Leaving the lovely flat at 7 am with 5 layers of jumpers, t-shirts and jackets I felt cold after one minute. Officially it was only -22 degrees, but in fact it was storm so it felt like -31. But Benni and Vika were also freezing so I was not the only one.
The trolleybus to the trainstation was extremely crowded, but in the end I feel used to it after using Dala Dala in Tanzania for a year.
Arrived at the railwaystation we are searching for the Marshrutka, a small bus that goes to Slutsk, a city 100 kilometer south of Minsk.
Lucky us: We found the Marshrutka directly and went in. Leaving at 8am I felt asleep as usual and woke up after 90 minutes in Slutsk (слуцк ) , where we had to wait in the Belarusian sunny heat 😀
Vikas Glasses became ice same like Bennis and my fingers, he because he had to call Nadja, the German Teacher that invited us to the school. I took some pictures of the sourrounding, some 5 floors blocks, a monument and some Ladas crossed us. Finally after 15 minutes, my feet were pure ice as the Marshrutka was not heated, the taxi came and we explained the driver where we want to go.
Our destination: Wasseja(Весея), a small village a few kilometers out of Slutsk. Arriving there, Nadja is waiting for us. The school looks like I expected a village school, all pupils greet us with „Guten Tag“. German is the only foreign language that is taught there and school is up to class 11. After kids are allowed to enter the university. First of all we sit in the old computer room, drink tea, eat sweets and chat. In every school there is the national symbol in every classroom. Nadja explains us that teachers can choose to which school they want to go after getting an offer from the government. She thinks that around 80% of the teachers in Belarus are women.
Now its time to go to the first class: 9th grade. We present ourselves, show some photos of our beautiful hometowns Regensburg (Benni), Lingen (Vika) and Tübingen(try to guess who…)
Afterwards we split the the class and I go with a small group to the German Cabinet. In between maps of the Country and books about German culture they ask me everything:If there is a war in Germany, whether I smoke or drink, what food I cook, why I like Belarus, why Rammstein is not famous in Germany. While asking them some told me that they love Tokio Hotel and want to live in Germany in the future. If the pupils didnt understand what i said the teacher translated.
After we had to take thousands of group pictures and go to Class 10, a really active class who didnt need the teacher to translate. Instead I had a boy who didnt say a word and two girls who used their vocabulary exercise books to ask me another 1000 of questions. Break, after 1,5 hours of talking about myself.
Most of the kids never had the chance to visit other countries or talk to a person from the country whose language they learn since many years. All of them live in Wasseja and the smaller villages around. Wasseja with its 1000 inhabitants is the a central village with pharmacy, church and several shops. There are 157 students and 25 teachers here. After the break kids wait outside the room and its once more time for pictures!
The last class we visit today is the 11th grade. First of all they give us a guided tour through the museum of the school. There old crafts and machines are shown, some documents of the school that turned 100 years in 2012 and some war utensilies, for example a orginial sowjet and a german helmet.
Than we meet in small groups, one girl is really good in German, she is even able to talk without questions they prepared before. Finished, after three lessons we say goodbye to the school and walk to the street that goes to Slutsk. The plan is to stop a car that takes us the 8 kilometers back to Slutsk. Five minutes later, a car is stopping bringing us back to the city where we take a bus in the city center. The bus is the same like in Minsk, including the old conductor lady.
Here some impressions of the village Wesseja:
In the city a museum just recently opened a week ago, we are the first foreigners there. Its a museum of the famous Slutsk Belt. Belts. These belts were produced from around 1750 until the middle of the 19th century from very expensive strings to very long and wide. These were sold to kings and queens or other aristocrats. One craftsman produced only 2-3 belts per year. But at around 1850 the production decreased as it became unpopular, especially in Russia. Since one week they produce belts with a modern machine Made in Germany.
After this interesting experience we go back in the sun for a small walk around the towncenter. The Sluch River is frozen, the church looks really pretty and in the back we can see some factories. Most of the building in the city are not as high as in Minsk, mostly they have around five floors here. After visiting the Leninmemorial and the memorial of the honorary men and women of Slutsk we say пока to Nadja who showed us the city.
In the Marshrutka back to Minsk we cross one of the hundreds of forests of Belarus and I fall asleep again, waking up when someone asks for Institut Culture. This is the sign: I am back in Minsk! But also here its not warmer…..
Beat of my Life 