Alfred 13

August 2nd,

This will be my final entry as an Learning Enterprises Russia 2009 volunteer. I’m not really sure if I can find the words to express the sentiment I am feeling right now, but I am going to try.

Today began as a normal day teaching, but after class Dasha told me that we were going to visit the local orphanage to play with the children there. I have never been to an orphanage before, so I thought it would be a good experience, and immediately agreed to go. We were expecting maybe 8 children, but when we arrived we got greeted by about 30, and we played some games with them and talked with them for a bit. They were obviously really interested in me since they have never seen a foreigner before, so I introduced myself and answered some questions before we began.

There was one little girl there, no more than 2, who reminded me of my niece Hannah, and I couldn’t help but looking at these kids and asking myself why they were there. Why don’t they have homes, and a family to care for them? They are no different than I was as a kid, so why do they have to go through childhood with nothing but each other? Isn’t childhood supposed to be one of the happiest times of our lives, a time when we‘re carefree and have not a worry in the world? Any of us could have been in their position, but fate was kind to us.

There was one trio of sisters, and everyone else seemed to have a best friend in the group, the one who’d they do everything with, the one who they’d share their life experiences with. I began to wonder what would happen to these children. It would be wonderful if they were adopted, but they would have to supplement their best friend or siblings for a faux family. That’s something I never had to choose between and I can’t help but be thankful for that, even though its something I have always taken for granted.

The saddest part is that many of the children do have families, but their families don’t want them. They come from broken homes, where money that should be spent on them is actually spent on alcohol or feeding other habits. I can’t fathom how anyone can do that to their own child. When I look into these children’s faces I just wish there was something more I could do for them.

Afterwards they were hugging us and asking if we would come back to play with them again. We promised to go back on Wednesday, and one of the girls said “My mommy’s coming on Wednesday!” Her face was glowing with excitement as she said this with a smile, and I found a tear forming in my eye as I tried to figure out weather she was filled with false hope or if that was actually the case. I can’t believe I had to even think that. I really hope it’s the latter, but I can’t help but think it’s the former. I just wished I found this place earlier, so I could have volunteered there after classes and spent more time with these children.

“Expanding horizons through global volunteerism.” This is what Learning Enterprises strives to do, and what it has done for me. For the past five weeks I have called this place my home, and I will always consider it as such. I have learned a lot about the culture here, both good and bad aspects of it, and I now understand why we are here. Our compassion for Russia, both linguistic and cultural, compelled us to come forward and volunteer for this cross-cultural opportunity, and we have all undoubtedly gained so many things from this experience; many intangible things. Things we will carry with us forever. In the end I find that it is not so much the teaching we do, but who we do it with that matters. The opportunities we offer others are nothing compared to what they have given us. We came here to educate, but we were the ones who were taught. To teach so that we may learn, to live so that we may serve.

Thank you for sharing this experience with me. I’ll see you all on the other side of the pond.

