FUNNY FIRSTS: Do you remember the first time you acted in a play?
IT was the last night that our teacher Anthony was with us. He came to our school in Afghanistan to help teach us for six months. We loved him so much. He loved Shakespeare and was always telling us about him. He told us Shakespeare’s story of Romeo and Juliet and said there was a movie we could watch. Thursday night is our movie night. One Thursday he showed us the movie. We all loved it.
The night before he left to go back to America, some of us planned a special party for him. I said, “I will read a poem for him.” Another girl said, “I will sing a song for him”. Then someone said, “Let’s do the play Romeo and Juliet!” Two other girls said they would help.
Before the party, they practiced and it was really good. Finally, the party started. We had cakes and ice creams. Then it was time to do the play for our teacher. The girl who played Friar Laurence came to tell Romeo that Juliet died. When Romeo goes to see Juliet, he should say very dramatically, “Oh, my beautiful lady. Oh, my dear Juliet. Oh, my poor Juliet!” Romeo said the words really well but, unfortunately, Juliet couldn’t help it and started to laugh. Then we all started to laugh.
Now Romeo had to drink the poison and die. The girl playing Romeo was wearing boys’ clothes. The shirt she was wearing was short like a boy’s shirt. In Afghanistan, girls wear shirts that go down to their knees. So when Romeo drank the poison and started to fall down and die, she had to hold down her shirt at the same time and so we all started to laugh even more. But Anthony was such a good teacher! He kept saying, “Very good! Oh, it is so special. Oh, what a sad story!” — Frozan
—Frozan speaks Dari, Pashto and English. She studies at SOLA, School of Leadership in Afghanistan. She dreams of being an astronaut. “At night I talk to the stars. I tell them my dreams. They are my best friends. I want to be an astronaut because I want to know with whom I am speaking.”
