Video Conference "Home Is Where Your Heart Is".

For Five years already the students of my school have been participating in the International program Global classroom in which the students of fifteen different countries from around the world are taking part. Not long ago, the students of my Access school held a video conference with the students of the Belfast area school, state Maine, USA, which was devoted to the topic very dear to the students all over the world – “Home Is Where Your Heart Is”.  The American students spoke about there State, its history, geography, culture, economics and about their school. My students spoke about our beautiful republic, and answered the questions asked by the other side.

Kachalayeva A.O. and Kachalayeva N.V. - teachers of English from Gymnasium in the settelement of Dylym, Kazbekovsky region. 

This time we had guests to our conference – two English teachers and two students from   a settlement Dylym – the regional center of Kazbekovsky region Kachalayeva A.O. and Kachalayeva N.V.. They took part in the conference and spoke about their home.  Here are the presentations of Khasavyurt and Belfast students:

  “Where is Dagestan of yours?”, a mountaineer was asked, he was an Andian, a son of wise and witty people who live high up in the  mountains and in fertile valleys. “Above and below an eagle’s wing,” the mountaineer answered.  It would be difficult to find a person in our country who doesn’t know where Dagestan is on the map. We would rather doubt if many people abroad have ever heard about our small but very beautiful republic. Dagestan is situated at the junction of two continents. The springs and streams of Dagestan run down its slopes and hurl themselves headlong down its cliffs like sons into the paternal embraces of the rivers and seas of Asia. Dagestan is a tree which has taken root in the soil of both Europe and Asia. Today, Dagestan is not only a colorful exotic mountainous country with beautiful valleys, hills, cliffs. Dagestan is now a republic with full rights in the Russian Federation and it has three treasures.And so the first treasure is the land. The stony land of the mountain folk is their most    priceless asset. The life is very hard on it. To be able to grow anything on these stones the mountaineer had to carry earth to them all his life in baskets, in “khurdzuni” (a leather bag) in “papakhas” (a fur hat) and even by the handful. “May your field be crowded with wheat” is the kindest wish the mountaineer can make.“May your field dry up and perish!” is the most terrible curse of the mountaineers.“I swear by my land” is the strongest oath by a mountaineer. Any damage done to the fields or to the land was punished by the biggest fine. But that was in the past. The modern mountain farmer has learnt to cultivate the land according to the rules of agronomy. The second treasure of Dagestan is the water. There is a saying: “The hearth is the heart of the home and the spring is the heart of the aul”. Not for nothing does a mountain curse say: “May the horse of the rider who befouls a spring perish”. Many wells have been dug in memory of brave men who died in battle, many springs bear their names. These treasures are like three priceless feathers in the wings of Dagestan, and three goldsmiths created the country out of them. The sole owners of these treasures are the people: the farmers, the cattle-breeders, the jewelers, the stonemasons, the scientists, the doctors and the poets. The third treasure is immense – it is friendship of our hard-working, courageous and affectionate people with other people of Russia and especially their hospitality.Geographically Dagestan is situated at the junction of two continents -Europe and Asia. It is the Eastern section of the North Caucasus   and occupies the north-eastern slope of the Caucasian Mountains which gradually go down to the wide lowlands in the north and the Caspian Sea in the east. Situated between the 41-st and the 45-th degrees of northern latitude Dagestan is the southern most part of he Russian Federation. In the north it borders on the Kalmyk Republic, in the west and north-west – on the Chechen Republic and the Stavropol territory. Dagestan’s neighbours in the south are Georgia and Azerbaijan. On the East it is washed by the Caspian Sea.        Dagestan occupies an area of 50,000 square kilometres. It stretches  for some 400 kilometres      from north to south and for 200 kilometres from east to west. Despite the small area it occupies, the landscape of the republic is quite varied ranging from magnificent mountains of central and south Dagestan to the wide plains in the north, which include the semi-arid Nogai steppe.  Therefore the whole republic can be roughly divided into three main parts: highland Dagestan, foothill Dagestan and lowland Dagestan. Mountains occupy more than half of the territory of the republic.The highest points are Mount Bazardyuzi on the border with Azerbaijan and Mount Diklos-Mta on the border with Georgia. In many place the Mountain ranges are cut through by the deep rivers and canyons, the Sulak River Canyon is the deepest. The main rivers are the Terek, the Samur and the Sulak with its main tributaries: the Avar Koisu, the Andi Koisu, the Kara Koisu and the Kazikumukh Koisu. All of them flow into the Caspian Sea and are important for irrigation purposes and the power-generating sources.  Industrially significant natural resources are oil, natural gas, copper, ore, sulhpur, quarts sands, mineral fertilizers and different building materials, such as clay, limestone, sandstone, granite, etc. In addition, a number of districts of Dagestan possess remarkable balneological factors, including mineral springs and medical mud with rare curative properties.  Tourism  also receives great encouragement. A plan has been prepared for opening new tourist camps, inns and  motels.  At present Dagestan is composed of 42 administrative districts and 10 towns and 14 urban-type settlements. Altogether there are about 1000 villages in the Republic. The capital of Dagestan is Makhachkala.  The geographical situation, landscape diversity and the Caspian Sea reservoir make the climate of Dagestan rather diversified. Dagestan comprises five climatic and a number of geographical zones: from the Caspian lowland at 28 meters below the level of the world ocean and the subtropics - up to the snow peaks of more than 4 thousand meters high. Local summers are warm and long. Average winter temperature is 0-5C, average summer temperature is +25C.  Dagestan is one of the most ethnically compound regions: more than 100 nationalities and peoples, including 30 indigenous, representing large linguistic families and groups, like Iberian-Caucasian, Turk, Iranian, Indo-European and others, are settled here. The local languages in their major part fall into dialects and patois. Three major ethnic groups inhabiting Dagestan are Dagestan, Turkic and Indo-European. Some of the largest groups are Avar, Dargin, Lezgin, Kumyk, Lak, Russian, Nogay, etc . Ethnic Groups in Dagestan According to the Last Censors:

