Sunday 2 April 2006 – We’re off to Gomel

We had to be at Aberdeen Airport for nine o’ clock. I saw my aunt at security, (I think she got more of a surprise than I did, seeing as I know that she works there, but she seemed to have forgotten that I was going to Belarus) I even saw her frisking some woman.
The flight to Gatwick was fine except for the end – it was a mite bumpy – Gill didn’t like that bit too much (wouldn’t really say that I enjoyed it either though.). Gatwick is big, and it’s only got two terminals, (a plane lands/takes off every 58secs) Heathrow has eight soon to be nine terminals; it must be more like an actual city.
The flight to Belarus was fine – I started doing English and fell asleep doing it, sure Mrs Calder would love to hear that – again the problem came at the end, a panel on the front of the wing started flapping about when we landed – hmmm??? – can’t have been good.
Passport control was an experience, was quite a young woman checking my passport – there must have been something amusing about my face, she kept looking from my face to passport with a massive grin on her face. We then had to fill in a customs declaration (which we later found we didn’t have to fill out) but it asked you to declare “firearms and explosives” – now why the hell would you declare that to customs?
The airport was my first encounter with a Belarusian toilet, they’re damned hard to use. You have to stand on the toilet on two little bits for your feet and pee down the way – like directly down.
We were met at the airport by two of the teachers from School 71, we all then travelled to Gomel by minibus, had sandwiches and stuff to eat on the bus, we even had a wolf run out in front of the minibus. When we arrived in Gomel everyone was standing in front of some big building, (later discovered that it was the Hotel Sozh) we were greeted as we left the bus by an excited Stas, but I didn’t really have a chance to see anyone else till the next day.
When I was putting my bag into Artsiom’s father’s car I saw “Cayenne” on the back. I was so tired that it was not until about five minutes later that I realised what I had just seen – “Porsche Cayenne” – now that was not something I was expecting to see, let alone be sitting in.
I also discovered an interesting fact about School 71 on the way to Artsiom’s home – it is an amalgamation of two schools, School 6 and School 65 (6+65=71?) Artsiom’s flat was on the 9th floor of the block – thank God for lifts, kind of – lets just say that the lift made some interesting noises.
By the point that we had arrived home it was after midnight, but still came a meal, (not that I wasn’t grateful, just that at that time of night I don’t tend to eat meals so much as sugary rubbish, i.e. chocolate) – a salad, potatoes and some form of meat, and ice cream with some form of biscuit (I ate so much during the week that I didn’t really have much clue what most of it was.) I also met Gosha, apparently usually a very aggressive dog, but he seemed to fall in love with me. At this point I thought I would be glad to get home, home to my own bed, but this feeling did not last past the next day.
Monday 3 April 2006 – Old friends and new ones