Alfred 12

Weds., July 22, 2009

Hey guys!
Yesterday was quite an experience. After classes, Dasha took me to a summer camp where her older cousin works about 30 minutes from the city. There were about 400 kids staying there, and all of them were really interested in meeting an American, even though they heard English and assumed I was an Englishman! They were all interested in learning about Americans and our culture, and I thought it is the perfect place to expand our LE program. The director showed us around the camp and we had tea with him, and he was asking me if I thought it was possible to get American kids in the camp, or if I thought LE would be interested.
There are many summer camps in Russia, supplemented by the government to make it affordable. It costs about $100 for each student to attend for 21 days, including room and board, which is really cheap for a summer camp. It also was the nicest camp I have ever seen, and was outstanding for America, let alone Russia. I know that Learning Enterprises usually works with a class in a classroom, but we try to steer away from generic, formal teaching and genuinely work to get kids interested in learning English and learning about American and English culture. Working with a camp would give us the opportunity to touch the lives of hundreds of children at once rather than a few dozen, and we would live side by side with them rather than just seeing them for a few hours a day. What better way to have a croos-cultural exchange? There are also 3 21 day seasons, so we have the opportunity to work with 2 groups of kids, ranging anywhere from 8-18 years old. Furthermore, if LE threw 3 or 4 volunteers in there, they wouldn’t have to worry about finding host families or any of that other nonsense, and there is no commuting to school for the volunteers. It’s a win-win situation of you ask me; A REALLY easy opportunity for us to expand (hint hint to those of you LE big dogs reading this. *cough cough Katrina cough*).
Anyway, back to the story. The camp director showed us everything—he was really proud of his camp, and for good reason. He also showed us his house and American car.
Since the kids at the camp are going home in a few days, they were throwing a disco party for them, so we went too. After about 50 kids asked for my autograph and danced with me, the older kids came in and they started to play dance music. They all like English music, but almost all of them don’t understand it, especially because music in a foreign language is more difficult to comprehend than speaking in a foreign language because of the slang. One song came on, and the lyrics the whole way through were “suck my d***, suck my mother f***ing d***.” I was petrified and left the dance floor immediately, as the 11 year old children were rocking out to this song. Dasha, our English speaking Russian, was still dancing and gave me a look that essentially said “Why aren’t you out here dancing?” I pulled my ear, and she listened intently to the music as she was dancing. All of the sudden, her dancing slowed and then stoped completely, and there she is, standing still on the middle of the dance floor with her jaw dropped. It was so funny. I’m just glad the kids didn’t understand. What a stupid DJ!

Alfred 11

Monday, July 20st

I probably had the best conversation with my host father tonight, by which I mean I actually comprehended almost all of it, and respond to his questions. He was telling me how difficult it is to live in Russian society. People make virtually nothing with their profession. For example, teachers make an average of $270 a month, lawyers about $1300 a month, and judges about $1700 a month. Their monthly salaries are equal to what their American counterparts make in a few days. While staple foods are cheaper here (bread, milk, etc.), bigger things like cars and appliances cost the same as it does in America, and some things, like coffee pots and microwaves actually cost more (the cheapest coffeepot I found was $100). While I knew that in order to host a foreigner the household income must be at least $330 a month, I didn’t realize that my host family was only making $850 a month together. It’s actually really admirable that they are able to sustain themselves with a large garden and limited usage of water, and supplement the money that would be used to pay for that extra food and water with internet access and other non-essentials. I still don’t think I would be able to survive here on that type of income, which is actually above average…

On another note, I have been thinking about my experiences with learning enterprises and I realize that I really enjoy working with them. While I don’t think I could ever be a program director after seeing what Brett deals with, I think I will apply for a position (maybe campus coordinator) next year. I’ve also been looking at some of the other programs we had and I’ve decided to take Spanish along with Russian next year so I can apply for the Learning Enterprises programs in Panama and Mexico, which will cost a lot less and would help me get in touch with my Spanish roots. As far as international community service and teaching English as a second language goes, I think this experience has pushed me to apply to programs to teach English in South Korea, China, or Japan the year after I graduate before I enter the peace corps. I’m not sure how my parents would feel about this, and when they read this it will be the first time they’re hearing (or seeing) anything about it, so mom and dad, what do you think? It’ll definitely be an experience, right?

