Digenis.org

In the summer of 2003 I had the great pleasure of travelling around Lake Baikal with some students from my university. I’ve mentioned before how much I loved seeing a part of Russia so completely different from Moscow.

Well, this week on the SEELANGS listserv an interesting opportunity was posted by the Great Baikal Trail Association. I’m reposting it here because I think some people may be interested in this great chance to work in a beautiful area of Russia and improve your Russian language skills at the same time. Here it is:

To Whom It May Concern:

My name is Brendan Luecke and I’m writing on behalf of the Great Baikal Trail Association (http://baikal.eastsib.ru/gbt/index_en.html ), a Siberian NGO working with environmental issues, economic development, and community development in the Lake Baikal region. At GBT we are building a hiking trail for the promotion of ecotourism around Lake Baikal, the world’s oldest, deepest, and cleanest lake. Our organization uses only volunteer labor for trail construction, and currently we are looking for ways to expand our volunteer base to meet the rapidly growing demand for trail expansion. We’ve doubled our operations every year since we began work three years ago and are already bringing in over 500 volunteer for work this summer (130 foreigners).

This is an excellent opportunity for Russian language students not only to contribute to a good cause, but also gain intensive language practice in a friendly and interesting setting. I myself, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin Russian language program and former Fulbright scholar in Russian environmental policy, first directly applied my classroom language skills through a similar program on Baikal. It’s a fun and affordable way to travel and learn!

Please distribute this notice to interested students, or if applicable, post it in a visible place in your department. We are still accepting participants for some 2005 summer programs. Interested parties should contact Natalya Luzhkova at: volunteers_gbt(AT)mail.ru or may also contact me at bjluecke(AT)hotmail.com. Thank you for your time and attention, and we hope to see you this summer on Baikal!

The site has a list of their current projects in Russian and English.