Long, black train

We’re on the way to Ulan-Ude. Hooray, hooray!! So, now the heavy task of trying to chronicle the last few days… on Wednesday we visited a Russian jail – but apparently not a typical one. It was actually called a colony, and holds mostly criminals who used to be police. It was very open and airy – more like I would imagine a military camp to be. The prisoners slept in barracks with big picture windows. The establishment was self-sufficient – it has its own lumber yard, livestock, blacksmith, bakery, laundry, just about everything. They also manufacture boots for the militia.

After we were done at the prison, we drove down the street to wait on Yelena. Mark saw some special Russian ladies standing on a corner, and decided he needed a picture of them talking to the police (with my camera, no less). The police made a block, then came up behind Mark. At first, I was afraid he was going to get my camera confiscated, but then I was like, it’s Mark – the police will be out and posing with him in a minute. Sure enough…

Then, we went to a telecommunications firm – one of the first in Irkustk. He showed us their server rack, which was a little underwhelming since I’ve been in a server room at Pepsi, but it’s interesting to see a small business starting up over there.

After that, we killed a couple of hours walking around downtown and shopping for souvenirs, and ate pizza at Dominos – not that Dominos, but it was still pretty good.

We had our second Rotary meeting that night, the club where Natasha is President. Another 14 hour day, and I was exhausted.

On Thursday, we started out the day at a museum chronicling the history (and pre-history) of Irkutsk. Then, Mark, Bill and I went to the Great Baikal Trail Association and Ora and Tracy went to Marina’s school. The GBT is a really interesting project. Through volunteer work camps, they are building a 1,350 mile long trail around the lake. It’s very important that they create sustainable development, and also help the people living in the areas understand the benefits of the project. By bringing in more tourism, there will be an economic benefit to the residents. If you Google Great Baikal Trail, they have a website (sorry I can’t remember the URL).

The afternoon was spent at a Humanitarian Center and Library. There were a lot programs for children and many different areas in the library – a foreign language room, a research room, and a room dedicated to the benefactor, a gentleman who lives in Utah by the name of Polovoy. He has donated 10,000 books from his personal collection and isn’t done yet. He’s a native Russian and has family ties to Irkustk.

The third Irkustk Rotary club meeting was that evening at the library. We didn’t stay very late there because we were meeting the Warden and a guard from the prison out on his boat. The weather had improved, and we watched the sun set from the Angara. We also drove by a boat called the Angara. It was an ice breaking boat – the hull was strong enough that it would drive up on top of ice, plane out, fall down and break the ice. (It’s no longer in commission, but a local newspaper editorial staff uses it as an office.)

We started off the day with members from the last Rotary club that we’d seen the night before, and they showed us an area where they planned to plant 100 trees. They had planted 10 trees, but a car drove through the area and uprooted one. Lida drove us by an orphanage they support. They recently received a grant to build a new sport/play area. Children from the area who aren’t in the orphanage are even excited about it, as they’ll be able to play there as well.

We took a long drive out to a village and had lunch at a woman’s house. Then, a couple of hours to pack, dinner and off the train!!

I know this has been a pretty cursory explanation of the last three days, but once again it’s nearly midnight. As my friend Dayan pointed out before I even left, I might need a vacation to recover from my vacation!