Final report Malawi

Introduction

     During my 6-months stay in Malawi I was working on two projects.

     Pre-school project that is a part of DNS Chilangoma and DAPP Youth Club.

     Pre-school education provides an important foundation for learning and development.      It is essential to educate teachers and make sure that they have knowledge about child development, teaching methods and materials etc. however the knowledge of pre-school teachers in Malawi is usually quite poor.

     While working at the project we were organizing Teacher Training Days and meetings with the committee members who are responsible for pre-schools at their communities. We were introducing teaching methods like games, psychical education, songs and were making posters together. We were talking about the importance of planning the day, about sanitation and hygiene and natural medicine.

     After the Teacher Training Days we were going to pre-schools to make sure that the teachers are using the educational methods we taught them before.

     During the meetings with the committee members we were talking about the positive reinforcement and motivation of teachers as well as hygiene, sanitation and natural medicine.

     We were placing hand-washing stations at the territory of pre-school and talking about prevention of diseases connected with hygiene.

     We created a Data Base with all the essential information about the project to make our work more sustainable.

     We took part is poster project made by fellow DI and made some entertaining activities with children of pre-schools.

     The project requires a lot of work and ideas and is very interesting.

     Youth clubs give young people a low-cost place to go outside of school, offering them a sense of belonging. The activities and support from club leaders and volunteers allow young people to learn new skills and build confidence and resilience for the future, as well as have fun (http://www.ambitionuk.org/quality/youth-clubs-today).

     In total we held approximately 60 meetings with boys and girls from the community.

     We were playing games, doing sports, having seminars and lectures, painting, sawing, washing, cooking, making a movie and doing all type of other activities together.

     The main topics of our meetings were global warming and problem of deforestation in Malawi, natural resources, medical plants traditions and culture of Malawi, hygiene and sanitation, diseases.

     We held two open days where people of the community were invited. We could share our knowledge by using songs, poems, theater plays and games.

     During two open days clothes and sport equipment was distributed to the members of the youth club.

          It was extremely interesting to establish this project as I could engage in the life of local people more. It was a responsible work that required patience, confidence, some previous knowledge and a lot of motivation.

Pre-school Project

     I arrived to Malawi on the 11 of March and the first project I joined was pre-school project.

     Pre-school project is a part of DNS Chilangoma and is aimed on educating teachers of pre-schools that are cooperating with DAPP Chilangoma.

Pre-school Education in Malawi

     Pre-school education provides an important foundation for learning and development. The government of Malawi recognizes the importance of pre-school education, and encourages communities to set up their own pre-schools but does not support pre-schools financially. With no funds to support pre-schools, most of them are run on voluntary basis and are unregistered.

     Pre-school teachers in Malawi are mainly working on voluntary basis and are chosen by the community because of their previous experience as teachers or their good communication skills with children. Every pre-school must be supported by some members of the committee who are responsible for maintaining the school and the surrounding area; they need to make sure that the attendance of children is systematic; that pre-school has enough food for children etc.

      It is essential to educate teachers and make sure that they have knowledge about child development, teaching methods and materials etc. however the knowledge of pre-school teachers in Malawi is usually quite poor. The work of pre-school is highly important as every child in Malawi needs to attend this institution to be able to enroll to primary school afterwards. 

Pre-school Data Base

      When I arrived at the project there were four DIs working at the project under the supervision of three local men. We were supposed to visit one of our 45 pre-schools every morning. To go to pre-schools we were using bicycles. Every pre-school is working from 8 until 11 o’clock in the morning.

     The first aspect I was focusing on upon my arrival was re-constructing the system of work of DIs and supervisors at the project. DAPP Malawi has cooperation with 45 pre-schools. The list of pre-schools, map and descriptions were made in cooperation with project leader and supervisors. Pre-schools were divided in groups and equally distributed between DIs and supervisors of the projects. The guidelines of work of all the people involved at the projects were written. We gathered useful information including the description of social system in Malawi, forms for pre-school reports, materials about hygiene and sanitation etc.

     Together with fellow DIs we established a Data Base with information about the previous projects that took place at pre-schools we were cooperating with, all materials that are described above as well as some video and photo materials that are illustrating our work at the project.

     The aim of the Data Base is to establish a link between DIs who are presently working at the project and DIs that were working before. It was necessary to establish this link to make the work of DIs more efficient as they are able to have some background information about the project as well as guidelines of their work. It is also essential for the project to be sustainable and Data Base is a direct way how to do it. I felt that this work was essential as upon my arrival there were no organized materials or guidelines and it made my work in the beginning quite complicated.

Soap Bubble Action

           In the beginning of my work usually two DIs and one supervisor were going to one pre-school in the morning to talk to teachers and ask them about their difficulties. There was no real interaction between the children and DIs. Most of the children were getting anxious as soon as they saw white people approaching, some of them were crying and the teacher’s couldn’t calm them down.  One of the reasons of such reaction was the lack of communication between white people and the children as it DIs were not able to visit all the pre-schools constantly because of the big amount of pre-schools DAPP is working with as well as weather conditions that made the work of DIs less efficient. During the rainy season the condition of roads is quite poor and it is difficult to reach some of the pre-schools by bicycle.

