Birthdays and collecting mushrooms

We've done a lot of learning this week, and not just in terms of language. A few days ago, we were feeling a bit down with the amount of work we were doing, and the fact that we couldn't sit in on an English lesson to see how the Russian children learn our language, or take up Lena’s offer of walking into the forest to collect mushrooms. However, Masha (one of the leaders of the community) had invited us to tea that day, and after hearing our mini grumbles, she then told us how much work she has done since the village began 8 years ago. For example, she told us that day that she hadn't even had time to shower yet (it was already 1pm by that time). She told us how much work she and her mother Tamara put in building the foundations of these houses, and how much she has sacrificed. The sheer amount of work that all of these people put in everyday for the benefit of these children is astounding and heart-warming. Masha also explained that the work we do helps the village keep running everyday, so although they don’t often show it, they truly are grateful for the work that volunteers like us put in.

That really put it all into perspective, and, after watching a film about Kitezh and Orion, we realised that the 4 hours of work that we are set everyday is absolutely nothing compared to the amount of work that others do round here. The film also interviewed some of the kids, including little Katya, who, at the time of filming, had only just arrived, but that was 3 years ago, so it’s really great to see her now, happy, and a total member of this community, with lots of friends. At the end of the film, she described it as ‘like a fairytale’ and that is so true. The whole concept of rural, traditional life may sound ridiculous in modern Russia, but they really have managed it here, and that is a massive credit to Masha, who founded Orion when she was just 19, and to Dmitry Morozov, who came up with the concept of Kitezh in the first place, having worked with orphans in this country.

So it was with a renewed sense of worth that we went to clean the circular building that is the school, and incidentally is very awkward to clean. I was so prod of myself because while I was sweeping, I noticed a spider. This spider would have been squashed had I not saved it. Somehow I picked it up with my bare hands and took it outside, and wasn't even scared… that would not happen in the UK!!

Teaching the kindergarten is really good now, they know that once they've coloured in the worksheets that we’ve made, they get to watch more of a film (we've now finished the Little Mermaid and have moved onto the Fox and the Hound, which is bad because that film always makes me cry…). Plus they are learning some English words, so we are being a little bit successful!

Breakfast here is hilarious – today we had rice pudding again, and a few days ago we had what was essentially lemon cheesecake with condensed milk and a very sugary baked apple… it was so good! Whilst we were eating though, Katya came over to inform us that we had a lesson to teach. At that exact moment. Ahh! So with no preparation whatsoever, we rushed upstairs to the school to play some English games with the 5th form (which consists of just 3 kids). After some confusion, we got them to play ‘I packed my bag’, and then they wanted to play hangman (they explained that they wanted to play that by miming hanging themselves, so creative..!) So for a lesson that had no preparation, it was actually okay! And they learnt some new words as well. So now we have that class every Saturday morning.

Then we did the most Russian thing we have done so far – we went to the forest to find mushrooms. We were convinced that we were going to be terrible, and at first we kind of were, since we managed to collect the wrong type of mushroom (and we thought we’d done so well!!). However, armed with a knife, and with a lot of help from our resident mushroom police woman Vika (who showed us how to tell whether a mushroom is good or bad), we collected a reasonable amount of the weird inside-out, peach coloured mushrooms, at least for our first time mushroom collecting!

Sundays are family days, and non-work days, so Katya invited us for breakfast, lunch and dinner at her house, which was really nice. We had her version of an English breakfast (scrambled eggs and toast and cereal!), chicken soup for lunch, and blinis with honey, jam, or sour cream for dinner. Although it is supposed to be a non-work day, we helped to clean the kitchen for an hour, as Dmitry Morozov was on his way back from Kitezh and they wanted it to be clean for him. There was also a community meeting, which was interesting to listen to, if a little hard to follow. Other than that, we relaxed and watched some films. It was really nice to have a rest day after having lots of busy days, as you really appreciate having the time to just sit and think.

Yesterday we had UKO (Unidentified Kasha Object – we have no idea what it was) for breakfast, and then I went to Masha’s house to do some ironing, which is actually one of my favourite jobs because you get to listen to music while you’re working. Plus they have an adorable kitten in that house, and a really nice wood fire, so it’s really cozy.

We sat in on two of Sasha’s English lessons, which were really interesting, although we had to correct her a couple of times (for example, she said ‘to take care about’ rather than ‘to take care of’), which we felt a bit bad about, but she said it was really helpful. She invited us to meet her 10 minutes before her lessons so we can go through the materials and check that it’s all correct.

Lunch was UMO (Unidentified Meat Object) soup, with egg and meat salad, which was funny because I didn’t like the meat and Lois can’t eat egg.

Lena offered to give us Russian lessons twice a week, and our first one was last night. It was really good to go over the basics again and fill in the gaps in my knowledge (I never knew the words for niece and nephew), and she’d printed us out worksheets and gave us exercise books and homework, so it’s like being back at school!

She asked me to give her son Gary (not his actual name, but his real name is hard to spell) French lessons, starting today, only it’s now 9pm, and he still hasn’t turned up, so I’m guessing he’s not coming. Plus, we thought he was in his late 20s or early 30s because he’s a teacher here…. turns out he’s 17. Mind = blown..!

Today I just had an hour of ironing at Masha’s house, and then moving firewood around ready for winter. We normally all work in a chain to pass the wood down, only I managed to drop a big bit on my foot, which, instead of sympathy, earned me a lot of angry looks from the kids, and moans that I had slowed down the line. I’m putting their grumpiness down to the fact that it was really hot work and they wanted it to be over, because they aren’t normally like that. For dinner we had not so yummy buckwheat with salad and one meatball, but, for some reason we can’t work out, we had the most amazing cake afterwards – it was strawberry cream and sponge with loads of fruit on top. The last time we had cake like that, it was Zhenya’s 12th birthday, which was also amazing; it was a feast worthy of Harry Potter – lots of fruit styled in so many different ways, it looked so great and must’ve taken ages to do! Everyone had cake, and they let balloons off, and (this is the strangest part) although there were a few bowls of chocolates on the table, nobody touched them. Nobody! At an English birthday, they’d be the first to go! But here, it’s all about the fruit! The chocolate was not touched until all the fruit was gone, and even then, the kids only took one or two bits. Amazing. But my favourite part of the party was when every kid and every adult took turns to say something nice about the birthday girl. It’s such a lovely idea, and it was even better because Zhenya has only been at Orion for a year, so it was really good to see how accepted she is here. It’s something that I think is missing from parties in the UK. Plus, she clearly wasn’t expecting to get any presents, so her face really lit up when she realised she’d been given a new art set. Kids in the UK seem to expect and be given so much, so for a kid to be so happy with an art set, and not the latest laptop or something, was really great to see.