Camp Staff
The Ponoi camp has become as famous as the fishing that it accesses. Many guests who come to the ponoi for the first time marvel at the standard of service, facilities and food quality that come together in this true wilderness location. A combination of long-serving, well-trained Russian and Western staff makes up an impressive and proud, service-orientated, in-camp team. The camp enjoys the luxury of no less than four mechanics and four chefs, as well as many other equally important back-up staff who ensure that the camp is clean and working effectively at all times. It is the attention to detail in camp, as well as the logistics of piecing together supplies from as far away as the US and UK through to Helsinki, St Petersburg and Murmansk that makes this operation great - we are truly proud of our team.
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Lena Oganissian - Massage & Camp Staff Since joining the team in 2000 Lena has become indispensable to both the staff and the clients. Her massages are the perfect solution to a cold or wet day on the river and although slight she has amazing strength. Lena also helps to serve in the big tent when she is not massaging, and when she is not doing that works on improving her English. |
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Natasha Shamisheva - Government Relations - Murmansk Office Shamisheva Natalia has been working for the company since 1999. She graduated from the Caucasus University, the faculty of Mathematics and S-Pet Academy, the faculty of Finance. She is Volodya's wife and despite their busy work schedule, they have two children, a daughter and a son. Her hobby is mountain skiing at which is is very proficient. |
Yana Tsukanova - Host |
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Igor Burlakov - Camp Staff/ Guide Trainee We found Igor as a waiter at the Polinarie Zori hotel in Murmansk. He was such a nice guy and had such a pleasant manner, that he just had to become part of our team. Currently, Igor is multi-talented man around camp. He is a barman, waiter, mechanic, cleaner, and trainee guide- all of which he is doing fantastically. |
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Olga Koshvar - Accountant Olga is responsible for the day-to-day accounting in the Murmansk Office. She started working for Ponoi in the 2007 season and has since established regimented control over the bookkeeping- not a surprise considering her previous employer was the largest prison in the Kola Peninsula! |
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Natasha Pshenichnikova - Camp Staff Natasha 'from Lovozero,' joined the Ponoi team as a work-study intern in 2007 and will be returning full time for the 2008 season. Always pleasant and always with a smile, she has proven herself to be a very fast learner and is an asset to the camp. In her spare time she enjoys dancing and spending time with friends. |
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Sveta Samoylova - Camp and Kitchen Staff Sveta Samoylova comes from Murmansk, Russia. She and her husband Nikolai were former Purnache Camp caretakers. Sveta is a former professional skydiver, with 27 years experience and over 10,000 jumps. Out of those jumps, she relied on her secondary parachute some 15 times. Sveta feels quite at home here in Ryabaga as she is an ardent nature lover. Come end of July it might be hard to find Sveta, as she'll likely be off in the tundra collecting mushrooms for the wonderful soups and dishes prepared by the kitchen. |
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Andrei Orehov Sr. - Winter Caretaker Orekhov Senior loves hunting and fishing and living out in the wilderness, whatever the weather! We always marvel at his willingness to live at Ryabaga during the winter but he always has fasinating stories to tell us when we arrive in May. Almost all of his life he lived and worked in the local town of Krasnoshelie as a Director of the reindeer farm. Since 1997 he has been working for the company as the Ryaboga wintercaretaker. He has two sons, one of which also works for the comanpy year round. |
