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West High School students travel to Russia |
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Students from West are collaborating in a three-year project with high school students from the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia to research the effects of climate change in their regions and discuss the efforts teenagers are making to protect and conserve their environment. During the first two weeks of June 2008 the students traveled to Anadyr with teacher Michele Whaley and assistant principal Sue Holway. Below are links to letters from West High in Russia: Monday, June 2, 2008 Thursday, June 5, 2008 Sunday, June 8, 2008 Tuesday, June 10, 2008 Friday, June 13, 2008 Michele Whaley's Anadyr Journal: Monday, June 2, 2008 The West high group has made it to Anadyr, Russia, a town two hours west from Nome, with a time difference of three hours. We flew through Kotzebue to Nome on the 6 a.m. flight and took a 2:00 flight on (a 1900 something) Bering Air to Anadyr. The scenery that greeted us was severe and raw; the airport is the site of a former military base and a still-active coal mine. We made it through passport control and customs with a minimum of difficulty and met Igor Purtov, Director of Chukotka College. He had arranged taxis and the "air pillow," a hovercraft made to skim over water or ice. The second hovercraft had to rescue passengers from a "goes-everywhere" that had tipped over a little iceberg and crashed into the water. It's only the second year that these crafts have been operating. Most of our way was along the former ice road connecting the airport with the town across the lagoon, and it was mostly melted in the middle area. The 6 kilometer ride cost about $45 each, and the taxis about another $5. What a great first experience! When we arrived at the town, we loaded a van with the luggage and walked the five minutes to the college. Once there, we carried our bags through long corridors and up five flights of stairs to our own suite of rooms. The college is only three years old, and the rooms and furnishings could be straight out of Ikea. They are beautiful, sparkling clean, and very comfortable. The college furnished us with sheets, pillows, blankets and face and hand towels. Our two boys are in one room between the suites. The girls are in two locked sections of three rooms. Each section has two rooms of three and one double (where the teacher and principal have their own space). They also have a nice kitchen with mugs, plates, spoons, forks, a refrigerator, a stove, and a hot water pot. Three other small rooms are the toilet, the shower, and the washroom. We had lunch in the cafeteria - chicken soup, pasta and meat, compote, and pickled tomatoes. Compote is fruit that has been preserved in a light sugar solution-think fruit cocktail and you won't be far off. Three students learned how to say, "No meat, please." Off we went on a tour of the two main streets. We changed money in the bank, where there is an ATM, and went to the huge supermarket across the street. We bought tea, crackers, and at least one Colgate toothbrush. Kirill treated us all to pryaniki, my personal favorite type of ginger cookies. The course of the dollar for exchange is 23 rubles to the dollar. Then the kids had some free time, when some fell hard asleep (having not slept at all the night before) and others played a wild game of cards. They started feeling a bit frustrated by not being able to connect with all the kids they saw in the halls, most of whom would turn and stare every time they went by. "Why aren't they smiling?" Meanwhile, Sue and Michele had a meeting with the college director, two lead teachers of English who are responsible for our Russian lessons and the general program, Natalia (?) and Ludmila Vasilyevna. Both are extremely warm and generous personalities. Also at the meeting was Alexander Alexandrovich, the director of extra-curricular activities, who turned out to be able to make wonderful connections with the kids on a tour of the college the next morning, making jokes that were still funny after the Russian got through! Then it was time for half an hour of e-mail, but it was very difficult to make the connection, so I'm hoping this goes through! Next on the schedule was the chance to meet the 10th and 11th graders who are the main part of the collaboration. As we approached their classroom, someone stuck his head out the door and a general ruckus broke out. They were so excited! Our kids stopped in anxiety - it was so loud! But soon everyone had found friends; Carissa was watching a dance performance video, Kirill was surrounded by a group of girls, Olivia and Sydney were exchanging slang terms, and Grace and Donovan had a bunch of students hanging on every word. Grace was especially taken by the fact that here was an entire room full of kids who were delighted to smile and converse, no matter what it took to go between English and Russian. It took an effort to convince the students that it was time to leave, and only when our students understood that there were major exams the next two days were they willing to go to their rooms. The college is in four buildings, with roughly 550 students attending from all over Chukotka. It has four major sections: the high school group, a pedagogical department, a medical careers department, and other vocations. The high schoolers are preparing to go to university. The physician's assistants and nurses are on a four-year course of study. About three hundred of the students live here in the dorm. All the buildings are connected, so that there is no need to ever leave the building during fierce winter storms, except to go shopping or to throw out trash. The students themselves are the ones who do all the custodial work. We