EVS in Estonia

As the Olympic are finished now, and have left the place to the paralympic games, the athletes all over the world are going home. It was the occasion for us to see the Estonian champions coming back to Tallinn, hailed by the crowed, and thanked by the president, the sports minister, the maire of the city and other should-be-known-but-not-by-us-people.

Estonia finally brought back 2 medals, one in disc throwing, by the champion Gerd Kanter (that we had already met last year at the airport !) and a silver medal for Tonu Endrekson and Juri Jaanson in rowing. that puts Estonia at the 46th place, (just after latvia !) but at the same level as Portugal or Belgium… not so bad !

We were therefore very glad to see all this enthusiasm with our own eyes and also hear (again) the national estonian anthem being sung in the old town.

To celebrate the 90th anniversary of Estonia’s first independance, and the day of the fall of Soviet Russia in Estonia on the 20th of August 1991, a singing festival as estonians only have the secret took place in the singing festival ground.

We had had the priviledge of listening to the Laulupidu (”laulu”= song ; “pidu”= festival) last year with 18 500 singers. But this time, it was different in many ways : first, it was a night song festival (öölaulupidu) which reminded the gathering of thousands of people during the Singing Revolution and also gave it an incredible atmosphere with the lighting of the stage (see picture). Second, this event had a more political dimension, for all estonians in their 40’s and over remember coming there to protest against russian occupation, and with the events now happening in Georgia many georgian flags could be seen in the crowd among hundreds of blue-black and white estonian flags.

The songs were not only those of the Singing Revolution, but also more popular tunes which every one could sing to. More than 136 choirs performed at the same time with almost all the major artists of the country represented. The temptation was too big and as thousands of singers filled the singing arch, I found myself following them all, to see how it must feel to be up there in front of 1/10th of the country (as some figures said). You will be able to judge for yourself in the video, though the impression is not quite the same, but to sing the national anthem with all these estonians was quite something ! I joigned Amelie later on for the rest of the show (where you can hear much better) in company of a few estonian friends and a couple of volunteers.

This blog has been, since last year, a fabulous way, not only for us to tell about our adventures in Estonia, but also to create situations that only internet can make happened : a couple of months ago, we had received a message from some french scouts searching for a place to help a local community or parish, so we immediatly thought of Margus the pastor and his plans for building a place for seminars. There is enough work there until 2015 and four young people wanting to help is always welcomed ! We forgot about it and then one day Margus told us about the arrival of these scouts. They did some work for the church, but our friends from Jõelähtme are so welcoming and took them around to different concerts and places they had to see.

On the day we were supposed to go and help them, we found ourselves in just a few minutes, all 6 of us, all french people, on the island of Rammu, not knowing exactly how this happened. Being on an island with a bunch of scouts is really a pleasure : wood is picked in no time, doors which don’t open, open ! , and water is fetched from the weel (the latest being unquestionably their favourite chore).

Though we enjoyed some walks around our 3km long island and admired splendid views from old rusted soviet watch-towers, we wanted to do something usefull as well for the family which was letting us use their small summer house (and sauna !) by reinforcing the pier. It was in construction still and the main structure made with logs needed to be filled with granit boulders. We therefore carried more than a ton of rocks and consolidated the pontoon for the next who will come enjoy the island of Rammu…

Living far from your home country is usually having to get used being far from one’s family and friends. We must say that we have been quite priviledged on that part, for last year we have had up to 6 people from both our families come over as well as a couple of friends who made the trip all over to these northern lands.

This year, we were honoured to receive my uncle and cousin from France who have been faithfull readers of this blog and very good guests. It was a real pleasure to take them around and we must say we ate so very well during their stay. We had rented a car to show them around some of the more isolated places and for more comfort. We felt as kings enjoying a spa in Haapsalu, like Indiana Jones (some would say Tarzan) in the tree adventure park in Otepää, and finally like naturalists, strudying the plants and wetland lanscapes of North Estonia.

In just a few days, they made us feel at home, with nice conversations and laughs over card games late in the evening, but strangely we were like estonian hosts, proud to show our favourite spots.

During our small trip to Setumaa, we took advantage of being in this region to visit the sand caves of Piusa. These caves emerged as a result of manual mining of glass-sand between 1922 and 1966 and represent a system of underground galleries with sandstone columns and vaulted ceilings. The sand is still used for the glass factory just nearby. In the 1950’s thousands of hibernating bats were discovered in the caves, and they are now part of a natural reserve.

One of the two abandonned caves can be visited. That’s what we did, trying to understand as much as we could the guided tour in estonian.

Then, we walked around, fascinated by all the colours the sand can take from white to dark red. Jonathan even took a little of it for his sand collection.

Couple of weeks ago, we went to the very south-east of Estonia, in a place called Värska where lives a minority of a few thousand people (4 000 in Estonia, 3 000 in Russia). We chose this particular time of year because on the 2nd of August the Setu people elect their king. Actually, this king is the representative of the god Peko, which symbolises fertility.

The Setu people are said to be “half believers” but they should be called “double believers” for they are orthodox and also have their own divinities. They also have their own dialect which is closer to estonian than russian and they are famous for their songs dances and food. Their costum tells a bit their strory : they carry long necklaces and heavy silver plates (between 4 and 6 kilos) because the Setu people fled with all their richness and therefore made necklaces with rings, coins and melted all the rest. They have a strong oral tradition and hopefully some songs have been transcribed from an old lady called Hilana Taarka, the mother of Setu music. Though she was illiterate, she had memorized up to 30 000 verses of leelo songs (eight syllable verses to a repetitive simple tune).

We were able to discover this event with two other french people that we had met during one of our guiding tours in Tallinn, with whom we spent two days. There was lots of good food, we even participated in a cheese contest to elect the members of the court. That is when we met some people from our village which we learned had some Setu origins and authorized us to vote as well for the Setu king. After some songs in which each candidate was praised, people were invited to stand in a line in front of the person that they chose. Lembit Lennuk (his family name means “airplane” !!!) did not win but we didn’t mind, we were happy to see the other man parade on a horse with the Setu flag, followed by his “army”, a burlesque crowd of supporters in costum marching and taking their role seriously.