Monday, 13 July 2009

School visit part 2

When I recovered from the realisation that I was "the School Event " I was taken on a tour of the School which was very interesting. There are 1200 pupils and gaining educational qualifications are a high priority for the pupils as they progress through their school years. The School has a lot of old worn out facilities,despite this the pupils are proud of their School and respect the teaching staff. At the end of their final year their is a Graduation Ball with all the young ladies in long gowns and the young men in suits.
I was taken to see a permanent exhibition in the School Museum dedicated to a young girl called Nina Shoshena and her family. Nina was a pupil at the School, pictures of village and School life hang on the Museum walls, the girls who showed me round explained in English that Nina was a local Heroine. In 1942 during World War 2 during the German occupation of Ukrainian Territory Nina Shoshena who was a member of the local area resistance refused to give information about the resistance to the German Army. As she sheltered in a house with friends and family surrounded by troops,she bravely continued to oppose requests to surrender. Machine gun fire and Mortars pounded the house and most of the resistance members including the schoolgirl Nina Shoshena were killed. When I heard this story and looked at the faded black and white photographs It was like being transported back through time.
Just at that moment the lights in the Museum went out! but two of the girls went to fetch a couple of torches to carry on. Why did the lights fail when they did? Who should know.

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