     One more aspect that contributed to forming a gap between DIs and children is a mentality of Malawian people. Some parents are using White People as a threat when they want their children to behave well. “Stop crying, otherwise azungu (white people) will come and take you.” Such conditioning is explaining the anxiety of children.

     After acknowledging this problem I decided to make an activity with children to make them feel more used and safe with us. We were making soap bubbles out of glycerine, water and dishwashing liquid. After the common action children were more willing to engage in contact and were less anxious

.

1 photo. Soap bubble action at Kacheye pre-school.

Poster Project

     Next project we were working on was established by our fellow DI Jorge Cosme. He fundraised money to make posters of body parts and place them in every pre-school DAPP was cooperating with. The posters are intended principally to facilitate the implementation of a study program that allows pre-schools to have a common program. Their contents have didactic nature and are aimed to target themes that are part of the pre-school curriculum, such as the environment, the month of the year, days of week, colors, letters, numbers etc. Together with fellow DIs we were distributing posters to pre-schools as well as explaining how to use them efficiently.

2 photo. Poster distributing team.

Sanitation and Hygiene

     Sanitation and hygiene are important aspects that need to be improved in most of the pre-schools we were working with. To improve this aspect we were making hand-washing stations together with supervisors of the project, teachers and some representatives of the community. Hand-washing station was made out of two pieces of wood with one brunch in the middle that was used as a structure of the station. The bottle for water with two holes was tightened to the brunch with the rope and could be removed in the end of the working day. One more brunch of wood was connected to the bottle so it could regulate the flow of water by stepping on the brunch. Bar of soap with the rope was places to the bottle. The hole was made under the bottle of water and the rocks were placed in it so the hole doesn’t get bigger from the water.

3 photo. Building a hand-washing station at Malaina pre-school.

     It was vital to place hand-washing stations together with representatives of the community so they would be more motivated to use it after as well as inform them about diseases that are connected with hygiene and the ways to avoid them by washing hands.

     We also made a poster about hand-washing and created a story of how to do it suitable of children so the teachers could use it at their work.

4 photo. Hand washing poster “The way to church.”

Teacher Training Days

     Every three months we had training days at DAPP Chilangoma for all the teachers of pre-school we were cooperating with. The purpose of the meetings is to educate teachers as most of them don’t have any education and knowledge about children development and other vital topics. We were presenting information about sanitation, hygiene, making schedules and day planning, teaching different educational activities like games and songs. After teacher training days we were visiting pre-schools and helping teachers to apply this knowledge at their work. The biggest challenge in this aspect was motivation of teachers as most of them are quite passive.

5 photo. Teacher Training Day. Explaining some educational activities for children.

 

                      6 photo. Practicing some games.                        7 photo. Making posters.

Meeting with Pre-school Committee Members

     Every forth months we had meetings members of the committee who are responsible for work of pre-schools. Together with some students of DNS we were explaining the teachers the importance of motivation and positive reinforcement, gave examples of different ways how to motivate teachers of their community. It was illustrated by a theater play by students of DNS that made the meeting more live and easier to process. Motivation is an important aspect of work of teachers at pre-schools as most of them are working on voluntary basis however the work itself is fundamental in establishing healthy future for the next generation of Malawians.

8 photo. Making suggestion about the ways for motivating teachers.

Pre-school Storage

     During my stay in Malawi we found out that there is a storage that contains the materials used by previous DIs at pre-school project so our goal was to organize the storage, make an inventory list of things that were kept there as well as thinking of the most efficient way to use those things at the project.

Conclusion about Pre-school Project

     Small projects that are mentioned above were established and finished successfully however during the whole period of six months there were many other ideas and strategies that I was willing to implement however didn’t manage to do it. The major difficulties at our work at the project were connected with different perception of time of Malawians as well as lack of motivation. Sometimes things that in Europe could be done in couple of hours, take weeks because people are less engaged and less organized however in the end our goals were reached and the project was successful. Also it takes time to understand how to approach people correctly and what method to use for things to function efficiently. Not speaking the local language is a big disadvantage in working at the project as you need someone to help you with translation and sometimes the meaning of every word is important and translation is changing the power of the message.

     While working at the project I learned how to take time and be more patient; how to motivate people and find the solutions for different unexpected difficulties; how to work as a team and take opinion of people into consideration; how to express my opinion confidently and be persistent.

Youth Club Project

     During school holidays in spring 2015 our project leader suggested us to open a Youth Club at the campus of DAPP Chilangoma. I became interested in the project and decided to start it.

     A Youth Club is a low-cost place where young people can gather to socialize, share their experience and emotions, meet new people, do sports, learn new skills and knowledge, learn about the discipline and responsibilities etc.

