I had many questions for Nazih Girgis, an award-winning author and publisher of children's books in Arabic and English, as I prepared for our meeting. Girgis emigrated to the US in 1980. He regularly returns to Egypt to write, produce shows, and lead workshops for underprivileged children in the south of the country. As we began to speak, however, I realised that his insights into life, health, and education went well beyond my list of questions. Combining world music, original lyrics, and animal stories, Girgis' miniature ballet performances have made him a rare figure in the world of children's art and education. This is what he told me: “I used to work with the poorest children in Egypt, those who go to school barefoot. I used to go to them and read them stories such as Peter and the Wolf, which I translated into Arabic from the orchestral work with narration by the Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev. “I would tell the children the story. Then we would listen together to the music for this orchestral work and put the music and the words together. When I felt the children had fully digested the story, I would hand out masks representing a wolf, a sparrow, and a duck, all figures featured in the piece. Then we would re-enact the story. “I created a ballet piece based on the story of Peter and the Wolf and it was performed in the city of Beni Sweif and other parts of Upper Egypt. The children loved the ballet just as they loved the music. So, over the past 12 years, I have done more than 1,200 workshops with children. Up to 60 children would take part in each workshop. “When I first heard the piece myself in Vienna in 1979, I couldn't understand it, as it was in German. But I enjoyed it nonetheless. In 1980, having just moved to the US, I bought a recording of the work and listened to it carefully. Then I decided to translate it into Arabic for Egyptian children to enjoy it. “In 1990, I staged a performance of the piece in Arabic at the Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts in Washington. The show was attended by 1,000 children, half of them Arabs, as well as Arab ambassadors and American congressmen. “Then I started writing children's stories myself, inspired by classical and romantic music. One story, entitled the Carnival of the Animals, was inspired by 14 pieces by the French composer Camille Saint-Saens in which he made various instruments imitate the sounds of birds and animals. “In the stories I wrote, a composer decides to take some children to a zoo to explain how musical instruments can imitate animals. When they arrive at the zoo they find the animals outside their cages and a lion telling them to clean up the mess that the zoo visitors have left behind. The lion also tells the animals to separate solid from organic garbage, which the animals do with zeal. “I received two awards from former first lady Suzanne Mubarak for children's literature and artwork. The Carnival of the Animals sold 100,000 copies, but my best reward was when I saw the faces of the children light up as they followed the show. “After that, I turned my attention to road safety when I was inspired by my son Alexi. Back in 1989, when he was still in first grade, I was driving him home from school when Alexi, sitting in the back seat, safety belt on, told me to slow down. I looked at the speedometer, and he was right: I was driving over the speed limit. So I did what he had told me and promised to be more careful in the future. “Later that night at home during supper I asked him how he knew I had been going too fast. He said that a traffic policeman had come to his class and told the children how to read traffic signs. He had also asked them to tell their parents to slow down if they drove too fast. When I heard that I wrote a book called Doctor Wise, the Elephant about it, and this won first prize in Suzanne Mubarak's Competition for Children's Literature. “One day I got a call suggesting that I write a piece about water for an upcoming international conference in Sharm El-Sheikh. I said I would think about it, and lying in bed one night an idea hit me: I could use the famous Water Music by Handel as a way of telling a story about water. “In the story I wrote, a drop of water was a queen, and she had four daughters. The lyrics went like this: ‘I am queen water/I have four daughters/rivers, oceans, wells, and rain are their names/water resources, they are called.' “After I had finished writing the lyrics, I thought of turning the piece into a ballet, so I asked a friend to choreograph it. Within two weeks we were able to create a ten-minute musical and dance performance. Everyone loved it. The water ballet was performed in Johannesburg in 2002, and I had the honour of meeting the late Nelson Mandela during the visit. “Another idea that came to me at the same time was to write about fast food and how it can lead to obesity and other health problems. With all the commercials running on TV, it is hard sometimes to convince children to stay away from fast food. But fast food and soft drinks are toxic. They are bad for the heart, terrible for the health, and can be addictive. “It was around this time that US first lady Michelle Obama started a campaign called ‘Let's Move' to encourage children to exercise more and be more healthy. I wrote a piece called The Dolphin Park, about three dolphins who are forced to go to a zoo because the ocean had become too polluted. The children are happy to see the dolphins and start feeding them the same stuff that they ate. One dolphin puts on so much weight that he can no longer swim with ease. An elephant called Hakim advises him to avoid fast food and fizzy drinks and eat fresh vegetables and fruit instead. “The dolphin follows the elephant's advice and is able to regain his strength. Meanwhile, experts also clean up the ocean and the dolphins are able to go home. I sent copies of the first edition of this book to Michelle Obama and she sent me a thank-you letter co-signed by the president. “At an art show I met Tarah Toohil, a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. When she knew that I was a children's book author, she invited me to her office and suggested that I have my books translated also into Spanish. I did so, and she sent copies to all the schools in her area. “Today I believe that change in Egypt must begin with education. We cannot defeat terror unless we offer cultural, scientific, and art education to children. If you look into the background of any terrorist, you will find a person who doesn't appreciate art and music. “If we teach our young people to appreciate literature and music, we will be creating people who love their world, just like the animals in my stories, and don't want to hurt it — or hurt themselves.”
