[Dialogue] FW: greetings from the North Caucasus

[Ann Shafer]

My niece is completing a summer working with the International Rescue
Committee in the Northern Caucasus which includes Chechnya, Ingushetia,
North Osetia. She has been doing all kinds of things including facilitating
town meeting type gatherings. I thought you all might be interested. Ann
Shafer, Fredericksburg, Texas

 

  _____  

From: Caroline Nichols [mailto:caroline.nichols at gmail.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, August 02, 2006 1:39 PM
To: ahollars at ucla.edu; Alexis A. Martin; Ali Jian; Allison Lewis; Ambria
Archibald; Amit Primor; Ann Shafer; aruydz at aol.com; Avé Luke-Simpson; Betty
Nichols; blehman at cfr.org; Bryan Nicholson; Caroline Duncan Bradshaw;
Cheyanne Church; Christie; christopher papp; Cristina Santiestevan;
dustinfriedman at aol.com; Elizabeth Beresford; Elizabeth McNamara;
fedtrigo at yahoo.com; James Mirabello; Jennifer Zanowiak; Jessy Wojtkiewicz;
John Powell; John Lawerence; Kathryn Musar; Louis-Alexandre Berg;
lpappalardi at comcast.net; Mark Shirk; martin.alexis at gmail.com; Megan McKeown;
Meghan MacBain; Michele Carter; Mwcman Fredericksburg; Natalie Rodic;
nifty304 at aol.com; Nisma Nadia Zaman; nmanson at fdta-valles.org;
oglesbyj at gmail.com; Ozsel Beleli; Paul Everson; Pamela Hershey;
paulineshams at hotmail.com; paulineshams at yahoo.com; pshamsmei at hotmail.com;
Rachel Nadelman; rebecca murray; Rosa Tesfai; Sarah Briggs; sarah chardo;
Sarah Gray; Sarah Marusek; Sharon Otterman; Taly Lind; Susan LACEY; Tamara
Shahabian; tania hary; Tim Werner; tjane_1998 at yahoo.com
Subject: greetings from the North Caucasus

 

Friends,

 

I have just a day left here in the Northern Caucasus.  There has been so
much to learn, see and experience and after two months I know I'm just now
peering below the surface, but if you'll indulge me, I wanted to share a
bit. 

 

For those that I haven't been in touch with (sorry!), I am in southern
Russia, specifically the republics west of Chechnya interning for the
International Rescue Committee (IRC).   I've been working with two pilot
Civil Society programs, spanning four republics (Chechnya, Dagestan,
Ingushetia and North Ossetia), although our right to work in one of them is
being legally challenged.   One focuses on bringing communities together to
complete small projects, such as a sports plishatka (like an outdoor sports
center) or replacing 1km of water pipe.   We do this in collaboration with
four local NGO partners who work to mobilize communities around community
problems, elect a committee to plan, budget and implement the project.   We
are working with 16 communities across Chechnya, Ingushetia and North
Ossetia.  We actually just completed a training (that I designed!) for our
NGO partners on public relations and promoting their work – and in case you
are curious, co-facilitating in a language you don't know is a real
challenge – but we gave them a pre- and a post- training test of their
public relations knowledge and they took away exactly what we hoped they
would from the training.   As always, there is more to it of course, but
that's the nutshell.  The other program, which is really just now getting on
its feet, is a civil empowerment program designed to help local NGOs
strengthen their organizational capacity.   When I first arrived we sent out
a call for partners, following an extensive regional NGO capacity assessment
– we assessed the organization capacity of 60 NGOs across the four republics
(guess who got to write the bulk of the report!).   Some 40 or so NGOs
applied, 14 were selected.  The field staff has almost completed an in-dept
SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis of the partner
organizations so we can work with them to design the capacity building plans
and start trainings.  The first training is actually set for August, so
we've been collecting bids from trainers (as you may imagine, our choices
are a bit limited here!).    

 

Many of you have asked about our safety - security is a huge concern here,
and we have the tightest security protocol of any NGO here.   The dangers
here are largely invisible to me given my lack of language (although I can
now tell the difference between Chechen and Ingush languages) and oh, the
two men with Kalashnikovs who escort me into a store one block, in plain
view of the Nazran office (Ingushetia), even when I go with national staff
to get water.  Here is where we have a choice – this is a dangerous place,
and in some ways worsening.   I could tell you the terrible things that
happen here – but I'd rather talk about how Grozny is rebuilding, how my
favorite driver one day asked for my hand so he could let a ladybug crawl
over   - and how the guard then let me sign back into the compound with my
left hand as to not disturb the insect.  For sure, these have been amazing
times here – the death of the most famous Chechen warlord, the G8 summit.
As one would expect, tanks, personnel convoys, helicopters, soldiers
patrolling the roads are the norm, although there were much more of all of
the above during the G8 summit.   In the past month they finished cutting
down all the trees along the main road from Beslan (North Ossetia) to Nazran
(Ingushetia) for better visibility and they are now planting landmines along
some roads to keep bad guys at bay – the conflict between North Ossetia and
Ingushetia is intensifying.  There is also the big whole in the ground down
the street from the office where the market was blown up last summer - they
are rebuilding it, but it is still obvious.  So, I am easily and often
reminded that I wouldn't survive here long on my own, which is a slippery
thing to wrestle with, at least for me.  I was in Chechnya in June and again
this week, and for all the talk of listening to one's gut, my instincts feel
tell me that it is safer there, although I did sleep with an eye open the
first time.   