 Avars   -      759,438

Dargins            -      425,526  

Kumyks           -      365,804

Lezgins -      336,698

Laks    -      139,732

Russians           -      120,875

Azerbaijanis- 111,656

Tabasarans - 101,152

Chechens -       87,867

Nagays            -        38,169

Rutuls   -        24,928

Aguls   -        23,314

Tsakhurs          -          8,161

Others  -        25,835

The Culture of Maine

The culture of Maine provides me with opportunities in the future because we have food, clothing, Ethnicity/ Religion, and hobbies.

Everyday Maine is shopping, sports, and where to go out to eat. This is what Mainers do, and we also go outside a lot in the summer and the fall. We also go hunting and ice fishing.

The food in Maine is fish chowder and chilly, and we eat at fast food places like subway, McDonald, burger-king which is the same as McDonald's. Pizza hut is a Pizza place to get good pizza, KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) has a variety of food like chicken, mash-potatoes, and pie.

The clothing we Mainers wear in Maine are T-shirts, jeans, sneakers or we are barefoot in the summer. In the winter we wear jeans, sweaters and boots to keep warm.

 Religion in Maine is 82% Christian, of that is 45% Protestant,  37% Roman Catholic, 17% non religious and 1% is other. Ethnicity in Maine is 96.4% of Caucasian and the other is 4.6%. And Maine is right up there with Massachusetts at 48%, Maine: 48%, New Hampshire: 46%, Vermont: 42%.

The Summer Activity's that we do in the summer is running which is cross-country were you run around the woods until you get to the finish line or around the town, Canoeing in the lake in the spring, 4-wheeling in the woods or on rugged pathways and boating/sailing on the lake or ocean in the summer.

 There is lots of sports like spring, fall, and winter sports which are basketball, baseball, softball, American Football, hunting and ice-fishing which happens in the winter and fall sports we do in Maine. In the summer we also play soccer.

The Places to go in Maine are Wal-mart which has really low prices, Perry's Nut House which they make homemade fudge, and Lighthouses which are houses on a islands or on beaches to guide the boats with a big beam of light so they don't run into the rocks or beaches.

That's a Black bear which is a bear that's black which lives in the woods but they haven't been any near us due to the buildings and cars which are scaring them.  The chickadee is the state bird of Maine and it is very small and catches flies like mosquitoes, they also can fly very fast. We have a Maine soda called Moxie which taste like cough syrup.

History of Maine.

Maine is a product of the ice age.  About 12000 years ago a ice age hit Maine. The receding ice sheets formed about 2,000 islands off the coast of Maine.

The French and Indian war of 1754-1760 is repleted with incidents of scalping by French, English  and Native Americans.  The French and Indian war was one in a string of wars fought between England and France beginning in the late 1600s.  What made the French and Indian war so different from the earlier conflicts was that it began in the New world.      

After the war of 1812 our state has been more peaceful and we have not had a war since.

We have had a up and down murder rate sense 1960.  In 2008 we committed 31 murders.  But we are one of the states that has the lowest crime rate.  We have had about  375 people raped in 2008. 

About 500 years before Columbus discovered America, Leif Ericson and a crew of 30 viking sailors are believed to have explored the Maine coast and may have landed and tried to establish a settlement.

In 1820 was when Maine separated from Massachusetts and became there own state.

Portland once was selected as the state capital, but it was only temporary.  In 1823 the capital was moved to Augusta, a more centrally located state.

Back in the day we used to feed prisoners lobsters, which is peoples celebration food today.  Lobster man could catch lobsters like nothing and people could by them with a reasonable price.  But now a days you have to pay about 10 dollars or over just to eat lobsters.

This picture is just showing Percy Spencer who made the microwave oven which we use a lot today.

This picture is of Hiram Maxim and the first machine gun made by him.