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EESTI ELU reedel, 4. veebruaril 2022 — Friday, February 4, 2022
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Ööbik sings throughout pandemic “I love to sing in Ööbik because of the bonding I feel with my friends and the improved way I hear music, and because singing lowers stress and contributes to my overall mental and emotional well being.” says Mailis. This global pandemic has not dampened T.E.A.S. Ööbik choir singers’ enthusiasm. In March 2020 when it became clear that singing at Tartu College every week was not going to be pos sible, the choir switched to vir tual practices and has continued to practice regularly throughout 2020 and 2021. It took some trial and error to create an effec tive and workable virtual program, and it quickly became clear that singing together, out loud and in real time, was not going to work. We shared much laughter with these early at tempts: an out of sync caco phony of singers! Instead, we muted ourselves and sang along with pre-recorded songs that we had been working on. What worked well in this virtual envi ronment were our body and our vocal exercises. Following the lead of our conductor Roosi Lindau, we stretched our bodies, practiced breathing improvement tech niques, and kept our vocal cords limber with fun and varied singing exercises. Mem bers appreciated the opportunity to sing in any manner no matter the mode: “Personally, I always feel much more lighthearted and uplifted from seeing and singing with choir members. Covid 19 has imposed a devas tating isolation on all of us for nearly two years and the fact that Ööbik has helped us main tain contact with live music and other singers has been a won derful boon to our sanity” says Maret. “And without the pres sure of performances, we have greater freedom to experiment with new and different ma terials.” In September 2021, we had the opportunity to sing in per son again, initially outside. What a joy to see and talk with members, mask to mask! Some
of our rehearsals were held on the picturesque Brickworks property where passersby gave us nods of approval and applause. When the evenings got dark and cold, we moved inside our home at Tartu Col lege. Protocols were in place for safety (vaccinations, masks, dis tancing, modified agenda) for singers who wanted to partici pate in person, while others participated virtually with the ability to not just watch/hear our conductor, but to also hear the choir singing in the hall. Notably, our voices improved quickly and it was energizing to learn new songs together in this familiar way. Roosi applauds that “our juhatus, enthusiasti cally led by Maris-Ann, has been a tremendous support – coming up with innovative ideas and having such a “can-do” attitude, while following COVID protocols. The singers were al ways ready to try new ideas and with their feedback we were able to make our rehearsals successful and fun!” The new year of 2022 has sent us back to our screens as we await the next phase of safer socialization. New ideas are planned for virtual practices and we are encouraged by our members to keep our efforts to sing our way out of the pan demic. Kaarina notes that “the virtual rehearsals have been a wonderful way of keeping us connected and our spirits and our voices limber. Singers who chose to continue with virtual when in-person returned for a season, what a gift it was to hear our colleagues’ voices and their progress, and to appre ciate how incredibly flexible and inspiring our conductor, Roosi Lindau, has been through out the pandemic.” We hope it won’t be too long before we can all gather at Ööbik’s next Simmaree perfor mance where we can meet each other again and sing together in strong and enthusiastic voices. Date: January 2022 Contact: Maris-Ann Vanaselja
ESTONIAN LIFE
Your source of news about Estonia and Estonians, home and abroad
Review: Douglas Wells’ In Search of the Elusive Peace Corps Moment – Destination: Estonia Vincent Teetsov In many a young person’s journey, there is a time, even if only fleeting, when one imagines travelling around the world and getting to know the planet we live on. This is made more enticing by the prospect of earning some money, or the ability to make a positive change in our troubled world. A year into university, I con templated a few options for once I graduated: joining Maersk Line as a Deck Cadet, starting a rock band in Berlin, teaching English in China, or joining the Peace Corps operated by the United States govern ment. I had a few applications lined up and ready to send, and had considered Paraguay as the place I would go, should I be accepted into the latter. Looking back now, I can see that another direction in life was meant to be instead of those ideas; and I would even question whether my heart was in the right place at that time. However, I am still curious, what rewards do people find in volunteering overseas, in “work ing side by side with local leaders to tackle the most pressing challenges of our generation,” as the Peace Corps describes its purpose? One answer to this question comes from American author Douglas Wells’ 2001 biographi cal book, In Search of the Elusive Peace Corps Moment – Destination: Estonia. In the year 1991, Wells, who grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, came to a newly independent Estonia as part of an assign ment with the Peace Corps. He felt a similar youthful desire to depart from routine, and so, he went somewhere unfamiliar; somewhere further away from and smaller than his hometown. Even Omaha’s population as of 1990 was over 37 times larger than the current total population of the entire island of Hiiumaa.
But Wells got more than he bargained for. Among many anecdotes, we learn about his overall assignment to work at a local tourist info centre, assist ing in restoring Hiiumaa’s economy after decades of isola tion from the rest of the world, and the rest of Estonia for that matter. His day-to-day stories follow his learning about Estonians and Estonia with hilarious outsider detail. One of my fa vourite points in this book was Wells’ description of a training session he and his fellow volun teers had with two University of Tartu psychologists named Heikki and Heino. In front of a video camera lens, Wells tried his best to demonstrate how to interact properly with Esto nians. His first attempt (using his instinctual North American method) finds him barging into someone’s office, sitting down in a chair without explicit per mission and chattering away enthusiastically. He also smiles too much. Alas, I’ve found that I’ve still not achieved the per fect Estonian method, either out of stubbornness or a hopelessly involuntary outward happiness. I also identified with the author’s background as a musi cian; and thus, found it funny and satisfying when one of his songs – “Kas sa räägid inglise keelt?” (“Do You Speak English?”) – became a hit in Estonia, and was on the charts for several weeks in the sum mer of 1994. The airplay of the song was a surprise to him, first heard in line at a grocery store one day. Interestingly, today you can find scans of Wells’ original songwriting documents, for this song and others of his like “Hiiumaa Blues”, on the online archival portal e-varamu. ee. One chapter of Wells’ saga in Hiiumaa that has received the most attention, and was even picked up as the idea for a film, (Continued on page 10)
“Antidote to tyranny” (Continued from page 8)
in the absence of national success in the socio-economic sphere the regime is tempted by foreign policy adventures, while Russian civil society appears tired of confrontation with the outside world. The settlement of differences with the United States and Europe seems to be a more desirable scenario. Most of the respondents expect both the political life and the econo my in Russia to deteriorate in the coming months. Another Levada Center sur vey, conducted in November 2021, exposed that only 16% of Russians believe that the cur rent ruling elite are leading the country in the right way. The share of respondents who view the U.S. positively exceeded the share of those who view it negatively (45% vs 42%) and a growing number of Russians have a positive attitude toward the European Union (48% vs 38%). This suggests that the Kremlin’s attempts to build its political identity based on an anti-Western ideology has little traction among Russian people. What the Kremlin thinks or intends to do next is difficult to predict. Two considerations are worth keeping in mind when trying to read Putin’s acts. First, the saying “once KGB, always KGB,” is a reminder of the mindset that Putin inherits as a former Soviet KGB officer. Secondly, his conviction that the collapse of the Soviet Union is the greatest geopolitical disaster of the 20th century signals humiliation and ambi tion, and concerns about his political legacy. The sense of humiliation, ambition and legacy held by the Kremlin, combined with an unfree, state-controlled media, makes for a dangerous Molotov cocktail. For the Russian lead ership, which is increasingly out of touch with Russian society, it may lead to a state of political delirium, with irrever sible geopolitical consequences. According to Dimitry Mura tov, journalism is the “antidote to tyranny”. The deepening democratic crisis in Russia to day demands that media free dom reaches the patient without delay.
