F. 1: What's in your suitcase here?

P. 2: Reality. I am six and a half years old, I see my parents holding a suitcase. We start from Kazakhstan to Moscow and from there we take trains to the Black Sea and come to Piraeus crossing the Aegean Sea. 

P. 6: A long journey, right?

P. 2: Indeed. And because I was very curious as a little child, I wanted to know what was in that suitcase. My parents, aged 26 and 29, were travelling with four children. I was the eldest. When we arrived in Piraeus, my father opened the suitcase, and inside, there were four brand new sets of clothes for us, along with a little box. This box was his tools. He was a goldsmith, making handmade jewellery. He had the hope and faith that, coming to the homeland – because we are of Pontic Greek descent – along with this box, it would help him make a better life. With whatever he could create with his own hands...

F. 1: Handmade jewellery.

P. 2: We still have the box. Just like the small pieces of jewellery he made. At that time in Russia, you requested gold from the state, they calculated how many grams you needed for what you wanted to make, and they provided it to you. It's not like today, or how it is in the free market. This box has left a lasting impression on me. We still have it, just like the suitcase at the Association.

F. 1: At the Association of...

P. 2: Pontians. With four sets of clothes, a small blanket, and photographs.

F. 1: Will you show us a photograph?

P. 2: Of course. In a square, a huge tree, and underneath, many small children, with very few women. All of this is reality. I wondered and asked my grandmother and my mother, 'Why are there so many children and only two or three women?' And she told me, 'These women are pregnant [...] and you children are being taught the Greek language by this woman.'

F. 1: She was the teacher.

P. 2: We went there under the tree for two hours – a huge tree – and we learned the Greek language and nursery rhymes. When I came to Greece, I already knew them. Some teachers were surprised.

F. 1: Do you know a nursery rhyme? Do you remember any of those songs?

P. 2: [Moves her body right to left as if from a girlish shyness]

F. 1: Should we sing it?

P. 2: Let's sing it. A little rhyme....

F. 1: A rhyme, yes...

P. 2: That one moves me, and I learned it and passed it on to my granddaughters, adding some more verses of my own. So, we put our hands on our waist, put our little feet like this [takes the described stance] and say: [sings] 'My little hands on my waist, I love dancing so much, no one else dances.'

[The other participants respond positively]

F. 1: Thank you.

P. 2: You're welcome. Along with the fairy tales, which are endless, and now we have...

F. 1: Recorded?

P. 2: We've recorded them and will publish them.

F. 1: Ah, that's great. Will you tell us when?

P. 2: Alright.

F. 1: So we can read them too. Thank you.