Volunteers' stories
Volunteer Story, 2007Jesse Gardiner-Smith
On 18 March 2007 I found myself in a rattling train cabin holding a rifle in one hand and a can of Baltika 3 in the other smiling nervously at Gleb, the Russian soldier sharing my compartment, as he took my photo. I was on my way to start a six month volunteering placement with Baikal Environmental Wave, organised through the European Voluntary Service (EVS). EVS paid for all of my costs and expenses, and even provided me with pocket money on top of food allowance and accommodation budget. I had decided that to fly out for the purposes of an environmental project was slightly hypocritical, and wanting to reduce my carbon footprint I took the Tran-Siberian railway from Moscow to Irkutsk. In spite of the strain of the four day journey this was definitely a good move. The train stopped every few hours when you could get off to stretch your legs or buy smoked fish and pastries from frantic babushkas thronging the platform. I would in fact recommend going Platz Cart instead of Coupe, it’s much cheaper for a start and you actually feel safer as the sections are all open plan so everyone sees everything that goes on and of course its better for socialising. I lost count of the number of vodka toasts I had to drink; usually starting mid-afternoon and everyone would always share their food and drink with you. As the old babushka who sat opposite assured me: There are only three things one should do on a train; eat, drink and sleep. I arrived into Irkutsk and was met by Natasha and Tanya from Baikal Wave. Natasha was the volunteer coordinator and Tanya was to be my EVS mentor, someone who would show me around and help me settle in. With Tanya I had a tour of the town and a trip to Listvianka to see Lake Baikal in my first week. This was amazing as the ice had still not melted and the view out across the lake from the hills was spectacular. The museum was less spectacular and the boxed conditions of the aquarium gave the one surviving captive seal (Nerpa) barely enough room to turn around in. In general Listvianka is worth a visit by sheer merit of its close proximity to Irkutsk (only a few hours by mini bus), but if you have time it would be far better to visit Olkhon island or take the Circum-Baikal railway from Irkutsk to Kultuk at the very tip of the lake and round to Port Baikal before journeying home from Listvianka. My first impressions of the office were good. Spread out over two floors, with plants and vines adorning every corner, the office is a cheerful and bright working environment with a nice central dining area where everyone eats lunch together. The library downstairs is an excellent reference centre and is used by members of the public for research. Of course the people contribute most to making the atmosphere friendly and I was warmly welcomed by everyone at the organisation and made really good friends while I was there. Although there are few men in the office, I still felt very at home and became quite adept at pouring wine and general DIY. On birthdays especially one felt the special atmosphere of the place as everyone would celebrate together in the dining area with cakes, sweet wine and soviet champagne.
My project was un-specific but this gave me the opportunity to suggest things I was interested in doing and allowed me to feel more integrated into the organisation, as I could join in with the various projects and events that were taking place throughout the six months I was there. These included working on a display about energy saving to be taken round local schools, a park clean-up, speaking in schools about energy saving and what life is like in England, public rallies against the nuclear centre in Angarsk, holding an environment themed activity session for local orphans, work for the web-site, not to mention continuous translations of letters, documents, even film transcripts from Russian to English. Natasha the volunteer coordinator was especially kind and helpful, holding fortnightly review sessions with me to discuss what I would be doing next which gave a real sense of structure to my project that I know other EVS volunteers at different organisations felt they lacked. Highlights included spending a week at a children’s summer camp on the shores of Lake Baikal teaching the kids about energy saving with Liudmilla Georgevna from Baikal Wave. I was the first foreigner many of the children had ever met and the experience of interacting with them was really rewarding. I also helped the camp football team beat a rival camp which gained me instant notoriety as the ‘English footballer’. Another really memorable trip was one into the mountains during the May-day bank holiday with Yelena Mikhailovna the accountant at Baikal Wave and her family. They kindly invited Nicola, a volunteer from Germany, and I to go with them and we spent days climbing up the peaks and frozen rivers, camping in the trees at night and listening to the musicians play Russian folk songs by the fire. The experience of travelling is one not to be missed while in Siberia and the organisation is very accommodating in this respect (EVS projects allow around 3 weeks holiday). I also got the opportunity to go to Olkhon island on Lake Baikal and volunteer at the guest house there in return for board and meals. This was great fun and I was able to go on hikes and camping trips across the island when I was not working. Irkutsk is a city of contrasts. Culturally quite western with fashion shops, cafes and theatres, it is at the same time slap bang in the middle of the Asian continent. You need only drive a little way out of the city to meet endless pine forests, jagged mountains and the Buddhist shrines of the indigenous Buriats. One evening returning home from the supermarket, the sky began to turn red and the wind whipped up in the street. I ducked into a cafe and watched as a dust storm descended on the city clouding the air red and brown. The people are friendly on the whole and very interested in foreigners. A group of lads ready to mug me stopped when they realised I was actually English (I remember walking away feeling a mix of fear that they would follow me and pride that my Russian accent had been so unusually convincing!). However there is, like all Russian towns, a skin-head presence and new comers to the city should be aware of this and avoid confrontations and excessively provocative behaviour in the street. The nightlife improves vastly as summer approaches. People promenade along the river drinking beer and watching the sun set. Night clubs open the terraces and stay serving until the early hours. The music scene attracts some big DJs from Moscow and the occasional gig. My favourite night however had to be a drum and bass rave put on in an abandoned soviet warehouse out by the railway lines. The rain was pouring down and the ground quickly turned into a quagmire, but that did not stop hundreds of Irkutsk students from dancing away in the mud until the sun came up. If music is not your thing then Irkutsk has four decent cinemas and a couple of theatres. Cafes along the main Karl Marx road are not plentiful but relaxed. I recommend Bar Liverpool for the cold weather, Objekt 01 for DJs and Maradona bar if you want to catch up with the football. I hope that gives an insight into life in Irkutsk and volunteering at Baikal Wave. It is important to remember that working in the not-for-profit sector in Russia is hard as the infrastructure is still weak and the authorities do not make life simple for the organisation or its employees. Having said that, I had no real problems during my whole stay and enjoyed the experience immensely. I was always made to feel that the work I was doing was useful to them and that I was a valuable member of the organisation. One of the most fulfilling pieces of work I did was the translation of a film transcript on the indigenous Evenk reindeer herders that premiered in a film festival put on by Baikal Wave at the end of the summer. More than this, I left Irkutsk having made some great friends and having contributed a tiny something to the development of Russia’s environmental sector at a very important stage in its history. These feelings and the memory of summer evenings on lake Baikal have made me determined to return. |
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