Not too early a morning, we got up about nine had breakfast and took Gosha for a short walk. Saw where the school was – less than a minute away from the flat, you could actually see the school from Artsiom’s window through a gap between two other blocks of flats.
We arrived at school at about ten o’ clock. The main door of School 71 is very different to that of Kincorth Academy; Kincorth has a very plain pair of security doors. School 71’s is much more impressive - it looks like a long bank of wooden doors, I have no idea whether they can all be opened or not as we only ever used the same one. We were taken to the psychologist’s room, we were the first ones there except for Valery, Helen and Tania, after some hellos we sat down to wait for the others. Got a chance to see Kate, Ksenia (Ksiusha) and Stas again, also met Ann and Ann.
Next we went upstairs to a conference room type room, Katya and Sacha were in traditional national dress, we received a traditional welcome, this included a piece of freshly baked bread dipped in salt, bread was good – but dipping it in salt? (Must find out why we did that, because it certainly wasn’t to make it taste better).
After that we had a tour of the school with Marina – she was the winner of a republic wide English contest and she also spent a year in America, her English was amazing, but then that was kind of to be expected.
I liked the tour well enough, but to start with it made me feel a little bit weird that when we went into a class everyone stood up, guess that it’s just a respect thing that they have for guests, that didn’t make it feel any less odd though, at least their teachers have earned the respect that they’re given, but what have we done, we had only been in the school for about an hour. We also found out that they have a school dentist, as well as a psychologist.
Next we had the first of many concerts – another chance for them to show off how exceptionally talented they are, one of the songs was song by a girl with blonde hair (her name escapes me) from the school – it was in Russian, so not a clue what it was about, but that didn’t stop it from being amazingly beautiful
School lunches, hmmm, lunch, meat was ok – still no idea what the meat was, could have been anything, but the spaghetti tasted quite odd, probably an after taste of the water it was cooked in. Not that it is necessarily a bad thing but I did notice that while I was in Gomel, milk and water in particular had distinctly different flavours compared to Scottish milk and water.
In the afternoon Artsiom took me to an entertainment centre just next to the monument to the lost soldier. We played a few games of billiards, and I got my ass kicked (the final score was 3-2 but he lost two games by accidentally potting the black so the only games I won were by default) I also met two of Artsiom’s friends – he seemed to know a lot of people.
After that interesting display of my skill with a cue we went home briefly, Artsiom went inside to pick up his speakers, I waited in the car with the guy who had been driving us about (an employee of Artsiom’s father) he made a couple of attempts to communicate with me in the universal language of women.
When Artsiom got back we went and picked up Katya (the other Kate) and went to the supermarket to get some cakes/desserts to take to Ksiusha’s. Not everyone came (I’m still not entirely sure why) there was me, Artsiom, Katya, Gill, Kirsten, Ann, Ksiusha, Helen, Valery and Tania. First we ate, this was great fun, Gill managed to not only spill on herself but Kirsten as well, I managed to do a couple of things that hadn’t been meant for me to do, making it appear as though I could understand Russian and just wasn’t letting on. We had a rather strange conversation about deaths of pets, (they asked me for a funny story, so I told them how Scott’s dad used to inflate frogs with straws) and it went downhill from there, it led to stories of deaths of cats, dogs, parrots, tortoises, (a fair few of them involving heights, hardly surprising considering most of them live in flats) and also Katya trying to give mouth to mouth to a hamster (will explain more fully later.) Katya also tried to teach me to dance – for that I am ever thankful as without this Plaza would have been hell. We played a game that involves standing in a circle and naming a body part that you don’t like of the person on your left, this seemed to be very harsh at first, but after this has gone round the whole circle you have to kiss the body part that you named (thank God I said nose, even though Artsiom had been trying to encourage me to say breast) it was very funny though, and will be much fun to play at home. It was when we were asked what games that we played at parties that we realised that we are in fact alcoholics, all we do is drink – how bad and sad is that? We sat and spoke for a while – about the rates of prostitutes in Gomel amongst other things, discovered that Ksiusha also loves Terry Pratchett. Katya also taught me some Russian words.

Eezveeny = sorry
Ad zeem = 1
Dwa = 2
Dree = 3
Zont = umbrella

+ more that I have forgotten and some that might be inappropriate (please forgive the spelling – it is atrocious)

Artsiom, Katya and I shared a taxi on the way home, she tried to teach me more Russian words, when Artsiom and I got home we took Gosha out again and put the rubbish in the big bin, and then went to sleep.

