Volunteers Section

Patgiri Rajdeep
India

Volunteered: July - August, 2002

Adam Gibson
UK, London
email: ekagatta@yahoo._co._uk

Being a volunteer in Izhevsk was a fantastic experience. The sense of adventure in visiting a town so ‘foreign’ to my normal life was priceless. But I think the thing I didn’t really expect was just how exhausting it was. The little details of living as a foreigner are of course quite a challenge – buying food, finding the right tram. But that’s nothing compared to the fact that one’s time and attention is demanded constantly – you have to converse (and not fluently) and ‘give’ of yourself continually for hours at a time. The stress was pretty heavy, but it was a nice kind of stress. The truth is that it isn’t some kind of heroic act of charity – the worst mistake of all is to think like that. Really, it’s an exchange – they get a tiny fragment of Britain, or the US – and that’s worth more to them than you might think.

Meanwhile, you get Russia – a big fat chunk of it, one of the biggest, hulkingest, most powerful and cultured nations on the planet. I wouldn’t suggest this kind of volunteer experience if you don’t want that, if you’re not interested in Russia. Russia already has enough ‘missionaries’, people who want to come and ‘save’ Russians from – from what I can’t say. I’m not greatly enamoured of these people, and I don’t think most Russians are either.

You may be curious to know what it’s like in a typical provincial Russian state school. Well, the one in which I spent most (but not all) of my teaching time called itself a ‘Lycee’ (borrowing the French term) and specialised in humanities. This kind of specialisation is quite common in Russia, it seems (for example, School number 1 in Stavropol is particularly renowned for its English teaching).

I found the attitudes of the teenage students excellent on the whole, especially compared with the affected cynicism of many UK secondary school students. That’s not to say that they’re all angels, by no means; I met plenty of the ‘cool’ kids who couldn’t give a damn about learning anything. Nothing new there. But I was impressed with the energy and vibrancy of the students, their creativity, and with the professionalism of the staff. These people are truly deserving of respect. I wish the Western media came and talked about these kind of people, not always about winos and mafia villains in Moscow.

Volunteered: October 1 - November 6, 2003

Adria Yurievna Astakhova
Australia

Volunteered: September 20 - November 5, 2004

Andrew Watson
Australia

Volunteered: December 2005 - February 2006