause. And, sir, what would you wish here to your so good friends? Well, I just want to wish them or tell them that we want peace just like them, and that I want to wish them friendship and love always. We're leaving Moscow tomorrow. As we were on the best going to Moscow Airport, leaving for Odessa, I was sort of sad because of the friends that I had made there, and because that was the first city I had known in Russia.

I was excited to go on to Odessa, which is south of Black Sea, because I know I was going to meet new people and new friends, and being a much warmer climate. We arrived on the plane in Odessa Airport. They all greeted us with flowers and happy smiles. It was very warm there, and my counterpart's name was Diane, and she was really special to me. We just got along really good because we both liked the same thing, so we always agreed on stuff. These counterparts were arranged in January. Michelle went over there and she took over a book of our pictures and our hobbies, and what we liked to do, and stuff like that. For the whole four days, we were always with our counterparts.

Odessa is a big port in the south of our country, and we're very much helping them. If I'm passing someone on the street, and I just want to say hi to them, what do I say to them? Well, you're marching in Russia, not in Ukrainian. No, there's no Ukrainian. We spoke only in Russia. And this is the typical of Odessa. Do you understand the typical? Typical. Typical. The glad to really start about our country. He tried to do everything best that old people in the world lived in the good relations, so that every people in the world had right to everything right. In Moscow, I met a friend at the time of your palace, and she gave me her scarf.

Oh, and where is it? It isn't my scarf. I'll wear it tomorrow. When we walked up to the Odessa warm memorial, it was so large, and it was just so big. And I felt like this was something that deserved great respect and that the Soviets gave great respect to. In Odessa, the people there were attacked in the last war, and many people lost their lives. The Odessons realized that these people died for them, and they're really patriotic about this. This group is exceptional. First of all, it is a group of children. Children are not allowed to grow naps because they don't touch upon the politics.

They tell stories and they make friends easier, and they give example to the grown-ups how to make friends. Our time is very dangerous because we have too much nuclear weapons on our planet, and we must do everything we can to prevent the new nuclear war. I'm very interested in politics, but Michelle's told us not to discuss that, because that isn't the point of our trip. I realized that, but when one boy asked me a question, I wasn't quite able to restrain myself, and I entered a little bit. But I knew it kind of off, and when he started looking a little confused or a little angry, I just put my arm on him, around his shoulder, and I said, it's all right. We don't have to worry about that now. Do you smile at me then, and we came out better friends than ever? This is great.

It was exciting being able to go and see the church, and see the people following their customs, and they've been following for hundreds and hundreds of years, longer than America has even ever been around. There seem to be older people, people in their 70s and older than that. For me to get involved, it seemed not what they wanted. I didn't want to insult them, but I also wanted to show them that the kids in America do follow religions, do follow the ancient customs. We went to our weakest house for dinner. They had booked all morning for this, and we had prepared many, many different kinds of dishes. She said that this was the first time she had ever had an American family.

It was kind of fun, because here we were doing something really trivial, and it didn't really matter. And we're the two countries that are supposed to be most feared of each other. That was pretty fun, so we were able to really get to know each other. It sounds strange, because Russia is supposed to be classless, but I'd say that they were probably a little more upper class. These kids were members of the young communist, and probably had a little more money. It was so neat going to the ballet school, they let us come in and join the class, and I've been wanting to dance, and I've been wanting to dance. It was hard. She was a good teacher. She was correcting on things that I consider are objectively the right things to correct about.

I liked the way she ran the class, because she corrected you, but she didn't yell and snap and get mad at people. The opera house building that we went to see the Humpback Tours was so amazing. I mean, I just couldn't wait to see the ballet, because I had the book of the Humpback Tours at home. It was always my favorite, and the story was almost exactly like the book. The Humpback Tours, which is the first time I've ever seen the Humpback Tours. The Humpback Tours, which is the first time I've ever seen the Humpback Tours.

The Humpback Tours, which is the first time I've seen the Humpback Tours. At the fine air palaces, there was painting and violins, and they had all sorts of instruments and wonderful choruses, and they focused on those arts. That was the specialty of the fine air palace. There may have been set up for us that they were trying to show us that, but if it was, then maybe they have a right to. Maybe they should show us that that's better. I know that they did focus on the arts. If a kid was found to be good at painting or good at dancing, they were brought into that and would practice for all their lives. The pioneers, first of all, was the second step on your way to becoming a communist. I think that's a very important fact that wasn't stressed to us.

It was really neat to be able to say something in a different language, because we usually think in English that when you have to think in English and then kind of convert it over, and then you realize that this is somebody else's language and they think in this language. It was really fun to use it. I kind of felt like, hey, I can speak a little bit of Russian. It made me feel important, and they actually understood it. That was special to me. They're going stutter though. They are.

The kids that we met were very involved in their school and what their country was doing. They knew a lot more about politics than most of the kids do here. They followed what the economy did, what their country did, and it was a very large difference. You see, we all have moments of joy and sorrow. We can be happy and we can be nasty. We can be nice and capricious. You see, we're the same children as you are, and we want to live the life of happiness under a clear sky. All the time, on the great plains of Kansas, a little girl named Dorothy lived with her and now. My love, my love for you, for you will never get from truth. Sound her, feel the timeless different. Can I accept it? Maybe I can't, born without reason. Like a wind.