Preparations for Starting the Project

     The first essential thing for establishing the youth club was preparing the room there the gathering could take place. There is a place at the campus of DAPP Chilangoma that used to host youth clubs before however it wasn’t used for a long time and served as a storage for the pre-school next to it. I had to prepare the place by moving all the unnecessary things and clean the space.

9 photo. The meeting place for DAPP Youth Club.

     The next step was to find a person who could permanently be engaged at the project and would be helping me out with translations.

     I had to promote the youth club so the youth from the community could start attending the meetings. Together with a local person we were inviting boys and girls from the community. We set the age limit from 13 to 23.

Youth Club Program

     After we started our gatherings twice per week and later on four times per week.

     Gatherings took place at 15.30 as this time was suitable for most of the members of the youth club.    

     In the beginning there were around 6-7 people who were attending the meetings. And later on the amount of people was growing.

     We started our meetings with sitting in the circle and sharing our thoughts and experience since the last meeting as well as expectations about the future gatherings. However after some time this system was changed as I noticed that the people didn’t feel comfortable with sharing these things in front of others.

     First meetings started with establishing some rules of the youth club, making team building activities, handicrafts and sports. However after we started educational meetings on different topics. We were playing games, making activities, had guest lectures about global warming, problem of deforestation in Malawi, natural medicine, hygiene, sanitation, diseases, had sawing and washing classes.

10-17. Different activities at the youth club.

First Open Day

     We held two open days with the purpose of sharing our knowledge with other people from the community. The topic of the first open day was environmental issues. We invited children from Stephanos orphanage to participate in the event. There was a theater pay, songs, lecture, games and poster making activity during the event. In the end of the gathering we were distributing some sport cloth and equipment for the guest as well as members of DAPP youth club. Football and netball tournament also took place at the end of the open day.   

17-23 photo. Activities at the First Open Day.

Second Open Day

     The topic of the second open day was hygiene. Two more youth clubs from the village nearby were invited. There were several theater plays, games, posters, lectures, songs and clothes distribution at the end.

24-27 photo. Activities at the second Open Day.

Youth Club Register

     We also made a register of people with description of their position and responsibility at the youth club. It was necessary because at certain point there were too many people who wanted to join the meetings and it was less efficient for the participants.

Movie Created by Youth Club

     We also made a movie about the traditions of Malawi. We were filming everyday life at the house of one of the members of the youth club, at the church, market, barber shop, football field and also made a traditional dance performance at the youth club.

28-30 photo. Movie shooting.

Conclusion

     In total approximately 60 meetings were held at DAPP youth club.

     The difficulties I came across with were connected with passivity of girls and being not able to express their opinion freely. Boys and girls were normally working separately. Also according to my observation it is difficult for Malawians to show leadership and sometimes it was making my work more challenging. Perception of time was influencing our work as well because many people were constantly late and it was interrupting the work of the rest of the team.

    I would like to conclude that the youth club project was very successful and members of the club got a lot of new knowledge in different fields, made many new contacts and learned new skills.

China, the first destination

Hypothesis about Health in China Southern Asia Countries:

1.          The issue of children with disabilities in China and South Asian countries is worse than in European countries because of unhealthy lifestyles , environmental pollution , and the unresolved situation in post-war zones.

First at all I have to say that before I wasn’t sure if something like a culture shock exists. I travelled quite a lot, but first in my life I felt that I am in places which are in one point amazing but and in another point terrible. Beijing was our first destination and I enjoyed it a lot. I was surprised all the time. We stayed few days with a guy from couchsurfing and thanks to him we found out some information for our topics, because after it was almost impossible to find someone who spoke English. Beijing is a capital city of China and is also one of the biggest city in China. It was first time for me to be in such a huge city like this. We realized that is not enough to move somewhere in Beijing just like we are still in Beijing so it is ok. You really have to think about where and how you are going to stay, because after you will just spend your time in public transport which was sometimes longer than one and half hour to reach a place where we wanted to go. Once when we tried to stay a little bit out of the city we didn’t have any opportunity to speak with someone in English, but when we moved to a place where the people are used to foreigners and they know a little bit of English in same time they don’t like to speak just for fun, they have to make a business and not to waste the time. Beijing and Shanghai are huge and incredible cities but for finding out what China real is it is not a good place but, actually maybe this is what means the real China. Streets full of people with phones in hands, or is it real China those fancy streets full of expensive branches? Unfortunately reality is the difference between people, middle class is the biggest part of the population of China but also is one of the poorer one. We met some really nice people in a train when we travel to another province call Fujian. We spent more or less ten ours in the train and we managed to communicate with locals with translators in phones. Other think which I never realized before how Im used to have Google. Google browser, Google maps, Google weather, Google and Google everything what is produced by Google is forbidden by VPN rule. And Facebook and Viber too, but those two I didn’t need so much for to plan something. So it was always fun to use bing which took half a day to find what could be important for us. Such a good experience anyway. 