Alfred 10

Sun. July 19th

Hey everyone,
Sorry it’s been so long since my last entry. Nothing was happening and then BAM, all at once. So, this past weekend all the volunteers met up in Belakoreeha (I’ve probably spelt this differently at least 10 times) on Saturday. Of course, my city has to be the furthest away, actually about 5 hours away by bus. Even better was the fact that the earliest bus brought us to Belakoreeha at 12:30pm, even though everyone else got there at 10:30am. Dasha and I decided that we didn’t want to spend 5 hours on a bus only to stay in the city for a few hours and then do the bus thing all over again, so we decided to buy the return ticket for 5:45am on Sunday, even though we had no place to spend the night!
The bus ride there was a little interesting. We brought food for a picnic we were having in Belakoreeha, including a salad with lots of mayo (since Russians do not have salad dressing), which somehow got really thin. Anyway, I was holding the bag with the salad on my lap as I was sleeping on the bus. After about 2 ½ hours the bus stopped in one of the big cities for 35 mins, so Dasha and I decide to get up for a stretch. I lifted the bag and saw a bunch of white stuff all over my black shirt, and was thinking “what the heck was happening while I was sleeping?” before Dasha said “Oh God, the salad!” I lifted the bag and there was this mayo dressing ALL OVER my shorts, forming a puddle on my lap and still dripping from the bag. I start screaming and went to move the bag to the aisle, but I was in the window seat and Dasha was in the aisle seat, so it had to go over her. She starts screaming because I almost got it all over her. It was a Kodak moment. Here we are on a bus with about 30 really serious Russians and we’re yelling back and forth and covered in mayo.
Finally we got everything fixed (I.e. we shoved the bag under the seat so it would leak on the floor instead of us) and I somehow managed to clean the pound of mayo off me in the bathroom so it wasn’t that noticeable (Dasha got very little on her), which was good since I didn’t bring a change of clothes! Once we get to Belakoreeha it starts to rain on our picnic, but we still had a lot of fun.
Once we saw Sarah, Wilson and Devan off, Isabel showed the town to Brett, Ted, Dasha, and myself. We ate at a really expensive restaurant (It cost me about $15, which is ridiculous for Russia), and meandered around the city until the clubs opened.
We went to this one club early, so we got some of the best seats in the house, and ordered champagne and sushi (I felt really yuppie, but its not often I get to feel like a rich kid, so I loved it!) to pass the time. After about the third bottle the action really started to pick up, and there was a bunch of Russians dancing by themselves on the floor (ya know, because they don’t dance together).
I got a kick out of watching this one guy who looked like he was having a seizure on the dance floor, but was actually dancing. There was this one really drunk girl who saw him dancing, studied what he was doing for a bit, and then began to copy his moves. She was hitting on him, but he just laughed at the way she was dancing and walked away (guess he doesn’t dance in front of mirrors much!). Oh… good times ^_^

Alfred 9

Mon., July 13th and Tues., July 14th

Hey Everyone!
It’s been a depressing couple of days. First, our director Brett left Novyaltaisk to go visit the other volunteers, leaving me as the only volunteer in this city! My condolenses go out to my host family also. I know that yesterday my host grandfather was admitted to the hospital. I’m not exactly well versed on medical jargon in Russian, but from our conversation I figured out that something happened to his arm (I think my host mother may have said that he broke it). Today however, I found out that someone had died. I don’t think it was my host grandfather, but rather the father of a family friend. I know he died of a heart attack, because the Russian word for it is pronounced “insult,” which I had to look up because at first I thought that my host mother was trying to tell me that she found something I did offensive.
I’m going to get a little political now because I feel like this is something I need to address. Russian people have a tendency to over-consume on meat and dairy products, which increases the probability of having heart palpitations and can potentially lead to death because of the massive amounts of cholesterol the body absorbs. Paired with a poor healthcare system the picture does not look good, and the problem is only exacerbated by rampant alcoholism that has taken over the country. Since alcohol damages the liver, as does the medication available here for high cholesterol, the result is either a dead liver or clogged arteries, neither of which is good.
This actually causes a large national security issue for the Russian federation. Not only is the average lifespan of a Russian male 55 years (which is one of the lowest among developed nations) compared to the Russian females life expectancy of about 70 years, but Russian females greatly outnumber Russian males, even more than China’s male to female ratio of 110:100. This leads many Russian females to seek companionship elsewhere (hence Russian “mail-order” brides), and it also doesn’t help feminism here either, since woman must compete for the few available good men. And men on the other hand have no problem not wearing deodorant or washing or remaining sober since they almost certainly will find a woman desperate to start a family.
Just yesterday Dasha and I walked into a productui (small food store) to buy some bread and four completely wasted Russian men came inside to get more alcohol (It was about 4 o’clock, by the way), and when we went outside there was another drunk man pissing out in the open. Dasha turned to me and said “now you know why I don’t want to date Russian men!” Can’t say I blame her!
Our article comes out in the paper tomorrow. Dasha stopped by the newspaper office today to pick up a copy, and we got the ENTIRE page. There are 3 articles and 3 pictures of us on it. One article talks about learning enterprises, one about me and Brett teaching in the classroom, and one about the interview they had with Brett and myself the following day. Watching what you say around reporters is a trite statement in the US, but it holds true here too. I mentioned in passing that I may work for the US government, and they printed that. They also printed a comment Brett made about how cheap their advertising was for their own publicity (He worked on a newspaper for a while, so he was comparing them during the tour). Either way, our celebrity is growing in town. I was on the bus today and the man next to me was on the phone and said to whoever he was talking to “I’m here with the American.” We’re in a town of about 250,000 people, but I guess word spreads fast. Even faster after they print the article tomorrow.
This Saturday I will be able to meet up with the other volunteers in Bellakoreka, a resort-like town where one of the other volunteers (Isabel) is living. It’s going to be great since I haven’t seen them for almost 2 weeks. I hope they are all doing well and having fun! That’s all for now.

