Once upon a time, there was a girl called Lucy. She lived in Ireland with her dad, Roger.

She loved Ireland. It had all of her friends, family and even her school.

But one day, Lucy's dad told her that they were moving to a new country called Lebanon for a new job.

Lucy was very sad because she didn't want to leave Ireland, but her dad told her that they could visit every summer. 

After a full day of travelling, Lucy and her dad arrived in Lebanon. 

They decided to take a walk around their new town, Jezzine. The first difference they noticed was the weather. Lebanon was much warmer than Ireland. Lucy really liked the heat.

Lucy imagined Lebanon to look much different. She imagined a desert, but she was surprised to see that it was very green. This reminded her of Ireland, so she was very happy.

Lucy was excited to meet her neighbour. She was an elderly woman called Zeena. She wore a beautiful long black dress and a headscarf. She told Lucy that her dress was called an 'abaya' and her headscarf was called a 'hijab'. These are worn by some Muslims.

This reminded Lucy of her nanny in Ireland, who sometimes wore a headscarf. She remembered the nuns in her school who dressed similar to this too. 

"Lebanon and Ireland are more similar than I imagined", thought Lucy. 

On Sunday, Lucy and her dad went to church. This church was across the road from the mosque that Zeena attended every Friday. This reminded Lucy of Ireland too, where different religions lived together peacefully. 

Monday was Lucy's first day in school. She made new friends. 

She was worried that they wouldn't speak English, but she found out that they study English in school and they were speaking it very well. She taught them some Irish and they taught her some Arabic.

She found out that they like the same music, TV shows and movies. 

The Lebanese children were very excited to hear about Ireland, so they asked Lucy lots of questions. She was very excited to talk about it.