06/09/24 04:22 am, by , Categories: work

In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, I was sitting at home bored in quarantine when I got a call with a job offer...

I was surprised to learn that they were looking for someone to fill a temporary IT role on a barge out at sea.

I was really bored, and everything was under lockdown, so I figured, "why not?"

I gathered my documents, passed the medical exam, and packed everything I needed into my bag.

The COVID-19 pandemic was in its early stages, and the measures in place were extremely stringent. In the face of this unprecedented situation, many companies were compelled to take drastic actions, some of which now appear to have been over the top.

It turned out that the job was with a Gazprom contractor, and as a subcontractor, I was required to undergo a 14-day quarantine near Tyumen before heading to the actual work site. So, I found myself on a night flight to Tyumen.

I arrived at the airport early in the morning, where I met up with other employees. We hailed a taxi and headed out of town, traveling about 40 kilometers.

Through fields and meadows

After about an hour's drive, we pulled into a clearing amidst the trees, revealing the "Snezhinka" children's camp, our temporary home for the next two weeks.

The grounds were quite extensive and heavily wooded.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, a children's camp was closed to children and repurposed to accommodate rotation workers and sailors working for Gazprom contractors.

Upon arrival, we were greeted by guards who played the role of wardens - forbidding us to move around and giving orders. It all looked quite funny :)

We were led into a large hangar, which was normally a football field. There, our names were recorded, and we were made to wait.

After a long wait, we were told to take only the necessary items and were sent to rooms at the other end of the camp, where there were three identical two-story residential buildings. It all resembled a restricted zone that somehow was located in a children's camp.

After settling in rooms with 3-5 people each, we were given various rules about what was allowed and what wasn't.

From them, I learned that this place was called a "buffer terminal" in Gazprom, not a children's camp. The rules were quite strict, and everything was overseen by the main guy from Gazprom, who literally lived in this camp and drunk worked.

Funny hashtags:

For the next 14 days, we had a routine. Every morning, our temperature was "measured". Well, it was measured while I was still asleep, with a laser thermometer pointed at my forehead, around 8 am.

Around 9 am, breakfast was brought. The food was like in a children's camp. The food was quite basic, but everyone survived. :)

In general, the staff remained from the children's camp and followed the same script as with the kids. They even brought us a warm drink, which they claimed was cocoa.

During other times, we were allowed to sleep, and twice a day we were taken for a "walk" - within a taped-off area, about 20-30 meters where we mostly stood around smoking.

In the evenings, a guy walked around the camp, spraying the paths and corridors of the buildings. :)

This was roughly what the entire area of freedom looked like:

Sometimes the most important staff met in neutral zones and exchanged prisoners important information

In the evenings, it was cool and there were mosquitoes.

Fourteen days passed this way. While we were staying inside, my laptop's disk broke, but fortunately, I was allowed to order a new one from the city.

We also underwent safety training at Gazprom and took an exam, all from our phones.

After that, we had to do the final COVID tests, which meant walking through the entire camp again, under security supervision :)

After 14 days of sitting around, this walk felt very long to me, even though it took just about 3 minutes.

And preparations to return to the airport.

Everyone who completed this difficult task received such a document:

Then we were taken to the airport and flew to Novy Urengoy.

All this took a lot of time. After N. Urengoy, the next stage was a car trip to the sea, where we were supposed to board a ship.

We left the city late in the evening, although it was bright outside - the polar day.

We crossed the Arctic Circle.

The path went through the tundra to the closed shift-work city of Yamburg.

Halfway to this city, there is a checkpoint in the field, where we were stopped and checked again by the lists.

In the trailer, they took our temperature :)

We arrived in Yamburg around midnight, the camp was already asleep.

The photo above shows the residential blocks where Gazprom employees live. We were brought to an old dormitory, dating back to the time when this camp was built.