The reading competition is over, the readings are over – soon I will be traveling back to Germany. I have one week in Doha behind me. A week that began on a Sunday. It took me a while to get used to the idea of Sunday being the start of the week. No, actually I didn’t get used to it at all, I kept tripping over the days of the week: on Tuesday I thought it was Wednesday, on Thursday that it was Friday.
The week was so full of impressions that I was often in bed by 9:30 p.m. But maybe that was also because it was so cold. Actually, I thought I was coming from the winter in Germany to the warmth of Qatar. But it was not like that at all! It was so cold that I couldn’t wear most of the clothes I had packed. Instead of a summer dress and light linen trousers, a sweater and jeans and a scarf.
Oh, how excited I was when Frau Theil brought me to your school on Sunday. I was in awe when I saw all the Nobel Prize winners hanging in the Main Hall. What kind of students would I meet? How would they receive me? Are they interested in stories? In my work? To come to the point: Many, many of you – not all, but many – were interested, listened to the stories, suffered with Adnan, Lobsang or Kajetan, asked questions, questions, questions.
My week started with the class 2 students. What a wonderful start! They were as quiet as mice when it came to Fritzi, Sasi and the plastic planet. My week ended with the reading competition. I was asked how the children and young people at your school read compared to other schools. “Good, very good,” was my answer. I am also impressed by the German as a Foreign Language children and their reading skills.
The secondary school students, however, were a challenge. I had been really looking forward to talking to them, but some of them didn’t want to engage and preferred to chat or giggle with the students sitting next to them. I thought that was a shame.
Nevertheless, I had many wonderful moments at your school. I would like to express my special thanks to Erika Theil, who not only invited me to visit you and organized the reading week, but who was also my Doha tour guide. And what a good guide!
Iris Lemanczyk
Author and journalist
www.IrisLemanczyk.de
Link to the photo album: https://tinyurl.com/vorlesewettbewerb2025
This post is also available in: German
