Elin Ovesson

It is eight a clock in the morning and the alarm is ringing. This Thursday, as every Thursday for the last two months, I am going to one of my babushkas living in Perm.

After having breakfast I am doing some language studies. When arriving to Perm I did not speak any Russian, so during my time here I am also trying to learn the language. It is difficult to communicate, but by each visit I am able to understand and say a bit more than last time.

At 12 a clock I arrive to my babushka. She welcomes me at the door and we walk to the kitchen where she offers me tea. We drink tea together and I ask her what she wish me to do during this visit. Today I will clean the carpet and floor in the small room. After finishing the tea I begin the cleaning, my babushka stay in the kitchen preparing some chicken. After a while my babushka call for me from the kitchen, I walk over and she ask me to help her lit the oven. Usually she does this herself, but this time the oven is only half lit and since she almost lost her vision she asks for my help.

I finish the cleaning of the small room and walk back into the kitchen. She asks me to cut some boiled potatoes into small pieces and place them on a folded newspaper. When I finishes she pour some grain on the cut potatoes and asks me to place it on the balcony for the pigeons. I do so and we watch the pigeons eat for a short while and then roll some bandage which has been hanging to dry in the living room. Afterwards we return into the kitchen in order to prepare lunch. We have vegetable soup and noodles boiled with milk, before we eat she say a pray. We have some small conversations, I tell her I am going to Nizhny Novgorod in the end of next week, but I will visit her next Thursday as usual. When we have eaten I clean the dishes and then it is time for me to leave. We say goodbye in the hall, and she wave to me as I walk down the stairs.

I walk to one colleague living close by, where a second colleague accompany us. We buy the train tickets for my travel to Nizhny Novgorod and I receive some help to fill in the forms needed. I am going to Nizhny Novgorod for five days of arrival training, which is a part of my EVS. Later we go into the city where it this evening will be an information meeting about Memorial, international volunteering and work camps in Perm and abroad. When the meeting finishes I am tired after all the impressions of the day, and enjoy the fresh cold air while walking home.