Alfred 8 (livin la vida Russian!)

Sun, July 12th

Exactly one month until I hop back onto the Trans-Siberian RR back to Moscow for my flight back to JFK. I’m already feeling homesick, or rather its difficult to adjust to some things. I thought my parents ate a lot of meat, but Russians literally have meat with EVERY meal, including breakfast. And usually its fatty red meat like salami. I’m not a huge fan of it, but I don’t really have a choice.
We were at Dasha’.s the other day, and her mother came home and made us tea. But tea in Russia is never just tea. Its tea and cookies and meat and cucumber and tomatoes and bread and lots of other things as well. When we sat down, there was something on one of the plates that resembled sliced cold turkey, which I thought was awkward since I’ve never seen anything like that before in Russia. So, being the nice person I am, I let Brett eat the first piece before asking Dasha what it was. She said the name in Russian that we couldn’t translate, which is never good. While Brett was making faces Dasha went to go look the word up, and her mother was saying “It’s good for you. It will help you lose weight.” Then Dasha calls from her room “Eet is Lard.” I had to contain myself as I watched the surprise creep across Brett’s face. Yes, I’m sure it would help me lose weight… only in Russia…
One of my classes is watching Finding Nemo because I wanted to watch an English film. They’re watching it in English, so I wanted to have Russian subtitles so they could understand, but the Russian school teachers I am working with, Dasha and Anna, made me do English subtitles, so I hope they can understand it! We’ll talk about it afterwards, so I’ll see how much they absorbed.
The older kids in one of our classes took Brett, Dasha, and myself to the lake. I don’t think I’ve ever swam in a lake before, in fact I think the only “natural” water I’ve ever swam in was the creek by my great-grandmothers house, and that had rocks along the bottom. At this lake it was slimy mud, but it was still fun! The kids are around my brothers age, I think only a year or two older, so it’s nice being around them.
Friday night Anna and Dasha took us to a bigger city nearby called Barnol. There’s a lot to do there, but we went to a club. It was really funny when Brett tried to dance with Dasha! Russians don’t dance like Americans. While we dance close and bump and grind, Russians dance in a circle and move their arms as much as their legs. One Russian song came on called “American Boy.” It’s about a Russian girl wanting to leave Moscow to go find a man in the U.S. I LOVED it. Now I just need to find it on Itunes ^_^

I think that’s all for now. Love and peace.

Alfred 7 (Extra, extra, read all about us!)

