Those were just some of the questions students from Nolanville Elementary and Al Khartoom Elementary had for one another during a unique cultural exchanged hosted on Wednesday by the 4th Infantry Division.
The fourth- and fifth-graders quickly found a seat in front of the large video screen inside the conference room of the 4th ID Headquarters.
A few minutes later, the screen flickered to life and the image of Maj. Gen. Jeffery Hammond appeared, with about 40 Iraqi elementary schoolchildren seated behind him.
Hammond made the rounds introducing some of the local civilian leaders who’d come to witness this event, but it was the students - whom Hammond called the beautiful potentials of Iraq - that everyone wanted to hear from.
“They are very special indeed,” Hammond said. “I think you’ll find that these school children have everything in common with you. They like to learn, they like to play sports, they like to smile and they have dreams and they have a future, just like you.”
Nolanville Elementary fifth- grade teacher Cambley Baker called the cultural exchange a wonderful opportunity for students in both countries.
“We are honored to be part of this learning process,” she said. “We hope that this will be only the first of many opportunities for students in the United States and Iraq to learn more about each other and from each other.”
Nolanville students and Al Khartoom students alternated with five questions each, with many of them focused on normal things that school children would ask one another during recess.
“Do you have computers in your classroom? Does it ever snow in Baghdad? What is your money like in Iraq?”
Aaron Learson, a fifth grader, asked how the students felt about being asked questions during the cultural exchange.
Anwar Ali, the Iraqi student who answered Learson’s question, spoke through an interpreter.
“We have the same feelings,” she said. “There is nothing different between your school and our school.”
By the same token, the Iraqi students were just as curious as their American counterparts.
Noor asked if U.S. students were required to learn Arabic, just as the Iraqi children do English. “Why don’t you learn Arabic like us?”
“It’s not really in our curriculum,” one Nolanville student said.
However, some of the questions bore a chilling connotation, and reminded the students in some ways the children of Iraq are very different from themselves.
“Do you hear the sounds of guns like we do all the time?” one Iraqi student asked the Nolanville students.
“Well, sometimes we do and sometimes we don’t,” one Nolanville student answered. “But we never usually do.”
The students asked a few more questions before saying goodbye to their newfound friends on the other side of the world.
But before they did, the Nolanville children displayed a banner with words of thanks written in Arabic.
Likewise, the Iraqi children hoisted their banner that read in English, “Thanks for visiting.”
“I liked learning all of it, their culture and everything. It was real cool,” said Hannah Bush, a Nolanville 5th grader.
Barbara Snipes, a fourth grade teacher at Nolanville Elementary, said her students probably learned the most from this cultural exchange.
“I think they know more about us than we do about them,” she said. “I think this was a wonderful opportunity to see the children and realize that they are really very much like we are.”