So my question in the beginning was how is it with health in China? Are they really used to cure people with Chinese medicine? Are they stronger than Europeans? I had many questions. After few days in Beijing I decided to focus on children and on disabilities for one simple reason. On the street we met a lot of beggars but not only adults, also a lot of mothers with their children. I looked on them and I thought about possibilities for long term curing. For me it was really interesting because about China I could say that there is no Post War situation like in countries in South of Asia and is not a country side or mountains like in different places in China. They are in cities full of technology and modern lifestyle so where this problem is coming from. From really few information I got some pieces of true about China. Huge cities in east side of China are full of people from villages where they couldn’t survive and especially with disable members of their families. Another point is that in those huge cities we saw kind of consume societies so they are also full of fastfoods and unhealthy products in shops. (E11 is a classic add in instant Chinese soups). Many of those disabilities where a combination of psychological and biological problems. The most common were  Down syndrom or Hydrocefalus  or another mental disease with body deformities. How to treat those disabilities is a question even in my country but always is there a special place where you can find professional help. In China of course if you have money you can do a lot I saw many people with different problems of disabilities which had everything right around like assistants or things for help and make their life easier. In third point it was incredible the air pollution. In Beijing is a general problem I couldn’t imagine before that I will not be able to see the sun through the pollution.  The air pollution gives another health problem: respiration diseases. Many people were counting as well as children. When I spoke with a guy in train, he tried to explain me that even in Beijing started a campaign against the air pollution it is not enough to solve anything and people started to realize that many of diseases is coming out  of unhealthy environment. So yes unhealthy lifestyle and no support of government are places in China which are worse than in Europe. But The communism party which is in charge in China made the same mess like in countries in Eastern Europe and I can see many similar things. But in my opinion China will grow up faster and the globalization of the world will help to China becoming more powerful than we can ever imagine.

To see the whole of China and get a really deep picture of life in China it is needed to stay there longer time. China gave me a lot such an incredible cities and nature as well. Shame that I couldn’t see more and go more deep in all of topics, because China is in many things so equal but in the same time really different. Their kept culture, many temples of Budha or Confucio are around and we could see West countries culture just in modern lifestyle which in number of Chinese people became worse than in our countries in Europe.

http://zdravi.e15.cz/clanek/mlada-fronta-zdravotnicke-noviny-zdn/v-cine-roste-pocet-deti-narozenych-s-postizenim-446761

Education Russia

On the long journey, doubts were often my companions. I’ve always admired those reporters who can descend on an area, talk to key people, ask key questions, take samplings of opinions, and then set down an orderly report, very like a road map. I envy this technique and at the same time do not trust it as a mirror of reality. I feel that there are too many realities. What I set down here is true until someone else passes that way and rearranges the world in its own style.

John Steinbeck – Travels with Charley in search of America

Russia

1.

For many centuries now, the Russians have been thought, trained, encouraged, or even threatened into believing that their leader is good, that their government is good, and that their job is to support it, and back it up.

It is the country with the largest surface in the world, and it follows that it is among the ten most populous countries. From St. Petersburg to Irkutsk, with stops in Moscow and Saratov, Monica and I have crossed almost half the country. And in the biggest cities, as well as in the small and not-so-industrialized ones, we have encountered the same attitude: Russia is in trouble and it needs a powerful leader, but Putin is as good a leader as they can hope for in these times. And this attitude goes further: people admit that it is a real struggle (mainly for the middle class and the poor) to make a decent living, but they accept the situation with stoicism and stubbornness. “Can you think of a way to improve this situation?” we would ask. And invariably, the answer would come with not so much hesitation “No, things are as they are”, “I don’t believe there is something to be done by people like me”, “I can only work hard for me and my family, but the rest is not in my power”. And there were comments followed by some hope for the future, just as we had comments followed by despair and pessimism. In this regard there’s not much surprise – out of 144 million people, it should be normal to have such variety of opinions of the future.

Now let me tell you what are the main issues the Russians deal with: little access to quality education (it difficult for the middle class to get higher education; the poor cannot even dream about it), difficulty to find jobs that are decently paid, exploitation of the employees in many different fields, too much bureaucracy, teachers that do not do their job properly, nepotism and, of course, corruption. Oh well, what can I say, in many aspects it actually sounds much like Romania.

What stroke me most of all is that from all the people we’ve talked to, none seemed to blame directly their government. Yes, they would admit it might be corrupt, or they would admit that the country, as a whole, is quite badly managed, or they would talk about corrupt administration. But when it came to saying things in black and white, all of a sudden, an unknown, unnamed, indefinable, mysterious entity would appear to take all the blame. Every bad thought and complaint about life in Russia went in that hazy-gray direction. They are a proud, patriotic people, these Russians. They know their place in history and throughout our whole trip in Russia I felt that they also want us to acknowledge it. They put this patriotic pride above any financial difficulty and above any personal dream. At least it was so with the people we met.

 2.