have seen students repainting and mending walls, and they do all their own cleaning. Our students are responsible for keeping the rooms dusted, the floors washed, and the kitchen and mirrors clean. It's even possible to get exercise here - though about eight of the kids went running this morning with Sue - there is a weight room, a treadmill room, and there are other cardio machines as well inside the building. Below it is the laundry - students hand over their clothes, sheets, and towels, and everything is washed, dried, and ironed for free! (That's true even for our kids!) It's a lovely facility. The plans are very dense for our time here. Today's schedule looks like this: 7:30 up, breakfast 'Till then, Michele Whaley (with Assistant Principal Sue Holway, Allison Walton, Sydney Treuer, Carissa Landes, Cynthia and Priscilla Apone, Grace Johnson, Donovan Lieb, Kirill Frusin, Megan Haller, Olivia Route, and Amber Vanderpool) Thursday, June 5, 2008 We've had our first real day of working on the project, and what a day it has been! First of all, the major holiday turned out to be Earth Day (as you all probably know) and we had a presentation by the Environmental Agency. It was mostly a chance to get acquainted with the flora and fauna of Chukotka, but the Russian team was sufficiently interested in the project that they asked some difficult questions that didn't get answered. After that, we returned to the media center where we work and Allie and Olivia finished their two-hour presentation of Deborah Williams' information, which Priscilla had started yesterday, and we were able to come to some good conclusions about how to go further. This morning, Sydney and Carissa took the lead on developing a plan for the next week and a half. Yesterday we had a meeting with Lubov Tayan, a Native Russian who is working on the same questions of climate change. She just attended a conference with northern peoples in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and reported on her survey of people in 19 different coastal villages. The story is the same as that we're hearing in Alaska. She wanted to urge the students of Chukotka College to take her survey home with her to ask people in their villages two major questions: has the climate changed in your lifetime, and if so, has it affected your lifestyle. Those questions were very familiar to our group! The only major question missing was, "What should teens be doing to combat the changes?" There are eight students working with our group officially, and then there are about six to twelve more who seem to be joining in. The eight are those who are in tenth grade this year. Others are from the eleventh grade, as far as I can tell, and they will be leaving for university next year. We have been having a very busy time here. I last wrote when your children had just been learning how to insert IV needles. Later that day, we were having a "meeting on instructional methods in language," which turned out to be tea with the English students! Later that night, no one played basketball, but they did go play frisbee in the rain. Yesterday, we had project work, a Russian lesson, then Native beading. We finished the beading today - or at least, we had to bid it goodbye. The only one to finish a project and have it be beautiful was Kirill! Maybe I shouldn't spoil the surprise... Now it's the next day, Friday, and we've had a very successful project discussion in Russian and English. The kids worked out their project name, the mission statement, the overall plan, and the conclusion. Later today we'll create a template for the pages of the PP that we're working on for the conference presentation. There's a lot to do in the next seven days! But everyone is getting more excited as we understand just how to work together. Kirill is turning out to have gems of ideas, as is the "other" dancer, named Larissa. Did I mention that we climbed "Camel" Mountain Wednesday? The kids all sprinted to the top. They are having the best time on strolls with the Russians. Yesterday Maksim showed up to go running with the group and was a bit disappointed to find only Sue. Today about seven Alaskans ran, and two Russians. Max is a big draw--very cute and outgoing, and he brought a friend. His teacher commented that he'll be very sore tomorrow, because he doesn't actually run! Last night all the kids went to hear a rock-group practice, and then came home and somehow fit about 18 kids into first one bedroom and then into the kitchen and onto the balcony. The teacher was worried that the Russians were bothering us. I am just delighted to hear all the Russian language going on and see the happy faces. I think I didn't mention that Allie and Kirill were on TV, or that Megan and Sydney played volleyball on the team that had the coach of Chukotka's No. 1 medalists. I also haven't mentioned that probably the biggest souvenir you'll see coming home is chocolate - there aren't many little gift items for sale around here, because we are the first visitors in a while, so tourist items don't fill the shelves. The main economy of Anadyr is the fact that this is the capital. There is some gravel mining, coal, as I've mentioned before, and there are processing plants here. The coal fires the electric plant. But there's not much else, and all the economy seems to be based on the enormous amounts of money that the revered governor is pouring into the region. Next time I'll try to write a more "gathered" letter, but for now, know that we are in sunny Anadyr, where we always have to convince kids to wear their coats. Michele Whaley Sunday, June 8, 2008 We're making headway on the project. The kids took Deborah Williams up on her offer of information and slide use, but they have also taken information from a lot of other sources. We had a presentation