 

Speaking of Chechnya, perhaps the reason I've dragged my feel on this email
for a good month now is that I don't feel quite qualified to describe the
place – and most descriptions I come up with seem cliché.   I'm just in awe,
both of the destruction (the Dresden comparison seems absolutely accurate)
AND the reconstruction.  In the outlying areas of Grozny and Chechnya (to
the west) the reconstruction is all the more remarkable because it's all
individual efforts.  Imagine a four- story apartment building that is
completely bombed out - almost more reinforcing rods exposed then concrete,
weeds and tall grass as high as me, and there is window in the middle with
white plastered edges with laundry hanging out – children's tights.  There
are makeshift markets along the main road to  Grozny from Nazran, with
inflatable baby pools (hmmm...I know we didn't have running water in our
office so I wasn't sure what to make of this), fruits, veggies and crafts.
The market is now the main source of revenue for most families – and it's
the women who are the prime breadwinners.   Traveling within the republic is
still difficult for men, and the only real job opportunities for them are in
construction, which is, of course, seasonal.   The bombing stopped in
earnest I am told last summer, so people have finally started coming out and
rebuilding this spring.  From what IDPs themselves tell me, the majority
have gone home – atleast in Ingushetia.   Naturally, the stories of forced
migration are not all off, but there are those who prefer to remain in the
'settlements' as they are now referred.  I could talk about this all day –
but it is just a portion of the story.  Ok, I will add that I've never been
to a place outside of my own country that reminded me so much of home if you
can imagine.   People are so friendly, and the landscapes are breathtakingly
beautiful – the grasses smell like home and I fell asleep to quiet broken
only by locus chirping.   We were woken up by a different but more
satisfying sound - reconstruction.     

 

Our days begin in Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia.  "Vladi" is fsb and mafia
central.  We watched world cup in a little cafe/bar where we can sit
outside, and its a place to be seen, with bmws, Mercedes and other fancy
cars, drivers and guards in the parking lot, and guys with beautiful women,
tribal arm tattoos (remember that fad?  it's very much alive here) and other
accoutrements.  It makes my skin crawl.  Each of these republics are so
different.  In Vladi women wear next to nothing, literally and I really
don't feel like people are friendly and our presence is a reminder of the
terrible things things that they try not to acknowledge – I could be wrong
of course, I don't speak their language.  Nazran, where our Ingushetia
office is located, on the other hand, is a dusty village trying to be the
capital of a republic with an identity issue.  The key word in all three
places is control, but it manifests itself in different ways.  In North
Ossetia (NO) we have been kicked out of one community where we work (the fsb
showed up at one of our meetings and shut us down) and cannot work until
further notice.  In Ingushetia, Islam is strong, so the control there seems
to be on the civil liberties end; for instance, brides must wear only the
traditional Ingush wedding gown.  I have a friend who was just engaged when
the law was announced so she planned her wedding in three weeks so she could
wear a European gown.  Kids in Ingushetia learn Russian, Ingush, and then
English, French or Arabic, although the Arabic is endearingly not correct -
we're talking basic things incorrect, such as the alphabet.  It's actually
the Persian alphabet on the wall, and the 'b' is labeled 'noon' and vice
verse.  There is a poster of the dome of the rock and Mecca on the wall most
in village schools.  But the village I was in this week has 20 computers
(with flat screens!) connected satellite internet!  

 

There is much more to say, to share and look back and figure out about this
experience.  As I said, I need another month here – but alas.   And don't
think we're all work all the time.  One of the things I didn't expect,
probably should have, was to make strong connections and friendships.   A
lesson I've learned here is that we are all ramashkas – daisies – and all of
these experiences we have are maybe just one petal of the flower.   We talk
about the war almost every day, but it's not the sum of who most people I
know are, if that makes sense.  Eliza, who runs our cafeteria, always makes
chicken for me, even on the fish days(I'm one lucky gal), because she knows
that my friend and I will go and feed a street kitten with it.   We talk
about what we want to do when we grow up, different traditions as well as
about every other topic under the sun.  

 

So, on that note, adecure, paka, spakona noche and scleschiva.   Thanks for
the support and for sharing this experience with me.  

 

Caroline 

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