I would say that we’ve mostly seen people complaining and not acting. Please notice the “mostly”. Of course we’ve also met content people, but most of them didn’t know English at all...and oh well, that’s another story. With the risk of becoming judgmental, I will say that all these dead-end attitudes come from a lack of perspectives, or in other words, from a not so broad horizon. And it is my strong belief that this comes from a failure in the education system. Or it may as well be a calculated failure in the system. We all know that for some people, especially the poor, there is only so much education they can get from home. There are so many people relying on the public education system. And if this fails to awaken curiosity, give courage to question, and offer relevant information for the age we live in.... then of course, there’s lost generation after lost generation. However, considering the past, I think it’s only normal for Russia to recover more slowly in this regard than the other countries that belonged to the communist bloc.

The Russian education system still promotes competition among the students. There’s all kinds of examinations for schools, and of course, the highest grades win. That is to say the highest grades get the scholarships for good high schools, or good universities. Because there are always more applicants for good universities than there are places, the competition is very keen. Those who do not have such good grades as to consider applying for scholarships, need to pay yearly fees. It is difficult even for middle class families to support their children in universities in these situations. We were told quite bluntly by a graduate of the State University of Saratov: “If you don’t have money, you just don’t go to university, is that simple”. This is a Journalism graduate who has worked and was also helped by his parents in order to finish his studies.

However, we also met with another situation: a student who was recruited by a university in Moscow, right before graduating from a high school, in a small city near Moscow. Because he had good academic results, he was offered a place to study in Moscow. This summer, right before graduating his Master degree, he was again recruited by a company. So a week after graduating he already started work, without even looking for a job. Of course he is not going to become rich instantly, but he was very content with the beginning of his “adult-life”, as he called it.

3.

We have met with a Ugandan teacher, educated in London, who came to teach English in St. Petersburg. The biggest challenge she met with when trying to teach English was that the students didn’t actually want to learn another language. “I am Russian, and I live in Russia, therefore, I do not need to know English” was the logic behind this refusal to learn the language. In the end, the English teacher had to learn Russian so she would find other ways of communicating with her students. Apparently, the Russian English teachers do not really do their job. We encountered a few Russian young people who explained to us how they knew English from their favorite music bands or movies and how they were correcting their English teachers during classes.

I think this reluctance to learn English has a lot to do with the pride of being such a big nation. They consider themselves to be self-sufficient. And I do not think this is so far from the truth. They have the biggest country in the world, after all, with plenty of resources. So I can say that I understand this attitude, and at the end of the day, each and every one has the right to choose what they learn. In addition to this, we have to consider that for many decades, the Russians had translated universal academic and literary works into their own language. In this way, the need of the common people to learn a new language in order to have access to international works was limited. However, the situation today has changed, with all kinds of information pouring from all these new types of media. No translator can keep pace, not even with the scientific international works. And in the area of research and development in any kind of domain, knowing English is vital. So I would go as far as to say that this reluctance to learn English is limiting the students’ possibilities to excel in certain domains where they need information that is constantly changing. Not to mention the fact that their only information sources are the ones that the Russian media companies release.

4.

We also had a meeting with a graduate of pedagogical studies. She has studied to become a primary school teacher. She also had practice with the kids. She loved it. Except that when she graduated and wanted to get hired, she was immediately faced with the tangled world of Russian bureaucracy. There were so many papers to be found and signed by various other administrative people, and so many projects to be written periodically, and so many trips to other administrative offices (also periodically), that she simply gave up. She realized that instead of being able to focus on the kids and on creative teaching methods, she would have to follow exhaustive steps just to keep her job. And then, anyway, the curriculum is not too flexible. She felt that all her passion would be lost in tangles and stacks of irrelevant papers. Maybe she is wrong in doing so, or maybe she knows better what it means to be caught up in this system.

However, the paradox is that the government encourages young graduates to become teachers. A person, who will start teaching right after graduating, receives for the following three years a salary that is more than double the salary of a normal teacher. After those three years, the salary drops to normal. In order to get a raise the teacher will have to take all kinds of examinations. So there is a financial incentive offered by the government. Of course, there are many who take this road, especially for the financial security that comes with it. But few of these teachers are truly motivated to walk the extra mile for the education of the children. They simply comply with the rules imposed by government, take their salaries, and off go another batch of standard-educated children who will never feel the need to question anything.

5.

On the very bright side of things, is the fact that the Waldorf schools from Germany have some branches in Russia. We met with one of their students, from the Waldorf School in Irkutsk; a 17 years old German girl who fell in love with Russia, Russian language and Russian classics after studying in Irkutsk. These schools focus on creative learning, and on learning based on individual needs and competences. Of course, they are not recognized by the Russian government, but they manage to survive by donations from the Waldorf Friends Foundation and from taxes paid by some rich parents of some of the students. I say “some of the students”, because not all of them come from rich families. We were told that there are students coming from very poor families who are helped through donations or sometimes they work in the school for the money. The rich and the poor are studying together in an environment where these distinctions do not actually exist among the students or the teachers. The teachers are more than just teachers - they are mentors and friends and whatever the students need them to be. At the moment, in the school in Irkutsk there are not too many students, we only found out about a class with around 15 students. The girl we met with about this didn’t know English so well (she was fluent in Russian, though), so there were a few language barriers in our conversation. I suspect that Russians are reluctant to join this kind of school, even if the money would not be a problem, because it is not recognized by the government, hence the small number of students. However, this is a very interesting subject that deserves a more thorough investigation, for which we did not have time (we found out that there is such a school in Irkutsk only on our last day in Russia).

