Visit to Chita Summer 2018, No. 5: Petrovsk IB
Petrovsk First visit
Part B: Camp
Following the recital at the music school, Ivan Nikolaevich, lead volunteer of the loose group of local and Chita volunteers that support the Children’s Home, drove me, two local volunteers and one other (Ivan’s daughter?), plus Oxana Ivanova, the new computer/tech person for the Home, to the camp, which is located about 20 miles from Petrovsk along the Khilok River at the end of a typically rutted and potholed sandy dirt track, made more exciting by the large mud puddles of this summer’s rains.
We were greeting by Vanya, my first friend at the Children’s Home back in 2014. Then he was happy and bouncy and showing me everything, not worried that I understood little of his Russian. Now 13, with changed voice, the beginnings of whiskers and a new maturity and presence, but the same enthusiasm, he seems to have taken on responsibilities and a modelling role for the younger kids. He was one of the announcers for the show the camp put on later in the evening and his manners and speaking were very impressive. Last year, he underwent surgery for a chronic heart problem. It helped, but he still has to take care and travel to Chita once a month for a checkup. But I was told he never complains, though his activities are limited by his condition.
Vanya looking very sharp in the new jacket Victor just gave him. Look
We were also met by a lot of the kids, and even a few of the older boys and girls, most of whom were, perhaps, a little too cool for this…or a little too shy…I know I was shy, and not just about my limited Russian. But thrust into the situation, I had no choice! It was clear that many of the kids were aching to be seen and heard and hugged and touched and just included. The staff did this, certainly, but guests were special and rare!
Somehow, despite my resistance to studying Russian (or anything for that matter), I had a much easier time communicating with the kids on this visit, especially in groups as we all helped each other understand. This time kids tried out their English—counting, alphabet (my Russian alphabet try was embarrassing!), hellos and thank yous—and the more we talked the more they and I, too, tried.
One of the four families sounds off with their name and motto. The guests introduced themselves, and Janna received her Rainbow Nation neckerchief in a brief ceremony.
The Khilok in early evening’s golden sunlight.
After tea and before the show, I walked down to the river in the golden early evening light. The Khilok was very high, the flat surface swirling with little currents as it flowed swiftly by. Along the path bird cherries were becoming ripe, and bluebells and Queen Anne’s Lace and chamomile and many other wildflowers were in full bloom. The small blossoms of these flowers gave the fields an almost iridescent effect of shifting purples, blues, pinks and yellows against a dusty green. But the mosquitoes and flies brought me back to the real world! Oy vey!
The show was, as usual, a lot of fun. Girls started with a dance, then the first of two fractured fairy tales by the boys using clips of pop songs with silly narration linking them together. The first involved the Snow Queen who had some kind of problem (a chip on her shoulder?) and Father Frost came along and straightened her out. The 2nd one, later in the program, was clearly from 1001 Nights and involved an Arabian sheik in need of a wife. Those potential wives were impersonated by 3 of the young men on the staff in crazy wigs and increasingly buxomly padded outfits. When the sheik finally wanted No. 3, in came a shrimp of another sheik, half his size and wooed her away. Now, I’d like to know what really happened, since I missed all the jokes and silly lines!
At one point we all piled out of the hall to the field to see the boys’ gymnastics—flips, somersaults, various amazing human pyramids. Terrific.
Both Vitaly and Zoya sang solos and also together. Vitaly’s solo was called “Angel”. Zoya’s was on the theme of “we are better together”. And their duet was a well-known hit called “Faith”. The youngest and smallest boy recited a poem as did a young girl, and then did the counseling staff as a group. We guests each gave a short speech. The best was by the oldest, who gave a most impassioned speech about growing up, and patience, and caring for one’s health, and helping one another, and paying attention to teachers. She even said they may not understand her now, but she hoped they might keep in mind her thoughts for later (I tend to teach this way, too, to my piano students, and was gratified to find out I’m not alone in it.) The announcers were Anna Chizhkova, Zoya’s older sister, fellow “You’re Super!” alum and now a young lady, and my Vanya.
Girls dancing
Anna and Vanya emcee the show
These boys celebrate the recent unofficial day of the elite military force that traditionally gets to go crazy during that day. They are known by these striped shirts.
The Home’s youngest camper recites a poem
Zoya and Vitaly sing “Faith” together.
The sheik declares himself, but the twerp sheik on the right is about to steal her away.
A display of tumbling
The show was followed by a series of slideshow videos created by the new tech person, Oxana, showing the history of Petrovsk, the history of the Children’s Home, and then highlights of the past year. Those included soccer successes, shooting range drills and training, and participation in a big tourism event for Children’s Homes at Lake Baikal. That was such as success they plan to send kids again this coming year.
