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AIDVENTURE RUSSIA 2004
20th February to 8th March: VSEVELORSK ORPHANAGE
This was a combined trip with World 4x4 Adventures, mixing humanitarian aid work with off-roading around Lake Lagoda, to the north east of St. Petersburg.
Four crews went on this trip, all in 4x4s, three continuing to Ladoga, while the other remained at the orphanage to purchase supplies and undertake renovation work.
We left Newcastle on 20th February and went by DFDS Seaways overnight via Norway to Gothenburg, Sweden, where we had a long drive across the country to reach Stockholm to catch our ferry to Finland, staying overnight in a hostel.
Another overnight ferry took us to Helsinki and we drove on very icy roads to the Russian border. It took about two hours to clear customs as they wanted to search our first aid kits for some strange reason. At this point a strip of my high blood pressure tablets went missing.
After a long tiring drive in freezing conditions with windscreens icing up, we eventually reached Vsevelorsk and, after a typical Russian greeting, settled down in our rooms for the night.
All of us were up early the next morning, as we had to go to St. Petersburg to pay for our 'immigration stamp' and we enjoyed porridge, along with salami on bread and black sugared tea in the canteen. After a brisk walk to the station, we caught the commuter train into St. Petersburg, then changed to the Metro to get to our destination. The rest of the day was taken up sightseeing, before returning to the orphanage in the evening.
On the Wednesday, we all went in convoy to see another orphanage which was in need of considerable work when seen last year. Since then it had been subject to a large input of cash and was in better condition than the one we had just left. A group decision was made to concentrate on the one in Vsevelorsk.
On our return, we unloaded three of the vehicles and went to the local supermarket to buy the things they needed (with the help of Julia as translator), such as clothes, cleaning material and sanitary towels for the girls.
During the following morning, the off-roaders left us to head off towards Lagoda and the remaining team of three drew some more money out of the cashpoint (We had decided not to take loads of 'aid' into the country as it is difficult to get it through customs (without paying import duty) and most of the items needed are available cheaper locally, so money was raised and deposited in a bank account before we went). It was the turn of the Infirmary to benefit on Thursday, so we ended up at the chemists and the hospital (where I also replaced my missing tablets) to purchase the necessary blood pressure equipment, syringes, etc.
After lunch, it was a visit to the village's 'Arkright' type store to buy pots and pans for the Domestic Science room and the canteen.
We were shown the shower room and asked if they had stopped using it in respect of the death of Stalin back in 1953!, but apparently it was still used each weekend. As the condition of it was dire to say the least, we decided to make it one of our projects.
Friday morning saw the three aidworkers starting to clear the changing room of years of rubbish and started to scrape some of the dirt off the walls. It was found that the Russian equivalent of 'Vim' was the best, although hard work. A trip to the local hardware shop (which we nicknamed B&Qski!) was called for and with the assistance of a girl called Natasha, we managed to come away with emulsion paint, floor paint, shower units, more 'Vim', light units, etc.
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