I’m not doing too well at keeping up with my travels here, but I think I have an excuse–I’ve been busy! I’m now in Indonesia, but I’m going to do my best to finish what I wanted to say about Russia and catch up to where I am, so here goes….
I’m glad that I did not go to Russia earlier in the year–it was cold enough in May. I’m not used to being cold. When I first arrived and got picked up at the airport, I was so hot from having my jacket on inside the airport that I opened the window on the minibus and felt fine with just short sleeves. I could see some snow melting back in the woods underneath the trees, but it was a beautiful day.
The next morning, when I had to walk across the camp to the cafeteria, it was very cold! I had not yet received the cold weather gear they provided for me on site & only had the light jacket I brought with me. With the wind blowing and no protection, in about 3 minutes my ears were burning (from the cold). I made it to the cafeteria and began to thaw out. Then it was just a short bus ride to the job site. On site, they provided me with some very good cold weather gear. As a matter of fact, the winter jacket was so good, that about two minutes after putting it on, you start to get hot if you’re still inside. Once I got the jacket on, and the safety harness on top (required because the tank is still under construction–I never had to actually use it), I was anxious to get outside where it was cool.
I’m disappointed to say that I didn’t really have a chance to experience much of Russia on this trip, since I lived in the camp and worked on the job site, but maybe I’ll have another opportunity in the future. It was a nice brief introduction. I did get outside the environment in a way that I didn’t expect on my return trip, which I’ll describe below. My involvement with native Russians on this part of the trip was limited to interactions with the security guards going in and out of the camp and in and out of the job site, with the staff at the cafeteria, and with the staff at the airport, and the drivers who took us around to the various places. It was very interesting–these are the most serious security guards I have ever met.
It seems that a very large part of the work force on the site is made up of Filipinos. This is not new–on most of the large oil & gas sites around the world, many of the workers are from the Philippines. In the bathroom, the sign on the wall is written in Russian, English, and Filipino (I guess Tagalog, but I’m not sure). My father tells me that the Filipinos are known around the world as a very desirable workforce–well educated, and with a good work ethic. Unfortunately for them, there are not a lot of jobs in the Philippines.
On site, I worked directly with the Japanese engineering company that contracted our services. My coworker was from Holland. We all spoke in English.
I won’t describe more of the work at this point, except to say that we got the job done. I’ve included this one photo of me on the tank. On this particular day, it was just barely cool enough to wear this jacket, but you don’t know before you go up on the tank what the conditions will be like at the top. An otherwise very nice day can be quite cold if the wind is strong at the top of the tank!