Volunteers' stories
Learning for my lifeClaudia Rose
To go to Siberia, to see the "famous" and mystical lake Baikal has been a dream of me for a long time. After I had finished my studies of Ecology at the University of Potsdam and a more or less disappointing search for a job I decided to "make this dream come true" and to go to see what it is all about. After uncountable reports, stories, pictures and images of Siberia and especially the Baikal my curiosity was unlimited. I had been studying in St. Petersburg for one year and after a lot of trips there I had an idea of how the european part of Russia looks like. But going far, far to the East, behind the Ural almost to the other side of "Eurasia" would show me another face of this giant country. Because of the history and the very successful work of all of the Baikalwave-members this organisation also got a lot of popularity abroad. For that reason it was not very difficult to find out about the Wave in German organisations with connections to Russia, like the DRA (Deutsch-Russischer-Austausch, German-Russian-Exchange) or in general in the internet, when you are looking for activities in the field of ecology in Russia. Contacting the Baikalwave was very easy. I wrote to Natasha Podkovyrova, who is now responsible for the work with the volunteers, asking, what I would have to do, to become a volunteer in the Baikalwave. I sent my CV and a letter of intention and after some days I got the OK to come to the Baikalwave for three month, from July till October 2004. With a three hour delay I arrived Irkutsk at about 1 o?clock at night. With a really touching patience Yekaterina had waited for me the hole time an met me with a friendly hug. My very first impression of this "new" world was very hearty and like that it kept on going. I stayed at Katya's place, which was about ten minuts by foot from the office of the Baikalwave. I was very happy with this decision to live there. The next day we went to the office which was very quite and empty - which is really untypically for the Wave - but because of the summer months most of the staff was on vacations. I was really surprised about the two-floored office which looked totally untypical for Russian offices. One of the "heartpieces" of the Baikalwave, the library, is located on the first floor. It is specialized on ecological topics in Russia, in the region or of the lake Baikal and other scientific literature about the environment. What makes it special, is in my opinion the amount of books in English and other foreign languages on topics, which are not (yet) in the centre of interest of the majority, such as genetical manipulated food or alternative sources of energy. It was really pleasant to see how much the library is frequented by students, teachers or just interested people. Another thing in the Wave which made me feel like in a big family, is the kitchen corner on the second floor, where people meet for having lunch - everyday they prepare a warm meal for the hole Wave staff - or just drinking tea. For the first time this year the Wave organized a two-week-camp for teaching young people the principals and ideas of sustainable development. For this we went to the national park "Tunkinskaya dolina" (Tunkinsk valley) in the Buryatian Republic. The camp was addressed to interested young people from 18 to 25 years old and was called "Leadership for the future". The idea was, that with the new knowledge they would go back to their hometowns and spread it arround. I think it was a very good idea to organize such a camp. Learning something new was one, getting in touch with other young people with different backgrounds another. We did a lot of things, we took part in lections about sustainable development, we were picking rubbish from the forest close to a buddhist temple and confronted the local administration with this more than urgent problem. We did a questionaire amongst the local people to find out about there opinion concerning the future development potentials of the region. The results of this work we presented before the administration of the national park, who promised to do the things they can do to solve the most serious problems, such as the collection and utilisation of the rubbish, especially in the tourist areas. Although people came with different expectations of what they would learn or do in this camp I think it was a good experience for everybody. At least I had a great time: the incredible nature, getting an idea of how practical environmental work looks like in Russia, lots of nice new people, adventures with managing to cook and to place more then 25 young people. Another task for me in the practical work in the Wave, was to find out about the situation and the possibilities to apply alternative energy sources, particularly biogas. Just to go to the places where I should have analized the situation was not that easy as I had imagined. One thing was to get there - no official transport and almost no road - and the other thing were the unpredictable circumstances at the place. And so we decided to send me to another place, easier to reach, where the situation was comparable to this in the other place. At last in this moment I understood, that there really excists another world which is unimaginable in our (western) countries. The rest of the time I did different things, this and that. I translated films for a film festival for ecological films "Man and Environment" , which was taking place in Irkutsk and for the holdings of videos on environmental topics in the library. For the "Baikalday" on the 22nd of August another volunteer from England, Stephanie, Tatyana from the Wave and me made a leaflet about different environmental topics like saving energy and water in the household, minimizing the amount of rubbish or genetically manipulated food. These leaflets were given to interested people. For the first time in the history of the "Baikalday" some Wave-members and Stephanie organized the "Baikalnight" in a club which was a great success. Of course I also traveled around in the region and I would say in this three months I have seen a lot of beautiful places. Swimming in the Baikal, hiking in the mountains, the incredible, very different and differing nature ... all these experiences will stay. The time in the Baikalwave is unforgetable. I met a lot of very interesting, enthusiastic, wonderful and friendly people and made a lot of friends. Especially because of their openess, warmth and interest it was easy to feel welcome and a bit like "home". In these months in the Wave and the two weeks in the camp for me it was a very important experience to see how people are working in the field of ecology - which most of the Russian people unfortunatly are not even interested in - and how people are fighting for their rights of a "healthy", clear and untouched environment and also that people would get to know about all these things which are happening around them. Their energy and their enthusiasm is really amazing and admirable, especially taking in account the difficult conditions of the Russian laws and restrictions. I hope that the work of the Baikalwave will go on for long years. First of all for the people living in this region, the environment the Baikal and for a lot more volunteers to go there... |
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