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The Fifth Floor

Factual: Life Stories

Global stories from the BBC’s 40 Language Services, with Faranak Amidi

Faranak Amidi presents global stories from the Fifth Floor, home to the BBC’s 40 Language Services.

Faranak Amidi presents global stories from the Fifth Floor, home to the BBC’s 40 Language Services

The Fifth Floor: Garissa: I Can't Describe What I Saw

Garissa

10/04/2015

Garissa: I Can't Describe What I Saw

BBC World Service - The Fifth Floor, Garissa: I Can't Describe What I Saw

How a reporter broke the news of the Garissa attack

Life in Garissa before and after the attack; how camels came to Australia, essential Urdu literary classics and the song lyrics no-one understands.

This week Kenya mourns the 148 people killed at Garissa University by the militant group al-Shabab. Bashkas Jugsodaay of BBC Africa gives a personal account of how the massacre unfolded. 

THE ESSENTIAL CLASSICS FOR A DEGREE IN URDU 
Manchester Metropolitan has become one of the first universities in England to offer students the possibility of studying Urdu to degree level.  But what should they have on their reading lists? The Fifth Floor brings together two journalists from BBC Urdu - Saqlain Imam and Khadeeja Arif - to battle over which are the seminal texts in their language. 

AUSTRALIA'S AFGHAN CAMELEERS
A little known chapter of Australia's history links the interior of the continent with distant communities in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Dawood Azami from the BBC Afghan Service brings them together in two documentaries he's made about the cameleers who migrated from Afghanistan in the 1860s to help open up Australia. He tells the Fifth Floor about the surprises and discoveries on the way. 

LIVING WITH A WATER SHORTAGE
What would you do if your tap ran dry?  In south-east Brazil, people have been enduring their worst drought in decades and taking desperate measures.  Rafael Barifouse of BBC Brasil tells the Fifth Floor a few survival techniques that Brazilians are adopting to cope with an unprecedented water crisis.     

MYSTERY LYRICS
In a week when the sale of the lyrics of American Pie re-opened discussions on the meaning of the song, we go round the Fifth Floor for examples of songs in other languages which have baffled listeners.  Incredibly profound, or incredibly silly?  Strange lyrics from Brazil, Turkey, Iran and Bollywood.

And Fifi picks her favourite stories from the world of the web.

Picture: Kenyan Soldier at Garissa University
Picture credit: Getty Images

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