Tuesday 4 April 2006 – Brazilian Tango…

Earlier morning today, about 0700, it’s weird though if I got up at 0700 at home I would be like a half shut knife till at least dinner time, but I wasn’t tired at all. Took Gosha out for his usual morning walk.
At school we visited an English class, (me, Ryan, Kevin and Mr Tullock,) we spoke to them, they asked us some questions and we asked them a couple of questions too. Mr Tullock asked them “What would you recommend that we see in your city,” the asnwer that he got was “We have many beautiful girls in our city, have you been to see them yet?” (I agree, there are so many beautiful girls in Gomel compared to Aberdeen that it isn’t even remotely fair.) This kid was 11/12 – it was classic – “out of the mouths of babes.”
Next we had a class with Valentina Smolenchuk on our similarities and differences, despite what we said in this class, we shouldn’t really be looking for similarities – common ground is useful for building friendships – we should be looking for differences and trying to learn from them.
We saw a presentation by School 71 as part of a theatrical contest – what I understood of it was good, again it was in Russian, but (this is appalling) I started to nod off, (Gosha had been a bit of a pest during the night, he kept waking me up by jumping onto the bed and trying to lick my face) Ryan at one point had to nudge me to keep me awake, and we were right in the front row.
The intellectual game we played was difficult but fun, our team flags were incredible, hand done by Katya, we also had to decorate a small wooden vase thing, we attempted a saltire, but it didn’t work because the paint wouldn’t dry fast enough – so we finger painted it. The teams were boys (me, Kevin, Ryan, Max, Sacha, Stas), teachers, (they won, but they also cheated) and the girls (they lost but they thought they had come second – but nope.)
This is the last lunch that I will mention, they were all rice/spaghetti + meat except one day that we got pizza (a very odd pizza – but it’s the thought that counts as the dinner ladies were afraid that we weren’t eating anything.)
In the evening we saw a Brazilian Tango concert, the main woman spoke Russian/English/Brazilian (on one occasion in the same sentence,) it was different, some of the dancers were very scantily clad, Stas got up on the stage on one point and was sort of serenaded by the main woman. Later on Ann, Katya and Tania went up and danced. After the end of the concert we went for a little walkabout the streets of Gomel, technically for them drinking on the streets is illegal, but the police have bigger problems to deal with, so they really don’t bother with trying to enforce it.
We walked and talked for a while, we then waited for Igor and Sacha. We then went back to the square for a bit and talked and joked, Stas half-stripped, that was a little bit odd.

Wednesday 5 April 2006 – Oh crap, we’re on film doing the Hokey Cokey…
Today we got a tour of the primary block, was ace, they’ve got little beds that come out like drawers because some of the kids are there for so long. They also had a room of childhood where the children can play and relax.
We sat in on a class of younger children learning English, they had a poem:

Good morning
Good morning
Good morning to you
Good morning dear teacher
We’re glad to see you

The presentation about “Scotland the Beautiful” was interesting, even though when they put on a video and started talking about Aberdeen I’m 99% positive that there wasn’t a single image of Aberdeen, there was even an image of the lake district, that ain’t even Scotland, never mind Aberdeen.
After lunch we caught the number one bus into town – this was interesting – I was told to sit down by an old lady (in Russian) then she continued to rant at me even when I made it clear I was Scottish, she also tried to give me some sort of card, Tania told me to give it back as it would be bad luck to accept it (and she was deadly serious about this part too) but it didn’t stop there though, she gave Gill into trouble for having her back turned to me – even though by this point I couldn’t have cared less, as all I wanted was to get off of the bus away from this woman.
Ann explained to me that some of the older people disapproved of the way that younger people talked, dressed or even had their hair, so to try to change this they would try to remind them of the old ways and traditions of their country, to me this seems like a much more extreme (and in some ways potentially problematic) form of old wifies complaining to each other at the bus stop that they don’t like our music, clothes hair or speech.
After visiting the town house to meet the mayor we went to see the opening of an exhibition of the work of Marc Chagal, all of the works seemed to have their origins in bible stories. Some of them were not too bad, some were odd and some I just saw lines.
By the time we got home it was about 5.15pm, we basically rammed some food down us and went out again to be at Stas’s for six. We were a little bit late, but it was ok, everyone else was later (after the exhibition Gill and Ann’s bus dropped them off outside Gomel, near the chemical plant, Ann had a slight problem – she had no idea where she was) I soooo wouldn’t have eaten at home if I had known how much we were going to be fed at Stas’s. Tonight was very definitely a night of new things, I was one of the few brave enough to try caviar, can’t say it’s something that I will be wanting to try again in a hurry, tastes very salty. Also tried vodka, the way that they drink it is a shot followed by a drink of juice, that stops it from burning so much, but each shot is toasted to something. The first is to good health, the second is to women (or men for girls) and the third is for love.
Ksiusha introduced me to Nightwish (another thing for which I am grateful, I was starting to think that I would never hear new music that I liked.)
When we got back to the flat with Igor we were on the news – meeting the vice-mayor. I think tonight was the first time that I had spoken properly to (Ryan’s) Ann, liked her, she was funny, I think I can genuinely say that there was not one person in that group that I didn’t like. We left Stas’s about eleven o’ clock, went home did the usual took Gosha out to do his needful and to put the rubbish in the big bin.

