Volunteers' stories
About my EVS project in the environmental organization “Baikalwave” in IrkutskJohanna Manges, Austria
I was attracted by Siberia, because it seemed mysterious to me. I did not know that much about this vast region and there were a lot of images (and stereotypes) about Siberia in my head: snow and ice, -50 degrees or more, people wear fur, pipelines, Vodka, small villages far from civilization, Shamanism, Taiga and Tundra, the Transsib railway… Generally people were a little bit shocked, when I told them that I will go to Siberia. I think that the older Generation still thinks of it as a place where you are banned to, and the younger one thinks of it with a lot of stereotypes. I found out about Baikalwave because I read the website in Internet. I got into contact with some former volunteers and wrote a mail to Natasha. I was especially interested in this organization, because environmental protection is an important subject for me and I thought, that in this region it is especially important, as lake Baikal carries soo much of the world’s water, and I wanted to learn how this organization can work, because I knew, that there is not much support from the state. When I arrived in Irkutsk, I thought of it like the point, where Europe meets Asia. On one hand, it is very much like in Europe, the shops, Banks, in supermarkets I found nearly everything, that I use to eat in Austria (only not Tahin-sesame paste). On the other hand there are many Asian faces in the streets, markets with babushkas (old Russian women) that sell their self made products and fruits and veggies from their Datscha (small house with garden). The public transport with old buses from Korea with music, Marschrutkas (in the beginning I was a bit stressed to shout, when I want to get out). I often did “active discovering of Irkutsk”, when I sat in the wrong bus and landed somewhere, where I didn’t mean to go, the different way how people act in public life. I remember that in the first month I often found the faces of people in the streets really cold-looking, like icy. The girls with high-heel shoes and very styled, I was just not used to it. The first days I honestly asked myself: “What am I doing here? Why do I go to live exactly in Siberia for half a year??? What do I want to learn here?” I felt a bit lost. But when I saw Lake Baikal the first time, I really knew why I am exactly at this place. Natasha made our on-arrival training at Lake Baikal. We swam, ate Omul (special fish that you find only in this lake), walked around, just were outside in nature. This lake is a really special place, like magic. If I watch the water for a long time, I get a feeling of eternity. Together with me there is Julie and there was Jesse as EVS volunteers in Baikalwave. I think that it is much funnier and easier, if you are not the only volunteer there. I found a friend in Julie and we have projects together and traveled to Altai and Burjatia during our holidays. During the first month I lived with an Old Russian woman Nina and her 50-years old son. This was very good in the beginning, as I had to speak Russian and really got to know the way of live of people here. We sometimes cooked together and in the evening sat in the kitchen and drank tschai. Sometimes we had some fatale misunderstandings. For example, I like to whistle when I am happy. When they heard me whistling, they shouted: » No, don’t do that! We will lose our money if you whistle in the house!” Sometimes I could take it easy and it was really funny, sometimes I found it a bit hard, when I had no real privacy and I felt controlled. After one month I decided to move out, I could live at Natasha’s place for some days and quite quickly found a new flat, together with Dima from Khakasia and Dan from Canada. That’s where I still live and I enjoy it, they are both in my age and interesting guys. The work in the organization is very various. In the first weeks, Natasha explained us about what they do, I did some translation from Russian into German, and we were at Lake Baikal with GBT organization to build a path for support of ecological tourism. It was an international group of young people, and we lived in tents right next to the lake. In the morning, when we had to prepare breakfast, I had to get up at 6, make fire, and watch the sun coming up. I was really impressed by the way how the water of the lake changes all the time. From rose to orange to red to light blue, dark blue, green shimmering, grey, turquoise, high waves, totally calm, black,… After this we stayed in the city and helped to do an exhibition about Baikalwave for the museum of nature. Then we made research about Energy and finished the exhibition, which other volunteers had already started. We put it in universities and schools and did some workshops about energy saving with pupils. We went with people from the office to Olchon Island for our midterm training, some children were with us as well and we talked about alternative energy and did excursions. We did our project “Natural Step”, which is an ecological footprint of the organization, to find out how much energy, water, waste, co2,…they used in a time of 3 years. This made me think of my own way of living. The message of this project is “practice what you preach”, but is my lifestyle environmentally friendly? For example, I used the plane to come here to work in an Environmental organization. Isn’t this antagonism? And how about waste, why not to use my tissue bag when I go shopping, instead of taking a new plastic bag every time? Lots of thoughts… We had the presentation of our project, we played theater.
We also had our own ideas of projects. We made some socio- and environmental critical advertisement, we did a poster with pictures of all the volunteers that worked here, and we are making a film about the old and young generation here and their different lifestyle. Because for me it is even more than in Europe seen, how different the generations live. Many Babushkas still do a lot on their own, for winter they prepare cucumbers, cabbage and tomatoes in glasses; they repair their clothes when they have holes. In the organization I feel good; people are close to each other. Every day one person cooks and we eat together. When I need something I can ask people there, who are really helpful, it is a bit like a family. Natasha, who is the volunteer coordinator, really cares; she has already lots of experience with volunteers and is very good at checking. Of course, sometimes I had crisis. I think that it is much harder to do any kind of project here, I often felt like being in the middle of a chewing gum. Everything takes you longer; you have to be really patient, because often the way of life is like”do not expect too much right from the beginning, in the end everything will be okay anyway”… But anyway, I think that a lot depends on oneself. If you come to a new place, don’t know people there, don’t know good places to be, it is like a new beginning. I think it needs some initiative, and there are ups and downs. But what I really think is that it makes you stronger inside. You have the possibility to make lots of experiences, to see your culture from outside, to be more self-dependent. And finally some things that I found out after some time here: -You should always have a copy of your passport with you, and for sleeping in a hotel you need your immigration card. -You usually do not throw toilette paper into the toilette, but into a bucket next to it. -In Irkutsk you pay for buses and marschrutkas (like VW bus) in the end of the drive, when you get out.. -In marschrutkas you have to shout before you will get out, like: “Stop at the next station, please!” (Ha sledujuscheij, paschal’sta!) -The timetable of trains is written in Moscow time, so if you have your train at 12 o’clock, and you are in Irkutsk, it will be at 17 o’clock. Paka, paka! Johanna |
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