Volunteer's diary, day 2: "Good camp"

Volunteer's diary, part 1: "Hot, muddy and completely rough awaits you"

We arrived in Krymsk on Tuesday evening. Finding the camp is not difficult - the training ground, filled with tents of various sizes, is located right at the entrance to the city. In the morning, the Krymsk administration ordered the removal of volunteers from the city center . Now the EMCHE members, and free volunteers, and “nashi”, and Vodyanov’s, and activists of the “Lisa Alert” movement are all under one sky.

Our bus was met by a lively young woman, Natalya. “We have arrived at Vodianova’s camp,” the actors from the Moscow Art Theater School told her as they got off our bus. “Well, to Vodianova, then to Vodianova, go to her. The rest follow me,” Natasha commanded.

To put it mildly, actors were not welcome in Vodianova’s camp. The model herself was communicating with some woman (apparently the local coordinator, because she reported to her about the state of affairs). The young actors stood at a loss and did not understand where they should set up the tent. “What difference does it make to you where you live, with Natasha or in the Good Camp,” one of the fellow travelers returned to persuade the actors to join the others. “I will definitely live there, because all my friends from Occupy Abay and Occupy SK are there.” . (The action was held in Moscow near the building of the Investigative Committee). “Politics don’t matter here, we all came to work.”

“Natasha, is it true that all the volunteers were kicked out of the city, the camp is no longer there and now everyone lives together?” — I interrupted Vodianova’s conversation. "Seriously?" “Natasha made a surprised face, as if she was hearing about this for the first time. “Oh, I’ll explain everything now,” the woman whose story I had just interrupted began to fuss, “it’s just that the residents of Krymsk said that they were tired of seeing volunteer tents in the city center, and they would like to see the city as it was. It’s moral for them.” It’s pressing. That’s why everyone was moved here.”

As a result, we didn’t have enough space in Vodianova’s camp and we went to the so-called “Good Camp” to look for the rest of the volunteers who came with us.

"Oh, the Nashi tent!" - a short and very tanned young man turned to me as I began to unpack. “Why suddenly “nashi”?” - I ask. “Well, they all have tents like this,” the young man continued to prove my political affiliation. “This just means that we go to the same sports stores. There is no political subtext,” I fought off the old-timer of the camp. A boy, Zhenya, about ten years old, the son of one of the camp coordinators, helped us set up our homes. Zhenya fussed and told us with genuine indignation about his morning move. "The riot police woke us all up in the morning and kicked us out. Now we live here." Subsequently, it turned out that the riot police did not disperse anyone; they were only used to scare the volunteers in case they did not want to move.



After placement, we went to “registration” - a short procedure where one of the coordinators copied passport data and phone numbers. “I warn you right away, all disputes - “nashi”, Nazis, disputes on religious grounds - are outside the camp. They yelled there, held a rally, argued and went back to the table. Drink tea.”

We were briefly instructed on how to behave with local residents, what work to do and what safety precautions to follow. They promised to give vaccinations to everyone before the start of work. Showers are installed along the camp - covered with black polyethylene, with a water pump. One of the old-timers told me about the “secret shower” where you can wash yourself like a human being.

Usually at 8 am the camp gets up, at 9 am the work is distributed. One of the volunteers approached the table and said that the schedule for tomorrow was changing - at 8 am it would be necessary to dismantle the humanitarian aid warehouse and put everything away carefully. Otherwise, the sanitary and epidemiological station will recognize this as a dump and kick everyone out of here.

After a small feast to get to know each other, the volunteers disperse to their tents. I was given a new sleeping bag and towel. Somewhere a megaphone is heard: “If you want to go to Moscow, the bus leaves at two in the morning.” Overall I like it here. Let's see what happens in the morning.