Thursday 6 April 2006 – A day of mistakes, embarrassments and more embarrassments

Another performance – A Court Martial, it was quite good. After this came the dreaded English lesson, we all had to stand up in front of a class and talk to them about Kincorth Academy, Kincorth and Aberdeen. First the teacher left me to get to know the children that I was speaking to (all girls.) They were friendly enough, my first mistake came when I sat on the desk – apparently now my daughter will become pregnant before she is married, I also tried to explain kayaking (with a diagram and everything) but I don’t think that they really understood, also my being nervous I don’t think did much to help, the questions that they asked were good but I’m not sure that I talking slowly or clearly enough for them to always understand the answers that I was giving.
The volleyball – oh dear God – our team won but, my first serve hit a metal beam in the roof, my second hit the roof itself, I fell over twice in two shocking attempts to hit the ball up just before it hit the ground, and I think this is all on video too. After the match I must have had a face like a flitten because one of the Belarussians from my team (not even one of the ones I really knew) asked why I was sad even though we had won, (even though I had started to get it at the end) I just didn’t feel like I had contributed in any way to the victory.
In the afternoon we went to the central park, to be brutally honest it looked very muddy and dead (so might I if I had been frozen under ice in minus temperatures for three months and then thawed) it was also raining. I think that it would have looked much better at a different time of the year (I will see it in summer, one day!) The inside of the orthodox church that we saw was incredible (the girls had to cover their heads when we went in) golden icons everywhere, amazing paintings on the roof. While we were standing next to a rather large and fancy mausoleum Igor and Ksiusha had an umbrella sword fight (I didn’t see who won.)
After the park we had about six hours to kill before we went ice skating at nine. So we went shopping, I bought a small Russian doll for my sister, we also saw homeless people (women mainly) trying to sell things such as nuts and seeds to the passers by, Artsiom told me that this was illegal but if the people paid some money to the police that they would be left alone. In the bus on the way home it was clear that Artsiom was tired as he fell asleep (this was quite a feat considering that the bus driver was insane and the mini bus felt like it was going to shake itself apart) this was too surprising considering how much of the things that we were doing he seemed to be co-ordinating.
Ice skating – finally something they weren’t all amazing at and that I was actually able to do half decently.