This is Andrei, freshly graduated and freshly employed. We had the chance to actually assist at his graduation ceremony – he said that this “European trend of fancy graduation ceremonies” is very new to them, and two years ago, for his Bachelor graduation, it was virtually non-existent. Graduation is starting to become a business in itself in Russia, just like in the rest of the Western countries.

Victory Park, Saratov – it’s an immense park full of war machinery, Russian and German. For every exponent there is a clear distinction between “victorious” and “defeated”, depending on whether the machinery is Russian or German. Needless to say, Victory Park was built to celebrate Russia’s victory in World War second, and maybe to remind it’s people of their importance in history. This year, Russia celebrates 70 years since Victory, and it is written on banners and flags all over the country. This is also why the train in the image is decorated.

This is Anton. He graduated from Journalism, but decided not to work in this domain because he thinks that there is too much censorship in the media institutions, and he could not make his real voice heard. He expresses his thoughts through graphics and drawings. I saw his portfolio and I was truly impressed. And then truly disappointed to find out that he is reluctant to continue. He decided to give up on his dream, or to postpone it, because he prefers financial stability for his future family, and the two cannot merge.

We traveled four days with a train from Saratov to Irkutsk. The car where we had seats was full of children. One of their mothers knew like two words of English, but she really wanted to make us talk to her two daughters who knew a little bit more...like four words. Of course, we didn’t really understand what she wanted. But one night I was not sleeping and I was alone on the corridor (due to a drunkard man in our compartment that was stinking of smoked fish and alcohol, a combination I hope none of you will ever smell). And this lady was still awake with her friends, and all of their children (at least six girls and a little boy). She knew about the drunkard man in our compartment, and she took us under their protection, finally making her daughters talk to us. We spent all night together. Somehow we managed to communicate with sign language and smiles and laughter. The little girls taught us the colors in Russian, and they made little colorful bracelets for us and also taught us how to make them (we are wearing them in the picture). So this was a mother who really wanted her daughters to know English. I hoped we helped a bit.

Dreams don't come true in Russia

Hypothesis: "People try to find happiness more and more by turning back towards nature and
towards their inner selves."

