All Russia
Volunteering Conference 2013
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| Perm, Russia, 2013 |
Monday
25 November 2013
Was my thermal vest going to be warm enough or
would the Russian wind cut through it like an icy blade? Well, I wasn’t going
to fit anything else into my bulging suitcase, so I decided that if I were to
freeze then maybe one day some explorer would find my preserved body and I would
end up as a bizarre curiosity in a museum.
Why had I agreed, in a rash moment, to speak
about volunteering in Wales at an all-Russia conference to be held in the
easternmost city in Europe, nesting in the foothills of the Ural Mountains? I
thought it would be an adventure and a challenge to my view of the Russians. My
last dealings with them had been in the Soviet era, whilst I was working
alongside the British Army in Germany, and travelling to and from Berlin
through communist East Germany. They were dead-pan at those border checkpoints
and the bristling guns were anything but reassuring. Would it still be the
same?
On this Monday morning I thought it was just a
very long way to travel. Manchester to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Moscow (with a
six hour wait starting at a desolate 3.00am), Moscow to Perm, some 700 miles
further east.
Passport? Yes. Visa? Yes. Travel tickets? Yes.
Luggage? Yes. Jumped into the car and drove uneventfully to Manchester airport.
Tuesday
26 November
Morning
It was now 3.30am in a Moscow airport and I was
in need of Borsch, the soup as traditional in Russia as fish and chips are in
the UK. It looked delicious but was tepid and I don’t know how to complain in
Russian so I just ate it quietly in a corner of the café whilst studying the
Cyrillic alphabet. I was 3 years old again and virtually unable to read. The
letters were just shapes on a page and I didn’t know how to say them. It reminded
me of Greek. My fool’s guide told me how to say the letters so I gradually
learned to read again. Oh dear, most of the words were in Russian so I didn’t
understand them anyway. I finished my cold Borsch.
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| My borsch |
Perm airport is about the size of Valley on
Anglesey: small. I was collected, along with a magician from Spain, who was
also speaking at the same conference, by the Russian minder of the volunteering
‘experts’, called Danil.
Afternoon
The Ural Hotel is large and sturdy and has been
recently refurbished to make it more hospitable and less like a Spartan relic
of the USSR. My room was as hot as a sauna but had a comfortable bed, which is what
really matters along with good food. Lunch was still being served so I sat down
at 3.30pm with the Spanish magician, who showed me a trick or two. Why was I
here? Why was I still awake having missed a night’s sleep?
Evening
The ‘experts’ met the organisers at 7.30pm. I
was told exactly what I would be doing over the next two days, as were those
from other parts of eastern and western Europe. The people from London had been
delayed in Moscow. I thought Danil said ‘detained’, but I checked and was
reassured – particularly when they turned up later.
Early to bed.
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| The Ural Hotel |
Wednesday
27 November
Morning
We had an audience of predominantly young
people with some older Government and University lecturers too. I guess
maybe 300 in total, but I wasn’t counting because it didn’t interest me much. I
was more interested in the level of enthusiasm.
I did appreciate Tanya, this charming young woman
who kept whispering in my ear. She very competently translated Russian to
English, just for me, and she was busy.
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| Tanya - my translator |
Italy defined volunteering as we would. It’s
done out of choice for the benefit of communities and for no financial reward.
I could see the map of Italy showing where people volunteer most and how many
there are. I have learned something.
Portugal and Croatia did much the same as Italy
and the definition of volunteering was reassuringly similar. Good.
Other ‘experts’ said similar things and, as the
last speaker, I realised that my time was eroded and I would have to cut my
speech to the bone. Also, I wanted to spice things up a little. I leaned back
for a little chat with Tanya. Sorted.
My turn. So, I told people where Wales is
situated. Why should anyone in Perm know that already? I told them that our
definition of volunteering is like everyone else’s and that I had numbers if
they wanted them. Did they? Nobody said
yes, so I asked them who the most important person is in volunteering? Someone
from the back called out ‘me’, which gave me the cue I needed to jump up and bring
forward Tanya. She sat in my seat and told everyone what she gets out of her
volunteering. She likes meeting new people, gets a buzz from doing something
worthwhile for others and appreciates the chance to hone her English language
skills. I then took over and reminded everyone of the importance of the
volunteer, without whom there would be no volunteering. This went down well
with the young people.
I said more about volunteering in Wales and
highlighted the advent of Street Ambassadors in tackling low level
environmental problems.
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| The conference room from the stage |
I couldn’t quite believe the flattering
celebrity status the ‘experts’ were given, not just by the organisers, but by
the participants too. I was being photographed with groups of young people and
individuals from all over Russia. Some of them were thrilled by Tanya’s stage
debut. Good.