When we were on our way to our home visit, we walked into the courtyard, and it was really gray and dismal, but we'd been told not to get our spirits up, but then we walked into this apartment. And it was gorgeous. The two cities of Moscow and Odessa are quite different in many ways. And these are Ukrainian people and they have different ideas and different customs. And there's almost like a rivalry between the two. A lot of vegetables and Odessa, we modern, we can do so many kinds of dishes out of them, delicious, precious ones. And you come to a Moscow flat and they have a cucumber and nothing more. I want chips. They don't know what to do with it. It's rather strange. They don't understand the beauty of cooking.

I'm not wrong to cook myself, because I'm busy. But sometimes there are moments when it's a pleasure to make something tasty for the guests, for the sound, for the husband. I think maybe that the communication with our groups, with the groups of American children and solid children is very awful to the cause of peace. I tell you the story. I tell you the story and the moral of the story was, you can't be very well-being a king of beasts if they aren't any. And if the earth will be without the people, not one of the... Not any of the country, which will exist. It can't be the king of the earth, because there will be no people in the earth. With World War III. Like in your story. Like in your story. You cannot be the king of anything if there is not anything to be the king of. I know that between our countries, between our government is something. But between people, I do not feel, and my friends who didn't never seen the Americans, don't feel anywhere to the peoples, even the people of the America.

When I go back to the United States, I know that I'm going to have a totally different outlook on nuclear war, because I'm going to think, great, okay, not only are we going to get blown up by Roxana and Marguerite and everybody in you. I mean, you're all going to get blown up too. I mean, it's weird, because I never known anybody that was halfway across the world before. And now, every time that I think about nuclear war and the Soviets being blown up too, I'm going to think about you. My counterpart's name here is Roxana, and it was really hard to communicate with her until last night, when both of us really opened up to each other,

and to the other people sitting around the table. But I know that I've trusted her all along. It's just that it's more of an openness. You have to be open, and you have to be honest, and you have to let each other know that you're honest, and that you want to be open. The Pioneer camps are different than the palaces. That's for the kids that are selected by the heads of the Pioneer palaces, I guess. And of course, the Pioneer camps are even a bigger step in the Pioneer palaces, as I suppose, on your way to becoming part of a communist party.

Dear children, dear American guests, we want to remember this day as a symbolic day for both of our children. So now both American guests, American children and Soviet pioneers will start to plant trees, birch trees. Every time when we have something good, it has to answer. That it's a pity. Come again. I see. I think that most of the people like Dodesa best, and there were a lot of friendships exchanged there, both boy and girl and boy and boy. If they were to let me, I think that I'd still be in Odessa right now. I think that most of the people like Dodesa best, and there were a lot of friendships exchanged there, both boy and boy and boy.

I think that most of the people like Dodesa best, and there were a lot of friendships exchanged there, both boy and boy. I think that most of the people like Dodesa best, and there were a lot of friendships exchanged there, both boy and boy and boy. I think that most of the people like Dodesa best, and there were a lot of friendships exchanged there, both boy and boy and boy. In the Russian, they say, Luvlu Tivya Kitana.

I would like to present this banner to your committee on behalf of the Mansfield Elementary School, and that I felt really good giving that banner because I knew how hard the kids had worked and just all the love that was going through that banner to give to these Soviets. It's about a duckling who was born and was ugly, and he was made fun of and picked on, and that when he got older, then he turned into a beautiful swan. My community made that, and I know the people, and I kept on seeing people's faces flashing front of me. It's a group I'm all friends with, and I'm just glad those certain people were chosen. I have a deep feeling for all the kids, even the boys.

I got to go to a museum yesterday, and the museum really meant a lot to me. I've never been to the Louvre or anything like that, none of those big fancy art museums, but that was first and now I can say I've been to the Hermitage, but I expected more security. I expected the painting to be something by the United, and then she said, it didn't have super security. I expected it to be rope-dough and a glass box. If you came within 20 feet of it, the alarm would go off and everybody would run in and get you, but it wasn't at all like that. And I think that it's just so interesting all the architecture and how they used all the gold leaf, the gilding, and I think it would have been incredible to live in the time of Peter the Great.

The older days it seemed like everybody was rich, and so maybe people got jealous of each other and had a revolution. I have dreams about going back in time, and I think it would be wonderful to go back in time and know what was going on. I know when I went to that, whatever you call it, the Pushkin Museum. It was like Catherine, the first or Catherine, the second or the first thing. While I was walking through the ribs, I just tried to imagine those people, because they had paintings of what they looked like. So I tried to imagine them just walking on the same footsteps that we were taking over, and I thought it was really cool. Somebody said to our guide, did Peter at the Great just come home and throw his boots off and just lay on the couch, and so I imagined him running in and doing that. It was really cool.

