Sergei with his English class. Sergei and some of his pupils who prepared a tour of Rogachov for me in English. They are all very proud of their heritage and the history of their town.
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Sergei with his English class. Sergei and some of his pupils who prepared a tour of Rogachov for me in English. They are all very proud of their heritage and the history of their town. |
Arriving in Minsk (summer 2004), I was met by Sergei, my friend, host and translator when I got a bit stuck! His car, a Lada, would never be allowed on English roads. A huge crack across the windscreen, an exhaust fixed with a cola can and goodness knows what else rattling around in it, it was very much like travelling in a baked bean tin! But to have a car at all in Belarus is something of a status symbol. This is evident as soon as you see the main roads of the country, which are pretty much deserted. I certainly was not going to be seeing queues similar to those on the M25 that I had seen at the beginning of my journey! We got to Sergei's home in Rogachov twenty-eight hours after I left Cambridge…!
The block of flats where Sergei lives with his family is probably the nicest in town. From the outside, the building looks run down and almost beyond habitation. However, inside Sergei's flat, a huge effort has been made to create a good environment, mostly for the benefit of Sergei and Angela's daughter, Lera. Obviously a little worse for wear, I was asked whether I would like to wash before going out to meet families in the evening. The family is very proud to have running water when there are few homes in the town with this facility. It is not hot, in fact far from it! But it does work, most of the time!
The amazing thing that is so prevalent in Belarus is the importance that is placed in the welfare of children, for the most part. There is a very high level of alcoholism and resultant child abuse, but this is not the overall stance of the community and the punishments for such things are harsh (rightfully so, in my mind), especially when the social aspect in the villages is considered. In most of the houses that I visited, despite the families having minimal resources, everything was given with preference to the children. Food, clothes and blankets would be given to the children with parents and grandparents feeding and clothing themselves with bare necessities. Books were somehow obtained by most families.
For Sergei and Angela, Lera is their first priority. They moved away from their home, jobs and families in a village in order to reduce her exposure to radiation and improve her schooling. Lera is extremely bright and Sergei and Angela both work amazingly hard to provide the best possible for her. Considering all this, I often expect her to be a spoilt brat, but every time I meet her, I am surprised at how far from this she is! The family and social values in Belarus do not seem to foster this type of attitude in children.
Sergei is an English teacher and works in the local equivalent of a grammar school, into which I was very much welcomed! Angela, despite being a qualified and brilliant history teacher, earns more than Sergei by working on the meat counter in the market of the town. Despite this, the children of the area still dream of having a further education, although the necessity of work and supporting their families will curtail this for most of them. This is something that in the future I hope to be able to support through scholarships and such like. I feel that by improving the education and giving the children a tool for life, they will be able to make better lives for themselves without receiving what they may perceive to be 'charity'. The pride of these people should never be insulted in that way.