from the Chukotkan Deborah Williams, Lubov' Tayan, who answered a lot of questions that Deborah had raised when she talked with us about what's happening here. A lot of the Russians are concerned about the depression that villagers are seeing as they watch the climate change affect their entire way of life. The tundra here is burning; reindeer are ending up eating mushrooms because their lichens have disappeared. Fishermen are finding all sorts of parasites and worms in their catch, making it unfit for consumption, and new birds, fish, and animals of all sorts are appearing. We're back to our regular schedule again. We had a day off on Sunday, when it was as warm as we could want. Since snow had curtailed a trip to the tundra on Saturday, we were happy for the warmth as we toured the local wooden Russian cathedral - the biggest wooden church, made mostly without nails, in all of Russia. It is, like many other buildings here in Anadyr, simply unique. Saturday, the kids had a class in Native dance from an expert here. They had to learn new hand movements with the ballet positions. Luckily we have a couple of talented dancers in the group! The teacher commented that some of our kids learned the dance almost as well as his students who have been working all year. We took video, but I couldn't get it to upload. You'll get to see it once we're home again. We did post a number of pictures. Hope you've all had a chance to see those! We've been having some great food from our friends here. One day, the kids brought over "shproti," small smoked canned fish that Olivia said smelled like catfood but tasted really good! Another day, Larisa made borscht. The kids gathered around the bowl she'd brought and inhaled it. Yesterday, Nastya and Nadya brought blini, Russian crepes, with a milk-and-sugar concoction that resembled vanilla frosting, and wonderful jam that all the kids put into their tea. Today the Americans learned to make borscht, and I'm hoping I get a chance to try some. I had already had reindeer cutlets and cafeteria borscht. The vegetarians are having a difficult time, but they keep a good outlook, and luckily the supermarket is very well-supplied. Two nights ago, the Americans showed a movie in the school theater. Unfortunately it wasn't quite censored enough, so Ira threw on a copy of Romeo and Juliet. Last night, they all went off to the town movie theater to watch Narnia in Russian. It's wonderful to support the students as they get this project going. Both groups of kids are becoming passionate about the project and their commitment to continuing to educate their peers. They are smart and thoughtful, and it is a joy to spend time with them. It's great that we have fallen into such a luxurious situation here in Anadyr. We are living a charmed life. After our second work session today, we are off to the fish-processing plant! Then hope for us that the weather will be nice enough that we can do tie-dying outside on the almost-grass. Everything will be greening up in the next month, but for now, there are only some blades sticking up from the black clumps of earth, and the eight or ten trees in town are still bare. But there is more and more clear water out there, and lots of people are shedding their hats and gloves. Summer is here! Love to all, Tuesday, June 10, 2008 It's 8:40 and this computer lab closes at 9:00. Here's a fast note! The kids are mostly watching a movie about the war in St. Petersburg. Allie is sleeping, and Carissa is up in the room doing her ballet exercises. Today we had fresh fruit in the dorm for the first time! Yesterday, we had our first fresh cucumber salad. I went back for seconds. The birds are suddenly here all over, and the director tells us that probably one day this week all the ice in the lagoon will disappear. The little blades of grass I mentioned in the last letter are now cabbage-sized clumps, and I'm wishing I could be here in a month, when they say the water will be boiling with salmon. We got to tour the fish processing plant yesterday. It hires 100 people on top of the year-round 20 to process 800 tons of fish between mid-July and the end of August. One percent of the fish and (red) caviar stays in Anadyr; the rest goes all over Russia. Folks are very proud of their caviar here. The kids looked a bit dubious about trying it, but they'll have to during the next cooking class, when they will be making blini and tasting some caviar with it. (Generally, the group has very adventurous eaters, thank goodness!) Today we met the mayor. He started by pointing out that the major offender, as far as emissions and refusal to sign conventions, is the USA. He wanted to know why the kids were working on this project when their country is dragging its feet so much. The kids had great answers for him about their plans to communicate, and they pointed out that our mayor is far ahead of both the state level and the national level in addressing issues that affect climate change. We were with the mayor for an hour, during which time he gave us a nice history of Anadyr, which is celebrating its 120th birthday this year. He talked about the need for northern peoples to work together, as we are the ones who are seeing the greatest effects. There are two award-winning northern buildings here. One is the water reservoir, which has a frozen base so that it doesn't affect the permafrost, and one is the electric facility. All the buildings are built on pilings that are sunk 80 meters into the ground. Some of the old buildings had to be destroyed, because they were actually sinking into the permafrost. The new buildings look jaunty - in a variety of bright stripes, standing so that they face the southern sun most of the year. All around them crawl the pipes that take water into the city and sewage away. Now there is ongoing