Russian Scouts from Saratov

visit to Cheshire

The plans for a visit to Cheshire of Saratov scouts began to be hatched at Volga 2000, the Russian Jamboree held on the banks of the River Volga near Saratov in the South East of Russia at the beginning of August 2000.

In January 2002 I met up with our Russian Scouting friends again in Saratov to discuss their plans which were making slow progress. They were hoping to travel by road and to bring a contingent of 50 scouts.

I kept in touch with them by E-mail and in May received confirmation that they were coming. They were now going to travel by air and there would still be 50 in the contingent. However they did request help with paying their camp fees and I agreed to continue fund raising to help with this. The month of June came and went and despite my requests for details of the contingent I heard nothing. Nothing unusual in this for those of us used to dealing with the Russians!

On the 1^st of July I eventually received the names and personal details of all the contingent members, at last I could complete the "Official Invitation" needed by them to obtain their visas. The invitation was to be faxed to Olga Goncharova (Head of Administration at Volga 2000, now working for local government in Saratov). For three days I tried to send the fax but without any success, - someone kept answering the phone! In frustration I managed to get Andrey Yakunin to go to the office and await my call - and to instruct the girl in the office not to answer the phone. At last the fax got through!

The arrangements were that Semeniouk Viatcheslav (Slava to us) would go to the British Embassy in Moscow armed with the invitation and passports to apply for visas for the contingent. Unfortunately he was not able to go to Moscow immediately and arrived there with only one week to go before their departure. Panic set in when he was told it would not be possible to process 47 visas in less than 10 days. - There flight was booked for 25^th July, only 7 days away, and what’ s more today was a Friday! - That morning I was making my way to work, ploughing through the traffic of the busy M6 when my phone rang. It was a plea for help from Slava in Moscow. Could I please ring the British Embassy and plead with them to process his visa application in time to catch their flight. Any delay would prevent them from coming to Cheshire as there were no more flights available for such a large party for the next week which would mean they would miss Chamboree. Telephone calls to the British Embassy in Moscow on the next three consecutive days succeeded in the visas being ready just in time. Slava was able to collect all 47 visas on the morning of his flight to London. - I hope he has learnt his lesson and next time will allow more time!

Meanwhile the contingent was travelling from Saratov to Moscow by coach, an 18-hour journey on roads inconsiderate to the comfort of coach travellers. On arrival in Moscow they met Slava, now bearing a smile and 47 new visas! Alas one young scout decided that he did not want to continue the journey to Britain and arrangements were made for him to be collected from Moscow by his family, causing yet more delay for the party. Eventually 46 Russian scouts and leaders left Moscow and arrived at London Heathrow at 10.30pm.

I had arranged a coach from Crewe and they were met at Heathrow airport by daughter Joanne, Russian friend Andrey and two other leaders, Jan and Des Scott who escorted our weary travellers to the Chamboree site arriving at 3.o’clock in the morning. South West Cheshire District catering team were up to greet them with a smile, a bacon butty and a cup of tea. They slept the rest of the night in a marquee and the next day set up their camp.

Cheshire Adult Training team provided all their camping equipment and several brand new sleeping bags were donated to them, as were 50 sets of melamine plates, bowls and mugs and 50 sets of cutlery. All they brought with them was their food! Consisting mainly of a few tins of meat and about half a hundredweight each of rice, pasta and porridge. On-site they bought 5lbs of potatoes and 5lbs of carrots that lasted them all week! Other campers donated food to them and they were very popular. Everyone wanted to meet them. They were a happy bunch.

Included in their group were a cameraman and young lady reporter from the Saratov Regional TV Company who were there to produce a film/documentary of their visit to the UK and Chamboree. Very few people avoided the attention of this team and enjoyed a few minutes of fame on Russian TV. A copy of the finished film has been promised to us but has not yet been received.

Chamboree opened with three days of glorious hot weather but our friends soon received an introduction to British weather when the heat wave was followed by three days of torrential rain which turned their site into a flood plane, necessitating the digging of several ditches around their tents and across their site. Eventually we had to move their tents to higher ground to avoid the water. Despite all the discomfort of the bad weather everyone was of good spirit and enjoyed themselves.

After the camp they received Home Hospitality in the Crewe area of Cheshire organised by South West Cheshire District. It was no easy task to find 25 families willing to take these unknown Russian travellers into their homes but this was achieved successfully. They spent four nights in Crewe where they had a full programme offered to them that included

• Shopping visits to local towns
• Free admission to the local council amenities such as swimming, tennis and boating on the park lake.
• A Civic Reception was held in the Mayors Parlour where they took turns in wearing the mayor’ s chain of office and sitting in the council chairman’ s chair.
• Some had a ride in the mayoral car, a Bentley of course.
• Following this they visited Crewe’ s Edwardian Theatre, the Lyceum, where they performed one of their songs on stage.
• A day-trip to Blackpool was organised and funded by the District that finished with a fish and chip supper in one of Blackpool’ s large fish and chip restaurants.
• A barbecue was organised at S. W. Cheshire’ s District Campsite Mill Dale to which all the host families and the mayor were invited. This caused more trying on of the mayor’ s chain and sitting in his Rolls Royce.

Because of the large size of the Russian party they had difficulty finding a flight home. Their original plan was to leave the UK on the 8^th or 9^th of August but unfortunately the only available flight was on the 14^th. They also wanted to see London before they left. Unfortunately it was not possible to change the arrangements for the four nights Home Hospitality as most of the host families were going off on holiday themselves. The amended plan meant that they spent a further 3 days camping at Mill Dale during which further activities were organised including a day at Chester, with a visit to McDonalds of course.

With the help of Bill Turnbull and Jean Carter from the Network Russia Scout Fellowship I had arranged 3 days indoor accommodation for them at Scout Park Activity Centre in London and so on Sunday 11^th August, after their 3 day camp at Mill Dale, loaded up with gifts and tears running down their faces, they left by coach for London.

From the small amount of correspondence we have received from them they spent their time in London visiting all the usual tourist attractions, including the British Museum, St. Paul’ s Cathedral, The Bank of England, The Science Museum, Tower Bridge and Buckingham Palace to name but a few.

They left Scout Park at 5.00am on the 14^th August and travelled by Underground train to Heathrow airport where they had a safe journey back to Moscow. Here they were held up for several hours whilst a lost bag was recovered, delaying their coach journey back to Saratov.

Everyone in Saratov knew that they had arrived home safely when they saw the party appear on the TV News that evening.

Thank you Cheshire for giving the scouts from Saratov a fabulous time. My thanks also to Bill Turnbull and Jean Carter from Network Russia Scout Fellowship and to the people at Scout Park for all their help in giving our Scouting friends an opportunity to visit London.

networkrussia.org.ukwww

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