Issue 2 – Monday 31 July
Global Village gets going
Aleana Drybinskaya
It happened at last! The international friendship-celebrating opening ceremony took place yesterday night. About five thousand people from different countries of the world were involved in the loud, spectacular, hair-raising impressive Festival!
On every little path in Global Village there appeared amounts of people and they started sparkly, picturesque processions of singing and dancing. Within a few minutes the town marquees were crowded with incredible huge animals, funky costumes and thousands of smiling faces of every colour.
All the preparations seemed to be a bit messy, but they brought a lot of fun. People were allowed to do everything: making crazy costumes, dyeing their hair and faces and bodies, shouting, trumpeting, playing drums and making as much noise as they can! And of course folks used their imagination in creating the image of each town. Some tried to use elements of their national culture – such as the Indigo Snake and the tom-tom music. I've never seen such extravagant garments!
Green Turtle town carried a huge banner with an image of turtle on it. Yellow parrot town were dressed in yellow t-shirts and bandanas, the inhabitants of the Red Wolf area got red from head to toe! Then out of the blue there appeared a Blue Whale procession with an enormous fish tail in the air. It was a fantastic sight!
At the begining of the ceremony the messages from every country were announced, so we would know who was present at Global Village. The Opening Ceremony turned out to be a catchy perfomance! The presenters appealed to the audience in three languages – English, German and Spanish – to make everyone understand and feel united!
The speeches were followed by an artistic dance with multicoloured banners symbolizing the eight Millennium Development Goals.
A speech by Kofi Annan was broadcast, and his words sounded like an appeal to the younger generation: "I know you will not accept the world where others die of hunger, remain illiterate, lack human dignity. So please, make sure your voices are heard, make sure your generation is the one to change the world for the better!"
There followed the camp song and amazing fireworks and celebrations!
It helped people from different countries of the world to open their eyes in order to see, open their ears in order to hear and open their hearts in order to understand that we belong to one Universe!