Hello!
Before coming to Russia I found it hard to describe to friends and family exactly where I was going and what I would be doing in
Orion, and now that I'm here it is maybe even harder to do so because
this place really is somewhere that you have to experience to truly
understand - but nevertheless I will try my best to give you a taste of
my life here in this amazing community.
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| looking happy despite having to take the compost down to the chickens |
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| an evening game of football (it doesn't get dark until about 11pm here!) |
Orion is the 'sister community' of Kitezh which was founded in 1992 during Peresroika. Slightly smaller than Kitezh, Orion is 2 and a half hours by car from Moscow in the rural Kaluga region and will be celebrating its 10th anniversary this June. Both communities are best described on the Ecologia.org.uk website, "Kitezh and Orion are non-profit communities of foster families whose aim is simple: to give abandoned or orphaned children a real chance in life" and as well as theraputic education, a sustainable and environmentaly friendly lifestyle is also key to each community. The video below is a sped up walking tour of Orion that I filmed on my second day which despite its bad quality should still give you an idea of what it's like, although the weather on that day was awful compared to the 30ºC days we've been having recently!
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| a handy map of Orion taken from the website, I'm currently living in 'The White House' |
The 10 or so houses here in Orion are home to foster families who live and study here permanently, however during the summer months it's the school holidays and Orion becomes a unique summer camp for local children who come to stay. Currently we are in the middle of one of these camps, referred to here as a 'game', which lasts 12 days. The theme for the first game this summer is 'Film Film Film!'
I may do a later blog post explaining the intricacies of the 'game' but to briefly explain, Orion has been turned into a film studio called 'КинОрион' (KinOrion) that is under threat of closure by an evil American film tycoon who wants to buy the whole film studio and knock it down. All of the children have been set tasks over the 12 days, culminating in a film festival where they willl show the films they have made with the hope of persuading the evil tycoon to leave them alone and realise that money isn't the most important thing. The effort and detail that has gone into the organisation of this game is incredible and there have also been professional script writers, actors and musicians leading masterclasses for the kids. I feel so priveliged to see this game in action and take part and although it has at times been very hectic in the kitchen (especially for Olga the chef) it has been great to have so many children around in the first couple of weeks.
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| lizzie painting the КинОрион sign |
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| in character with the film tycoon, planning our destruction of КинОрион |
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| showing that bribing children with (fake) money is not the answer |
My role here as a volunteer is pretty diverse. Currently there are 4 other volunteers from the UK and also some Russian volunteers and as a group we have jobs such as washing up and cleaning to do on a regular rota, but our other jobs can be anything from chopping down birch trees to gardening or drawing with children to playing characters in live action performances of the backstory of the evil tycoon in 'Film Film Film!' (the start of this live performance can be seen below).
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| taking part in an acting masterclass with the kids |
After
only a few days here I felt like I was at home and myself and the other
volunteers couldn't believe that we had really only just arrived. My language is still feeling very rusty and I'm often finding myself trying to speak French instead of Russian, however I can see that I have already improved in my two weeks here and so hopefully I will just continute getting more confident and learing more useful vocabulary such as "I'm allergic to mosquito bites" and "bleach for tie-dye tshirts".
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| 'che guevara' an his army ready to play capture the flag |
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| action shots |
Also, apart from a couple of rainy days, the weather here has been amazing and we have been able to spend a few afternoons down at the 'beach' (a local river) sunbathing and swimming with a bunch of local Russians often giving us funny looks for being so obviously 'not from around here', and also probably because last time we were there we filmed an underwater drowning scene for a film project we have been given...
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| the river |
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| chopping down birth trees in the sun |
Today we are doing some more filming / gardening / cleaning and so I should probably stop writing now. This has taken ages to do because the slow internet isn't great for uploading photos and unfortunately this also means I won't be able to upload any YouTube videos whilst I'm here. However, I'm filming loads of stuff and I'll probably upload it all when I'm back in the UK! I hope to write some more specific blog posts soon on things such as the food and maybe a day trip to Moscow, but for now I will leave you with some of the cutest kittens you will ever see...
до свидания!
PS. all of the great professional looking photos are taken from the Orion vkontakte page (https://vk.com/album-38007057_196112412) thanks to Sergei! And here is the official Orion website if you fancy a look http://www.orionfuture.org/engabout.php
