Eastern Europe
Rooted 2
Armenia
Zabel Aslanyan is thirteen and lives in North London. Her father is Armenian, and Zabel travels with him to Armenia for the first time. They visit Echmiadzin, an important Orthodox Christian church and stay in Karakert village for two nights where Zabel learns to make Lavash, a traditional bread, and goes to the village school. Zabel is quite shocked by the poverty in the village, but finally getting to see what Armenia looked like was great, and she was sad to have to say goodbye.
Lithuania
Eli Sandler is ten years old and comes from Oxford. On Rooted, he travels to Lithuania, the country his family left over eighty years ago. On his trip he learns about the history of the Jewish community in Vilnius and goes to a major league basketball match. He stays on a farm with a Lithuanian family, and learns what you do when it's freezing cold and there's no indoor toilet, and also how to milk a cow. A highlight of his trip is discovering the gravestone of his great uncle by chance. Ely found his trip fun, but wouldn't like to live in Lithuania because it's too cold.
Rooted 1
Ukraine
Simon Finkelstein is 10 years old. He is Jewish and lives in North London. He went to the city of Lviv in the Ukraine, because that’s where his grandfather lived when he was a boy. Simon wanted to visit Lvov because he wanted to learn more about his grandfather’s life, and he went on the trip with his father who helped him to learn all about it.