Dreams don’t come true in Russia… or at least so I’ve been told by a Russian young man.
Dreams don’t come true in Russia… kind of hard to believe while wandering the streets of two of the
biggest cities of this country – Moscow and Saint Petersburg.
Moscow – with its majestic metro stations that trigger the memory of fairytale ball rooms, with its
internationally renowned ballet and theatre, with its cheerfully colored churches with onion shaped
towers, with its amazing buildings covered in the dust of ruthless time…
Saint Petersburg – with its imposing architecture and opulent grandeur, with its beautiful parks and
gardens, with its shivering producing bell rings, hosting one of the biggest museums in the world which
is in itself a dream for many…
Now that I think about it… there is actually one thing that I have noticed in Saint Petersburg – lack of
kids between the ages of 5 to 15. And that could mean two things. First, that there is holiday in July and
the children get shipped off to some relatives living in the country side to enjoy their summer more
authentically. It happens quite often in Romania too, so it could totally make sense.
The other reason goes a little bit deeper. Children represent hope for a better future. And if people
don’t see that projection of the future bright enough in their minds, then they probably choose not to
have children. And that would make me to draw the conclusion that they are not happy enough as to
look at what is to come with an open heart and a cheerful soul.
Sadly, I don’t really know which of this two options is closer to reality. Or maybe it is a combination of
both. Defying our expectations, Russians don’t really speak English (not even the ones from the big
cities), so my conclusions are mostly based on observation.
Anyway, travelling further away from this two famous cities, you encounter a surprisingly desolated
Russia. Abandoned buildings, stray dogs, holes in the streets, rats, weird smells, tangled bureaucracy
that lasts for hours, incredibly muddy roads… it all reminded me of my home city probably 20, maybe
even 30 years ago.
But I expected more from Russia. I expected more from a country that claims to be (and is recognized to
be) one of the most powerful in the world. I expected more from a country who has the courage to seize
territories of others. First you organize your stuff in the territory that you have – you make sure that
people have what they need and that things run smoothly, and only afterwards you can find the courage
to claim pieces of other countries as yours. Or not? Well… apparently not for Russia.
As Russia was such a huge soft spot of mine, I tried to learn more about its times of glory. And it was
actually in the library of Hornsjo that I found a book about the USSR, few days before leaving to Sweden
for my pre course. I took it with me – and it was this book that made me understand how difficult it was
to rule such a huge country, how the grandeur that I saw as an outsider when thinking about USSR was
actually not at all reflected in the inside of the country, and how all this system was so poorly organized
that it was obviously just a matter of time until its implosion.
I read about all this with curiosity, and probably with a little bit of disappointment. But I definitely
expected things to have gotten better until now, twenty years after. Sadly – I’m not sure they did. Not
for the average Russian, for sure.
Walking around the streets, you can see that people don’t look happy. Factories have been replaced
with shopping malls, there are not enough working places for everybody, corruption and bad
management are thriving, the old and the new (typically Russian buildings in desperate need of
restauration and huge shiny buildings, most surely brought there by globalization) intertwine in a
hideous way which emphasizes the discrepancies of the world we are living in. On top of this, Russia is
currently undergoing economic austerity and this affects people’s everyday life in a strong negative way.
The power of their currency shrank constantly in the past two years, prices varying from day to day.
Inconstancy began to rule people’s lives – and living in insecurity is for sure not a reason for happiness.
I noticed that people are drawn to materialism. Getting a new job makes them happy, of course. But
they still compare themselves to the ones who have it better. Which is not a bad thing in general, if you
keep in mind to also appreciate what you have. Comparison with the ones superior (in any kind of way)
might produce competitiveness and performance. I can understand that people need a certain security,
moneywise speaking, before they can focus on the spiritual part. But the moment you live in an almost
luxurious apartment (although rented), and consider that you are not even in the middle class, just
because you don’t own a car – well, there I see a problem. It probably means that you don’t really know
what poverty actually is, and comply yourself in complaining instead of appreciating.
As these measures of austerity that I was talking about earlier were imposed to Russia as a consequence
of its political choices (regarding Ukraine and Crimea), I was curious if people were upset with their
ruler/rulers for making these choices. They were not. They welcomed the annexation of Crimea as if
they were reunited with their brothers and sisters. They were not happy with the economic status of
their country, of course, but believed that what happened was right and was what should have
happened – so Russia was not to blame for the economic situation in which the country ended up (at
least in their eyes). About Ukraine, the people I have asked considered it to have fallen in between the
conflict of Russia with the US – sort of a bad luck.
Not all the people we have talked to about this subject liked Putin, but all agreed that he was the best
ruler Russia could possibly wish for at the present moment. They felt the need of a strong leader, and
they saw that in Putin. On the other hand, they were reluctant towards the transparency and correction
of the elections. They were convinced that their disapproval could not make a difference. They saw that
the system was failing them every day, but were resigned about it.
The only thing that I saw Russians frustrated about was the fact that they are not officially
acknowledged as the winners of the Second World War. Americans stole this recognition from them, as
Americans believe themselves to be the ones who won and brought the war to an end. But Russians
consider that they were the ones who actually carried the burden of the war on their shoulders, the
ones who stopped Hitler and made him retreat - with a lot of human sacrifice, of course; the ones who
won the war. And they seem annoyed that the general international perception has been distorted by
the Western media machine.
I saw Russians as very proud people. Partly because, as I said, they truly believe it was them who won
the Second World War, and consider this something exceptional. Also, because they were part of this
huge empire, to which they tend to go back to. It is said that the image of Putin in the hearts of the
people resembles more and more the one of a tsar, and that gives an even stronger feeling of patriotism
to the Russian people.
As I have previously mentioned, most Russians only speak Russian – and I believe this is a huge proof of
patriotism, stubbornness, but also ignorance. They do learn English in school, but the English teachers
are not very good themselves with the language. Even the young people – you ask them a question and
sometimes they seem to understand, but they can’t answer back. They either don’t know, or they are
