A group of 30 Tallinn high school students spent the summer of 2007 in Beregovoye on a working holiday providing labor assistance to descendants of Estonians who settled by the Black Sea in the south-west region of Crimea 146 years ago. These young people had to work in somewhat extreme circumstances as daytime temperatures hovered constantly around 40 C during their stay. However, this did not deter them from the task at hand. According to their leaders, they faithfully cut brush overgrowth, sawed logs, harvested tomatoes, tended fields and repaired agricultural implements. On days off, they visited tourist sites including Eupatoria, Sevastopol, Yalta and various caves on the Crimean peninsula. The students found their lack of familiarity with the Russian language to be somewhat of a hindrance; however, by combining bits of various other languages they had studied at school, they managed to converse with the locals.

Several of these students had taken part in the same type of event in past summers, leaving Crimeans with a very good impression of their professional attitude. Thus this year’s reception of the Estonian visitors was again excellent, as previously, especially as copious amounts of work were assiduously accomplished by the dedicated Estonian youth.

Article translated and reprinted, with permission, from the Toronto Estonian newspaper Eesti Elu, August 31, 2007. Photo credits: Martha Munz Gue

Helgi Leesment