I love the giant ballroom, because it was just so big and so fancy, and the one reason why I've always wanted to travel back in time is because just to go to one of those big balls, because I love just fancy dresses, and I imagine it just this big ballroom full of people just dancing around. And let's just take a nice big breath together, and let out. On the screen inside of your mind, I'd like you to imagine a school building, and just image all of these stories being shared in all of these classrooms. Throughout the trip, we had storytelling preparation before we visited the schools. And I'd like you to imagine a heart encompassing that whole school as those stories are being shared. Okay, once upon a time, in the heart deserts of Africa, they lived a kennel.

This kennel wanted nothing more than to be a ballerina. So the kennel did her liais. I think they liked my kennel story because I make funny movements. I really do. She was ready to call the performance. So she called together all the critics and all of her friends. After the performance was over, the critic came up to her and said, my dear like, I must be frank with you, you are terrible, awful, disgusting ballet dancer. Now this hurts the kennel deeply, but she said to herself, you know, I am a good ballet dancer. I love to dance, and I will dance, but only for myself.

I think that in a way they got that one, because they have a story similar to that, except for it's about an elephant. My name is Paul, and I'm going to tell a story about personning a ball. I think that the storytelling did make a difference, but I think it was more of breaking the ice. And so in making friends in the Soviet Union, storytelling isn't necessarily the whole thing, but it is the thing that makes the friendship with the Soviet children possible. We visited one of the teachers from the school who lived in the Leningrad apartment. It was amazing how the city changes, because first there's like suburbs, and then we tried just a little bit farther, and there's probably 12 eight-story apartment buildings. This is huge, complex. And I know that almost all of them did in the apartment, so it's just amazing to see all the buildings all together.

Do you guys bring it for us? It's a surprise party, ain't it? Where's the bus to go to? To who? It's for eight-war. Probably one lot of taken elevators. No, like an elephant. We'll go off and cruise. Hello? This particular family seemed to live for their collections. They had airplane model collections, stamp collections, cat collections, gum wrapper collections, and anything else you can think of. Because the father worked on the railroad, he wasn't home very often, and the kids really got to know their mother as a person. And so because of that, I think they learned to respect her more. Disappartments seemed to be unusually small, but the family really did a lot to decorate it nicely.

And yes, here is South Korea. Here is tomato, source, and here's butter. It is a Russian Siberian. Did any of our kids adjust them? Did any of you tell stories in Zena's class yesterday? No. How did the story go yesterday? My class, that was just wonderful. So it was a lot I can tell. In her class, they were cool. I've been thinking about this. Ever since I got into this, I've always wanted to be able to go to find out what the Soviet people were like. Because you see so much stuff in American TV, and I can just say, well, that's just bag of baloney. Besides, I want to come on this trip and stuff, you know, I decided I wanted to come here for peace. But like after a few, like a week and a half that I was here, my mom told me that their way of peace is it the same as ours. They figured peace as communism.

There aren't that many communists in this country. And that's the government. I know that maybe the government's idea of peace is different. But the people's idea is the same thing as ours. Maybe our government's idea of peace is different than what we feel. How do we know? I mean, you guys are 11. I'm 13. How are we supposed to know? What do we know about our government really? What do we know? I mean it. And I think that because of this, people should have more impact on the decisions that the government makes. Can they really say that in their government? Are they suggesting peace, don't they? No, no. Can they do that? Are they that free? Probably want to get back to school. I'm sure one of the questions could be how much do they want peace? And I just like to say by going to the square of victory, I see that that was one of the most incredible things I've ever seen. So if I get that sort of question, I'd just say, um, if they want peace as much, if not maybe more than we do.

How do we know? I don't talk with my friends all the time about old peace and all that stuff, but it seems like that is one of the kind of subjects that they like just like to talk about.

We, the children of two beautiful places of the world, must fight for the peaceful sky and peace and friendship between all the peoples in the world. We shall live in peace. We shall live in peace. We shall live in peace someday. Oh, dear, in my heart, I do believe. We shall live in peace someday. I wish that we could have stayed longer and just sit down with one of them and just talk about what, I mean, what life is like for them living in a hospital. I don't think that they always treat people as nice as they treated us,

but I think that it's not like they just told their kids to be on their best behavior. I think that they were just acting normal. I've been able to make a lot of friends here, and I think it's really great that I've made a lot of friends, but the only problem is I've got so many addresses to write to, and I'm not sure when they have enough time to write to them. Not only that, but it was all the addresses. I don't know which address it was. With a lot of the kids, you really can't get beyond, you know, what are your pet's names and stuff. But with the couple, you just find one subject that you can talk and talk and talk about. It's kind of neat in a way that they are people too, and they really aren't that different, and just because some of the architecture is different, and policies are different, it's just really like America. I came here and I thought it would be so strange, and the real shock was that I wasn't shocked because it was strange.

I was shocked because it wasn't strange. I was shocked because it was strange. I was shocked because it was strange. I was shocked because it was strange. I was shocked because it was strange. I was shocked because it was strange. I was shocked because it was strange. Here's Big Bang.

I'm very happy to have somebody help around the house again. Maybe the government's idea of peace is different, but the people's idea is the same thing as ours. They just want to live in friendship with the United States. I think they can remember us as a friend, not a foe. I think they can remember us as a friend, not a foe. I'm very happy to have somebody help around the house again.

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