not confident enough about their knowledge.
The perception of the common Russian people is that they don’t need more than their own language.
Russia is a huge country with a lot of places to visit and an incredible amount of people living in it. If
Russians want to travel, they can travel in their own country without having to learn English. Also, they
can meet new people every day in the same manner. As far as I noticed, tourism in Russia is also mostly
focused on Russian people, and it is quite difficult as a foreign tourist to find directions, explanations or
anything else in English, for that matter. The general attitude is that, if foreigners chose to come to
Russia, they should have learned Russian before.
But this closes the country very much, and it closes the people living in Russia inside its borders. If they
don’t speak English it is very difficult for them to travel to other countries, to experience other kind of
people with other kind of cultures. If they don’t speak English, they don’t have access to international
press, and considering that independent press is pretty much dead or dying in Russia, they are very
susceptible to manipulation.
Dreams don’t come true in Russia… maybe they don’t. Maybe they do. But anyway, it doesn’t mean that
people don’t dream. It is what makes humans to keep going in their quest towards happiness.
In all fairness, I met happy people too. Travelling for four days in the Trans-Siberian, we were befriended
by three mothers and their six children. Only the eldest of the daughters spoke some basic English, but it
was enough as to manage to get along. We found out that the mothers were very good friends,
travelling for holiday to some relatives from the Asian side of the country. I can imagine that, having two
weeks of holiday out of which at least one you spend on the train trying to get to your destination, you
must learn to also enjoy the ride, and not just to wait to get to the ending point. And they seemed to
have managed that.
The little girls (aged 7 to 16) were playing around and having fun all day long. They were also very much
into creating some type of bracelets out of rubber bands. After we became friends, we were given as
gifts some of this bracelets, and afterwards we were thought how to do them and encouraged to do
some for ourselves – using the colors and the patterns that we liked. They also thought us how to count
in Russian, how to say ‘thank you’ and ‘your welcome’, and how to spell some of the colors. The
youngest of the daughters was especially sweet, as she forgot from time to time that I don’t understand
Russian, and she started to speak to me in her own language until somebody stopped her and explained
once again that I can only understand English. They were all very friendly and nice to us, and they
brightened our long, long journey. Their mothers also seemed to have fun together, sleeping during the
day and laughing and storytelling during the night, when the air was much cooler and breathable.
Out of all the people that I have met in Russia, I was most impressed about this one young girl named
Aliona. We met in a hostel in Irkutsk (our couchsurfing hosts actually owned a hostel, but in times when
the hostel was not full they were accepting couchsurfers; as we wrote to them almost two months
before arriving they accepted us without truly knowing how many guests they will have, and it
happened that the hostel was full when we arrived, so we ended up sleeping in a tent, on a porch in
front of the hostel). But the atmosphere there was really amazing, and the hosts were finding time to
interact with everybody and make sure that people were having a good time. Their way of handling
things actually inspired us a lot. They were the ones who introduced us to Aliona.
Aliona is a 20 year old Russian girl from Saint Petersburg. She was travelling together with her boyfriend,
a huge backpack that he was carrying, and his guitar that she was carrying. His guitar was called Friday,
like Robinson Crusoe’s friend. They came from Saint Petersburg to Irkutsk, half way through the country
and 5500 km distance by hitch hiking. It took them two weeks, and it was during this travel that Aliona
realized she is pregnant. She knew she was too young, but she seemed happy about it nonetheless.
I liked her a lot because she was incredibly energetic, strongly positive and very communicative
(although her English was not the best). She was waving her hands in the air a lot when she was talking,
and she looked a little bit silly (in a good way). We talked about a lot of things from Russia and not only;
she told us about her hopes and dreams. She had just finished a collage in order to become a teacher,
but she was not sure that she wanted to do that for the rest of her life. Moreover, she realized that she
was to become a mother soon, and she had to accommodate the baby in her future plans too. But the
plans were plenty. She loved reading, and was dreaming of writing a book someday. She was thinking
about the possibility of opening an anti-cafe, or owning a hostel.
She was playing the guitar, as well as composing her own songs (we asked her to play a few songs for us,
and she tried to explain to us what the songs were about before singing – one was a traditional Russian
folk song about mountaineers who die in their quests to conquer the heights; the other one was
composed by herself and it told the story of a red cat who brought sun in people’s lives and who left
pieces of fish as gifts in their dreams). I asked about her relationship with nature, and she told me that
she is not going to the mountains as often as she would like, but that it is one of her family’s traditions
to go every summer to some lakes near Saint Petersburg and sing guitar songs around the fire (both her
parents are singing the guitar). I asked if she was happy, and she was. Although she didn’t have a very
well organized plan for the future, she painted her future in bright and colorful lights.
Based on the glimpse that I had into the hearts and minds of the Russian people, I could say that my
hypothesis is wrong. People are much to anchored in their daily lives and problems as to have time to
search for happiness by turning back towards nature or towards their inner selves. Maybe things will
look different after the country manages to stabilize a little bit and find an equilibrium point. After
people will have access to the basics of their necessities, I’m quite sure they will be tempted to look for
more. And perhaps then they will find the path towards nature.
Still, the ones who were in contact with nature all along know how fulfilling it is to connect with it and
how much peace and tranquility you can acquire by getting in touch with nature once in a while. Also, by
spending time in nature, away from all the technology and distractions of our everyday life, you
automatically acknowledge your inner self more.
Metro station in Saint Petersburg
Hermitage Museum (Saint Petersburg)
Not so shiny parts of Saint Petersburg
View of Moscow and one of the seven sisters buildings
Happy to reach Red Square
Creepy ghost window in the yard of the Architecture Museum Moscow
Graduation ceremony in Moscow
Neighborhood in Saratov
With the inventors of Cyrillic Alphabet in Saratov
Statue of Lenin with his pointy finger from Saratov
(similar statues with him can be found all over Russia)
Entrance of the open air museum about the 2
nd
World War in Saratov
Stairs with the years and the battles who took place in those years during the 2
nd
World War in the open
air museum in Saratov
Friends made during Trans-Siberian ride
Street in Irkutsk