Afternoon
The ‘experts’ had a round-table discussion
answering questions asked by the nice man from the United Nations office in
Moscow. Participants sat around the outside watching and listening. We now had
general all-room translation so Tanya is having a break.
We talked about international volunteering and
technology and communication and language barriers and so on.
Later, I was standing at a table with a WCVA
banner behind me wondering why the contact details printed on it were those of
my fellow ‘expert’ from Portugal.
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| The WCVA Board |
But a group of youngsters was now sweeping in
my direction. They took celebrity-style photographs and asked me about
volunteer camps in the UK which they could attend and whether there are good
university links between the two countries. So I took email addresses and
pledged to contact them on my return to Wales. I hope this won’t mean that GCHQ
or MI6 starts to monitor my communications. Maybe they are already!
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| Celebrity style photographs |
Thursday
28 November
Morning
I got up early and tried to control the shower
temperature. It was a lost cause, so I had my first bath in years in rather
brown looking water. I’m not sure if this was caused by dissolved minerals from
the local mines or just rust in the tap, but I got on with it.
This morning I toured displays of a variety of
volunteering projects from across Russia in order to decide which should win an
award. Tanya was now hard at work translating what the presenters were saying
to me about their activities.
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| Cossack volunteer project |
I had to stop her so she could confirm that the
Great Patriotic War was the Second World War. It was. I also asked her to
explain what ‘patriotism’ would be within a menu of children’s activities on a
play-scheme. Tanya said that children are introduced to war veterans and listen
to their life and war stories. A loop video showed a proud elderly man, chest
bursting with medals and large red stars, talking to a wide eyed young boy.
Tanya, hand on heart, told me they study
‘patriotism’ for the love of their motherland. It reminds me of America, which
has a Veterans’ Day. We have Remembrance Sunday. This set me thinking that we
should focus on living veterans and not solely those who made the ultimate
sacrifice. I felt my hand creeping towards my heart but caught myself in time,
remembering that I’m British.
I didn’t place any of the work with children,
of which there was a lot, in top position. I chose a project which deploys volunteers
as part of an emergency response team in order to save life and limb. Maybe
these brave volunteers should be included in the play-scheme ‘patriotism’
option.
Afternoon
I was facilitating and was one of the
presenters at a well attended three hour workshop on the roles of volunteer
centres. I didn’t envy my Italian and Portuguese ‘expert’ colleagues who had to
speak in English. Even less did I envy Irina and Sasha, the translators, who
had to then turn everything into Russian. I wondered how much was being lost in
double translation. At least the presenter from St Petersburg was able to use
his native language, as was I.
We had a long and intriguing, if inconclusive,
discussion about the degree to which volunteering needs to be permitted and
supported in law. We in the UK have a long and independent volunteering
tradition but this is not the case in many eastern European countries. There
were some surprised faces when I pointed out that volunteering includes people
who are engaged in campaigning for changes in Government policy and is not only
about service provision and mutual support. The latest Greenpeace episode in
Russia is a good example of such campaigning.
Evening
As I was leaving the conference a group of smiling
young people from Irkutsk came over to hand out postcards and pictures of their
Russian region near Mongolia. They had travelled for two and a half days on a
train to Perm and were returning home the next day to minus 20 degrees. That’s
cold. That’s commitment.
Danil, our host, took us to dinner and then to
the local museum. It seems that various members of the old Russian royal family
were murdered at Perm at the time of the communist revolution. More
importantly, Sergei Diaghilev had strong connections here. He was a Russian art
critic, patron, ballet impresario and founder of the Ballets Russes, from which
many famous dancers and choreographers stemmed. This took me back to my
undergraduate studies. I was always rubbish at dance!
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| Sergei Diaghilev, founder of the Ballet Russes |
Having kept the museum curator up late thanks
to the inevitable need to translate everything and her need to tell us about every
single exhibit, we all went back to the hotel and I packed for my early morning
start.
Friday
29 October
It should have been an easy trip home. The
problem was the snow in Moscow which covered the wings and fuselage of the
plane and which had to be completely cleared before we could fly. This made us
half an hour late.
I was hoping for a snooze as there is a 6 hour
time difference between the UK and Perm, but I was out of luck. I had a very
talkative Russian sitting next to me who confirmed that, in his view, Russia
would have invaded Western Europe, if the cold war hadn’t prevented it, as
communism was a world revolution. He was also very bothered by what he
described as ‘tradesmen’ running Russia and he thought that old families with
experience of power were much better placed to do it. I am not saying he is
right or wrong but it was a novel perspective.
I missed the Amsterdam flight and caught a
later one.
After my
return
The Russian people were so friendly and such
good hosts and I’m glad to be in touch with some of them by email, as I am with
my fellow ‘experts’. I have dealt with the university links enquiry, so do let
me know if you know anything about volunteer camps which could include
Russians. I need to let Veronjika know.
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