reconstruction of the pipes with plastic, because something in the water corrodes the pipes within three years. It's beautiful out there - the ice is bright against the blue sky, but the mountains are mostly brown with stripes of snow. Children are riding their bikes, and people seem to be out for strolls, rather than just for shopping. A bright pink Mary Kay car just went by - one of the teachers is a consultant, and she just told me yesterday that the main consultant here won a car! I guess it had to come on the barge. Lots more to tell you, but time is passing and we have to leave this room in five minutes. Best to all, Michele Whaley Friday, June 13, 2008 It's Friday, June 13, 2008, and we've just read that the UN has announced that there is "unequivocal" proof that global warming is a direct result of human action. That was one big cheer, and now there was another: all the recordings that Donovan made to put in the final pages of the project actually worked! Of course, these two minor victories came after the first one, which was that the electricity came back on only an hour into our work session. It's been a cold, stormy couple of days. On Wednesday, a dense fog covered everything. Thursday, it was so cold out that the kids spent very little time at the Independence Day ceremonies and dances. It rained hard all night, and this morning, there was finally no wind. What a relief! There have been no helicopters or airplanes the last two days, and I was hoping that the storm would break in time for our flight to take off. Also, it's a bit scary to consider crossing the lagoon in bad weather. We've been working very hard on the project, knowing that now there's only one day left for working. The media center where we work will be closed on Sunday. Amber and Artyom are going to present it to whoever wants to hear it tomorrow. Meanwhile, Carissa and Amber are going hard on the article, which will still need to be put into Russian, and Sydney and Megan are preparing the children's PowerPoint. But that too needs to be in Russian. Olivia, Allie, Kirill, Priscilla and Cynthia leaning over shoulders and helping with word choice or research or translation. (I'm leaving out a whole crowd of Russian kids' names.) We put some hours into the project every day, then have Russian and English lessons. Then there are various excursions and another afternoon work session. On Wednesday, we went to tour the art class, where the graduates presented their final art projects. They have been working on them since February, and they had to write 50-page documents about the projects! We have taken many pictures of the results, and now these young women will become designers and teachers of leatherwork and interior design. A new group will come in the fall, no more than eight having been accepted, and they will be the only ones in the program until their group graduates. I think that I mentioned that every year, the government of Chukotka gives the college a list of the specialties it will need in four years, and the college sets up programs for exactly those needs. Only the specified number of students can enter. After the art visit, we went off to the museum to see the exhibit that shows the connections between the native peoples and exploration of the north. It's somewhat jarring, as Amber says, to see all these displays that are identical to those in our museums in Anchorage right here! She mentioned that it's also strange to connect with people who look exactly like Alaska Natives, and yet they speak fluent Russian instead of English! Natalya said that all the fog came because of the ice breaking up in the lagoon. The ice hasn't done its promised one-day melt yet. I suspect we're going to miss that. We told the director that he was missing a great monetary opportunity by not setting up a tripod and letting people bet on the date and time the ice would go out! Everyone got to sleep late yesterday, because it was June 12, Russian Independence Day. Donovan and Sue got out earlier than the others, because there was a running race, and we'd heard that registration was at 9:30. There were mixed groups for a very short course, and I'm proud to say that both Donovan and Sue won their races! Both got cool t-shirts, and Donovan won a huge military backpack. We all went to hear the speeches and watch some wonderful dance and song performances. Allie broke down her vegetarian regime and had some shashlik, first time in five years she said. Then we came in to warm up with some lunch. The kids are loving the cafeteria ladies, who know them well enough to give Carissa a plate of just potatoes, and have loaned Kirill a knife and a saucepan for cooking in the kitchen. A planned campfire session was aborted because of the bad weather, so a group played volleyball instead. With Sue and Amber on one side, Gregorii Alexandrovich (the local player/coach of the number one volleyball team in Chukotka), Sydney, and Megan on the other, the game was fun to watch! (Part of the fun was seeing how Carissa did arabesques every time she hit a ball. No one would be able to miss the dancer in her!) As it was going on, Natalya took Olivia and Allie up to the very modern recording studio to record the song the group has been learning about Chukotka. Vadim, the recording studio manager, was able to cut and paste so that the kids' already fine voices sounded like professional artists! Random facts: Each adult here gets a "free" flight to somewhere in the west of Russia every other year, and each student gets one a year. Well, the news camera is here, so I must end this transmission and move along! Yours from Anadyr, hoping that you are all enjoying yourselves in an Alaskan summer half as much as we are here, Michele (and twelve others) |
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