The youngest are about to go to bed. The counselors are the two in the back to the center.
The night went very late, with kids dancing in a discotheque in the meeting room of the cafeteria and others staying up and singing and playing around. Elena, Victor, Janna and I visited the youngest group just before bedtime, and then sometime later Olga and I were invited to an older group’s house, the group that included Vitaly, our favorite boy singer. We were presented with artwork by one of the boys—cartoons and an excellent drawing of a lion, and also a painting of the local hills and river by the counselor, Elena. The boy has promised to make many more drawings and paintings and I have promised to display them, along with the ones just received, in my living room back home. All the artwork hung there is from here, and is mostly by children. Then we passed around a stuffed toy dog and while holding it named our favorite moment of the day, and I was charged with doing this in Russian…and managed… Then they sang us a song, one Olga often sings and I must learn.
After that Victor and I had a short but welcome banya, followed by tea in the women’s cabin, followed, gratefully, by bed.
The next morning was a late one. The low fog rose to dress the hills by the time we got up for morning exercises, and then breakfast, which consisted of milk soup with rice, fresh bread, local butter and smetana (thick slightly soured cream) and honey. We packed out of our rooms and then joined the whole camp for games in the field.
But before the games, I presented a collection of dolls donated by my mother who collected them across the years during her travels. I was asked to present them one by one in front of the four teams ready for sport. There were two from Hawaii, one of them made entirely of coconut hair, paper and shell, one from Croatia, an Eskimo one from Canada, a couple Navaho ones, one representational, the other handmade, one from Hungary, from Korea, from Indonesia or Bali, and so on. Natalia Skliarova said it was a most wonderful gift. They have a small collection of dolls, but this expands it dramatically.
[pictures to come]
Then the games began scented by the wonderful mild scent of wild garlic that dotted the field. The games were mostly relay races based on running—straight sprint, three-legged, balancing a ping pong ball on a soup spoon, jump-rope running, etc. But there was also was a dance competition and a team jump rope competition—the rope being a big thick tug-of-war rope that swiped uncareful feet right up into the air…several times! The panel of judges led by Anna Chizhkova determined the points, divided those by nine (inexplicably, but clearly correctly) and determined that the overall winners were the “Spartak”(Spartacus) team consisting of mostly youngest kids with Elena and Victor as guest team members. They certainly were the strongest cheerers!
After the games a lot of us were hanging out by the women’s cabin and one boy tried pull-ups on the porch’s frame. So I tried, too, and could almost do one! And there came a stream of boys trying pull-ups. (One of the smallest boys did the most, managing 25!). Natalia commented that so many boys tried just because I tried, and I tried because that boy tried. The simplicity of trying and modelling behaviors, even unconsciously, is powerful, isn’t it. It is hard to know how important one’s actions are.
In quieter moments, Natalia spoke with us guests. She told me that the funds SB provided last fall to bring various staff members’ education requirements up to the new national standards set last year did exactly that. All five staff members needing a pedagogical certification or an upgrade completed those, and young Lyosha Kapitov, recent resident of the Children’s Home and now cook for the camp and Home, was in the process of his certification using the last of those funds. In addition, I learned that our most recent donation was going toward the purchase of a commercial washing machine for the Home. One wonders how they’ve managed without one with 80-120 kids at any one time! Natalia later gave me the accounting paperwork to show where our grants went this past year.
Lyosha Kapitov was clearly pleased with and proud of his job at the camp and the Home.
I asked Olga about the nature of SB’s cash donations. In the context of the financial needs of such an institution, they seem like a drop in the bucket, but I keep being told they are so very useful. She said two things, and I observed one.
1st, all money is helpful because they are chronically underfunded by the Federal government—a problem felt by any institution, the same in our own country, that addresses the needs of those who can’t represent themselves—like parentless children and others in poverty.
2nd, much of what happens with which we are involved is because we stay connected and show up. For example, it was pointed out to me that this educational support for the staff was the result of a comment heard last year in passing while in Chita that we at SB picked up on. They would not have thought to ask for such assistance.
3rd, related to the 1st, is finding out concretely how much the Home nickels and dimes everything. The example that showed me this was Natalia’s asking my permission to use our grant to pay for the travel to bring some of the graduates back to the Home to meet our group when we visit on September 1st and 2nd. She, of course, did not have to ask our permission, but I think she wanted me to know how close to the bone they live each day. We had requested seeing these old friends, not realizing, I think, such a request might cut into already designated funds.
The goodbyes were hard, but we’ll be back in a month and there will be more of us.