Weds., July 8th

Okay, so today was really interesting! We were interviewed by 2 Russian papers, and we will have articles printed within the next few days. I’ll have to get a copy to bring back home, but of course it will be in Russian!
The initial shock of the Americans in town has still not worn off. I am in my town with our program director, Brett (but he is leaving to go to another town this Sunday), and there are many townspeople who want to meet us. My students keep inviting me to do things, and one of the best pupils in the class, Nancy, has told me that her family wants to take me to the river (a big pastime here that sort of insinuates that they want to become friends). I know that she wants to study in the US for a year of high school, and her parents are really supportive, so I’m helping her look for some programs with scholarships, since everyone here is extremely poor and wouldn‘t be able to afford it otherwise. She’s a great kid, and has a real interest in learning English, and in my opinion she really deserves this opportunity. I take everything I have for granted, and I complain about what I don’t have rather than realizing what I do. I just can’t believe it’s taken something as drastic as this to notice…
On a more happier note though, I went to the library today and got a tour. It’s really small and doesn’t have a lot of books (I think she said the 10 city libraries had 20,000 books, whereas Brown for example has 6 million), but the librarians really care about the city’s youth and tries to help them. I think they might have had a heart attack if they saw the Mastic-Moriches-Shirley community library as comparison! Everyone in the library had to meet us, since we’re the hot new toys in town, and they kept giving us gifts like post cards and books and calendars from the town. Next time I need to remember to bring more things from home as gifts! They give us these things so as to never forget the encounter we had with them. It’s a really sweet tradition, especially considering how little they have already.
This weekend I’m going to the big city, Baynool, with Dasha, Brett, and Anna. We’re going to a club there and spending the night there, and we’re probably going back when the new Harry Potter movie is released to watch it in the cinema.
I think that’s all for now… oh, it did rain today though, a downpour, and since 90% of the roads are unpaved, it made of a really fun walk home. I’m going to go take a shower now.

OUT.

Alfred 6 (July 7th. “I don’t think i’m in Kansas anymore…”)

July 7th
Okay, so I have been In Russia for a week now, which went by very quickly. I began teaching on Monday. None of the students have ever met an American, and most of the town hasn’t either, even the English teachers. They are so happy that we have come to the middle of nowhere, Russia, to learn about “the real Russia.”
The English teachers are using this opportunity to improve their English skills and learn some slang ^_^ One of the teachers, Dasha (who is also the program coordinator), is training to take the English teaching exam. Brett and I looked at the stories in the book of practice exams and began to laugh. There were so many grammatical errors that we told Dasha not to use it. The stories were saying things like “I dropped Sarah” instead of “I ignored Sarah,” and did stupid things like begin sentences with “and” or capitalized “WhErE thEY Were nOT sUPPoSeD TO.”
Today was also the Russian holiday of Ivan Koopala (Translated as Ivan swam… its supposed to be in reference to Ivan the Terrible). The townspeople throw water at each other to celebrate, so I preemptively stored everything electronic away before entering the street. At school the kids SOAKED us, and to incorporate some American traditions, we had a water balloon fight (good thing I brought them!). The principal of the school thought it was hysterical, and he took pictures of us in the classroom, then outside during the water fight, and then after he was done taking photos he sent two of his students after us armed with a 2 liter soda bottle and a bucket of water. One of the girls in my class, Angelina, was screaming bloody murder. It was great, especially because it was so hot today (which meant I had a warm shower!).
I need to plan for my lesson tomorrow. Two of the newspapers are coming to my school to interview us for the papers. They think it’s great that we’re here and they’re fighting for the opportunity to report on it. After all, it’s not like much happens here!
What else….hmmm…. OH! I met the cow today whose milk I drink every morning! Its so weird to have the milk not processed right there. I learned that in addition to the cream that forms on the top of the jar when you have fresh milk, сметана (sour cream), is also formed! Talking about milk, it was difficult to explain to my host family that my father drives a milk truck. They didn’t understand why we process milk, or the concept of distribution. If you can’t grow it yourself or get it from a neighbor, then you shouldn’t have it. Everyone should have a cow nearby, according to them. However, I really can’t picture a cow being kept in a NYC apartment. We have a whole other concept… convenience! They don’t understand this though, only that they have a наторалны продукт (natural product)!
Gotta go, hope to write soon!