Friday 7 April 2006 – The beginning of the end

The next steps meeting was fun (the Chernobyl thing was even better) the Belarussians (love them though I do) can’t agree on anything. The outcome was that we would have some sort of joint drama project – agree on a theme and present our unique portrayals. Secondly much more activity on leanonme.org.uk
We had a performance called the “Magic Key” by some younger pupils, (at the end Miss Digges was presented with the key of knowledge.) This performance was part of a farewell concert for us. When we first entered the hall everyone clapped and cheered, it took me totally off guard – it was a nice surprise though this was mingled with sadness knowing that this would be the last concert that we would see. It was absolutely awesome, the little ones were dressed up as frogs and did a dance to “Crazy Frog.” A school leaver who had won a contest for singing came back, he sang “Let it Be” and another song in Russian, his voice was amazing, but his appearance was a little funny, there was a massive flick in the front of his hair, he also had on a suit type thing, he looked a little bit like James Bond, he was only missing a shirt and tie.
Valery sang “You’ll See” by Madonna, then a rock band (Tania singing, Max on Drums and Igor and Denis? on guitar) did “I Love Rock and Roll” and “All the Small Things” - they were seriously good.
After all of this we had to go up on stage, Mr Tullock (our official spokesman) gave our thanks yous and said his little thing, “sad to leave you…” Then Nicola gave thanks on behalf of the students, then Katarina said something about each of us (I was the handsome Scottish man or something of the like) and we were presented with some gifts.
We had a group photo on the steps of the school of all of the people who took part in the concert and us. After this we had to ask the Belarussians some questions about how they thought Chernobyl had affected their lives, the only problem being that we needed the audio to be crystal (as it maybe going on the radio) i.e. one person talking at a time – hitch – lots of arguing, it took tens times as long as it needed to, I suppose it is a side effect of the clashing of their outgoing (compared to Scottish people) characters. Ann spoke about how her father had died of cancer caused by radiation that he was exposed to after the explosion, I have a very deep respect for the fact that she was able to do this, the one time I discussed a deceased relative in public I broke down into maniacal/hysterical laughter – I may have some issues. After this was finally finished we went home to get ready for going to the Plaza that night.
On the way into Plaza something that I thought was quite odd happened, burly guy in a leather jacket – stereotypical bouncer – I later discovered he was Ukranian, started talking to me about politics, I had no idea what to say, so I smiled broadly and backed away, I was so shocked, Scottish bouncers as I have encountered them DON’T try to make small talk about politics, it just doesn’t happen
First we went upstairs and had a meal, Ryan managed to get Gill and Miss Digges with the same joke, “you’ve got something on your chin, no not that chin.” Even after the meal there wasn’t really that many people on the dance floor so we went for a walkabout to kill some time, I met Helen – she was interesting.
As she promised on Monday night, Katya asked me whether I regretted coming to Belarus or not. The answer that I gave her was “yes and no,” no, clearly because it was an amazing week, and I got to meet a bunch of people (that I now miss like crazy.) But also yes because after spending a while there, I knew the pain that was waiting for me at the end of the week, coming meant having to leave, hence leaving everyone that I had made friends with, not seeing them for some time – possibly ever again. I don’t think that I managed to explain that bit very well, so I just said no, but if ever the opportunity arises I will try to explain it right.
We eventually stopped at the square, it was here that Katya explained the whole mouth to mouth on a hamster thing. It had been left out on a balcony for a while, when she brought it back in it was dead, she thought that it was maybe just cold and might kind of thaw if she blew on it to warm it up.
After some more on Jupa we returned to Plaza and danced, at first we danced in a circle (and temporarily a triangle) around a pile of everyone’s bags on the floor, much encouragement from Helen and Artsiom to move my body more freely when I danced.
Then came the pole dancers (apparently our teachers had heard that their was going to be a striptease, but it was nothing of the sort – pole dancers, i.e. dancers with poles) At one point they were dancing in mini-kilts – did they know that we were going to be there? Artsiom said that kilts were becoming quite fashionable – considered quite modern. I came out about four, damn tired, I don’t think I could have gone back in if I had wanted to, my legs didn’t work properly and my ears were ringing – I couldn’t hear very much for about half an hour after we came out. Artsiom asked me if I was tired, I said “a bit” he just sort of smiled and nodded knowingly and said “yeah, he’s tired.” We shared a taxi home with Katya, it was quite funny, she told me that when we were in the church that someone thought they had seen me put a 20, 000 rouble note in a collection box, it was really a 20 rouble note. Eventually came her stop, that was the last time I ever saw her (hopefully not ever) didn’t even get to say a proper goodbye. We tried to go in as quietly as possible (a concept that Gosha didn’t seem to understand, also the fact that it was 0420,) we watched t.v. for about ten minutes before it went off the air for the night, that was odd, it’s something that I haven’t seen happen for quite some time.

