Second semester

A few thoughts before the topic of today's post. There has been a huge influx of "guests" to my blog recently, or what I refer to as the "American invasion." Let me say welcome to all of you. I hope you enjoy my blog. If any of you wish to stick around and become a regular reader you are very welcome to, so long as you can put up with my Aussie candour and brutal honesty at times.

Thank you to those of you who have taken the time to do my little surveys. I am aware of how many people visit my blog each day, but I am not aware of how often some people visit or what they are seeking to understand. This has been the purpose of the surveys, but unfortunately only a small percentage of readers have responded to them. One person mentioned that they have a specific question. Perhaps you could leave it in the comments after this blog.

There were a number of questions that arose in comments after the Tuva trip. I have responded to some of them in the comments section, but thought I would respond publicly for all here.

The subject of drying clothes in freezing weather has proven to be a fascinating one. Grandma Joan recalls doing this in earlier years. Heather and Martin both recall doing this during their child hood in Arctic Canada. They all inform me that the process leaves the clothes 90% dry before they come inside again. The icicles snap off easily. However, it is important to be gentle with the clothes and place them in a pile. Items have been known to snap from time to time.

Are any of the communities unaccessible by road accessible by river?
There are some very rough tracks to some of the more isolated communities that take many hours to get to. Many people do not have their own vehicle and do not have this option for transport. The isolated communities that are actually accessible by river are only accessible in the Winter time. Air travel inside Tuva only goes to four of these isolated communities in the eastern forest. These flights rarely run to schedule. Even though they are supposed to run 2-3 times a week, people can sometimes wait up to 2 weeks for a flight. Other isolated communities have a "road" that goes to them, but no flights at all.

Do they have any fairytales about spiders, or of Baba Yaga?
Well Baba Yaga is a Russian fairy tale so I doubt that Tuvans would be in to that very much. Tuvans do have lots of folk tales, I even have a book of them, but none that I can see are about spiders.

On the Asbestos topic- how curious that there is still an Asbestos mine in Saskatchewan. It should definitely be closed down. Asbestos is a known cause of cancer. The people in Ak Dovurak have no choice, but are likely unaware that such a health threat even exists. It's just a different world I suppose. I was unaware that there is a Russian town called Asbest. I just looked it up, there is another that is called Asbestovskii. They are both in the Yekaterinburg region and I won't be taking my family there in a hurry.

I presume it was still minus 40 degrees? (When the men were carrying the sticks on their back.)
Yes it was still -40 degrees. Yes, you are mostly like right in saying that the man was contentedly just doing his job. As wild and difficult as it sounds to us, it is normal to them. Humans are capable of adjusting to very extreme conditions. But, yes it is amazing, and an indication of just how different their world is from ours.

What are "yurts"?
Oops, I just assumed people would know what a yurt is. A yurt is a round looking tent, that Mongolians, Tuvans and Buryats live in. Mongolia seems to be quite famous in popular culture these days, and that was why I made an assumption.

Now that the winter trips are over and we have had our visit from our area leader, second semester is ready to start. It officially starts on Saturday the 9th (students do have classes on Saturdays). I have an appointment with the head teacher to discuss my timetable on Monday. I am going to request that all my classes are individual ones. The group classes were not very productive, as the other students were all at a different level from myself. I will also ask for less hours this semester, perhaps 10 instead of 14.
The Winter break has been very good for my langauge. I have used my Russian a lot and it has improved a lot too. Enjoying using the language is a big part of improving. I have found that in conversations that I am understanding a lot more than I can say now. This has been the reverse in the past. This is good now, as the more I understand the more I can model my speech on the Russian examples.
I sure hope that my classes are more rewarding than last semester and that the teachers actually take time to prepare my lessons. This will be my last semester for a while. The semester finishes in June. I hope to do a little more travel after semester. We will then be leaving Russia for a season at the end of July. We will be visiting Canada for a couple months before heading to Australia, where we will do the Linguistics course at Wycliffe before returning to Siberia in early 2010.