Alfred 5 (July 5th..ish)

Dear Blog,
Today I had an interesting breakfast. We had kasha, a Russian grit-like dish, and fried fish. I had no idea why we were eating fish for breakfast (not to mention it was fish that was not skinned and was cooked with its head so it was looking at me!), so I asked. Their son had caught it, so they made it right away. We had it with tea later, and more for dinner. Waste-not, want-not, as mama always says!
We were having slight communication problems, but as I am remembering my Russian its getting better. They asked me about my family, which was easy to respond to, but my host father was talking to me about politics in America because I study international politics and therefore understand how Russian politics work. He told me that he likes Obama and “Heelaree Klinton” and did not like either Bush, but the older one was better than the younger one. I now know that we are both for capital punishment also, although we are democrats (or the Russian equivalent).
I also saw the town where I am living. I was taken on a tour by the two Russian girls I am working with, Anna and Dasha. They are both 23, but Russian girls look a lot older. We went to the “Zoo” (i.e. a horse, donkey, yak, rabbit, and duck in cages), the different stores, and the schools we are going to teach at.
I also tried 2 Russian drinks for the first time today. Russian Kvass is a nasty drink I don’t know what to make of. It’s made of bread… I don’t know how or why, but it is. The other, which name I am blanking on, is a thick purple liquid made with the starch from dried potatoes. It doesn’t really have a flavor, so it wasn’t exactly nasty, just different… and thick. I decided to go to the productoy (little market) and buy some sok (juice) and vanilla coke (boy does life taste good!) just to have something I knew I liked.
I took another shower again today, but it was more windy. I felt like Maralin Monroe as the curtains flew open as the wind gusted and I was standing there naked screaming like a little girl in the middle of the yard. It would have been hysterical to see, but I thank God no one was around.
Speaking of God, my host family is Christian, but they don’t go to church. My host father tried to give me a cross, but I wouldn’t take it. He said that religion teaches good morals, and I agreed. But I still wouldn’t take his cross. In fact, there’s a creepy saint above my bed with a creepy child saint in his arm, and I don’t know what to make of it.
I’m tired now, so I’m going to read a little and then turn in for the night, but first I’m going to brush my teeth in the rusty smelling water. It’s funny, because usually I think that would bother me, but after 3 days on a stuffy train with no running water and lots of mosquitoes, I’m thankful for everything here. Oh, btw, I also saw some movies today that I’m going to buy for my classes to watch once my check clears. They’re American movies on DVDs in both Russian and English, and they only cost 90-120 rubles each (~$3-$4USD), so I’ll use them for class and then bring them home to watch!

Alfred 4 (Saturday, July 4th)

We finally arrived to our destination and parted our ways. I miss the others so much already. They were my main contact point for American culture! Now I am in my town. classes start on Monday. I found out yesterday that the age group for my classes are 15-16 year olds, not the 10-12 year olds most of the other volunteers will have, so the little toys and things I have will not work. I do have a deck of Uno cards though, which I was going to use for colors and numbers, but I can now teach them the game.
I am living with the principal of the school. I had assumed that living in Siberia would be similar to living in Saint Petersburg… boy was I wrong. Our house has 2 doors, otherwise the rooms are separated with sheer curtains. We have the internet, but the only running water goes to one sink and the washing machine. The bathroom is outside, and the water that sustains it comes from the sky. The shower is made of plywood and a spout that comes from the bucket of rainwater on top (no heat, it comes out as-is). The toilet is an outhouse that does not flush, and the outside sink is fueled by rain water also. It is so different, and although I was a little freaked out yesterday when Vera (my host mother) told me she had a dome “extreme” (an extreme house), Its perfect. Just like camping… for 6 weeks.
The food is self-sustained too. Everyone in town has a huge garden where they grow tons of different things. Although my host mother works as a principal, and Sasha (my host father) works as a welder, their combined income is well under 500USD a month! They have a garden where they produce their own vegetables, and make things like tomatoes which they make into juice (which I am not exactly fond of, but it’s much better than the canned stuff we have!).

Happy 4th Y’all!