Saturday 8 April 2006 – Our last proper day in Gomel

After being up till 0430 this morning a long lie was very welcome (Mr Tullock and Miss Digges had to get up at eight for a walk about the shops) got up about 1225 had a quick breakfast and then went out. We went to the market first, Artsiom warned me to watch out for thieves (pickpockets I’m guessing) it wasn’t difficult to imagine, people bustling about all over the place.
I got a funny pipe for my dad, a picture made of stone chips for my mum and a military cap covered with old soviet insignia for me. Next we visited a supermarket, Artsiom’s mum was determined to give me food for the journey home, I also got two bottles of vodka, I wanted a third (basically just for the bottle) but it would have been dodgy for the customs limits – didn’t much fancy the idea of having my other vodka confiscated for the sake of the extra bottle.
We went to a traditional Belarussian restaurant, I didn’t realise at the time, but the portions were big by Belarussian standards, so big that the weights of the portions were down the side of the menu, I had a salad, beetroot soup and a fish dish, the drink we had was some sort of bready water, I can’t really explain it but it tasted like bread. On top of all this per person this massive meal only cost about £5, Artsiom explained to me that this was because everything there was made traditionally from locally produced food, so therefore could be done very cheaply.
In the afternoon when we went home I had to pack (it was now really starting to hit me that I was leaving the next day,) my bags were packed but by no means was I ready to go. After a final few games of chess which I lost (my ability to concentrate on chess at this point was completely lacking, my mind was almost fully focused on the fact that this was my last night.) After a final meal of fish and chips (yes – fish and chips, home made and damned good.) After this we went bowling with Ksiusha and Kirsten, I was doing SO crap till I adopted Kirsten’s style of play (which was frustrating Artsiom something awful – it was quite funny) put in no effort whatsoever – it actually worked, really, really well. After the bowling we met up with everyone else. Gill, Ryan and Kevin had been at the circus, they were all rather disgusted at the circus’ use of animals – Gill especially so. She promised to fire off letters complaining about it, as she saw no point complaining and doing nothing – I admire this conviction, especially for the fact that her attempts will likely ultimately be futile as any change would require a fundamental change in the attitude of a nation – but then a single rolling stone can start an avalanche.
We stood at this square (not the same one as Tuesday or Friday) for a while just talking and joking, then we moved on, just walked, I had no idea where we were walking to until we reached the same crossing that we parted at on Tuesday night, so this was goodbye. Said goodbye to Helen, Valery and Tania, we would see everyone else the next day.
After we got home, packed the last minute things Artsiom’s mum had given me, she also said goodbye and told me that I would always be welcome as she would not see me in the morning (strangely enough when we were going to be getting up at 0400.) After this we just went to bed as the next day was going to be an early and long one.

Sunday 9 April 2006 – I don’t want to leave

The alarm went off at 0400, this is damned early for me, but when I woke up I didn’t feel tired at all. We sat for a while watching football, then left, going down in the lift I heard that “clunk” that I had heard every day for the past week (that scared me so much the first time I heard it) I would miss that noise. We caught a taxi to the place where we would be picked up by minibus. When we arrived Ksiusha, Kirsten and Igor were already there, it was about 0445, for the next hour and a half we just stood waiting for everyone else to arrive, (at this point it was still dark,) gradually the others arrived, by the time that Ann and Ryan arrived (from just round the corner) it was more or less light. Then came goodbye – much hugging and crying, I deeply miss them all.
The bus journey to Minsk was very subdued, there were moments of laughter but these subsided quickly back to the thoughtful silence. Nothing particularly worthy of mention happened on the flights home (except that same panel on the front of the wing flapping and exposing wires.) I got home missing Belarus SO much, so when I got around to checking my emails it was nice to find one from Belarus already – thank God for the internet!