Unexpected guests

I was so tired after coming back that I have not had time to finish all the blogging I wanted to do after this Tuva trip. A lot has happened since I got back, but I don't have any photos yet to show you of the most recent news. So, I'll just share the most recent news with you and then get back to annotating some more photos from Tuva.

It was great to be back with my family on Saturday morning. Abigail was very excited to see me. She laughed a lot, but was a bit stand offish. In fact she has been a bit stand offish for the last few days. Perhaps she is subconsciously punishing me for leaving her for a week. It has been a little heart breaking for me. But this only shows me all the more how unconditional my love should be, and how much our heavenly father's love is unconditional. How many times have we rejected our heavenly father?

We have discovered an indoor swimming pool here in Akademgorodok. It is small: 5 metres x 3 metres and about 1.5 metres deep. But we were able to rent it for an hour, just as our family- it was 150 rubles per adult per hour (about $15 aud in total). It was lovely just to have some family time.

Our family time didn't last very long. Igor rang us on Saturday evening to ask if we could host Yura the reindeer herder. Our answer was of course a resounding yes. Yura's wife was to arrive Sunday evening and Yura himself on Monday (today). Then we received another phone call at 9:30pm telling us that Alona (Yura's wife) would be arriving about midnight on Saturday evening. I was dead tired after my platskart trip. Melody kindly agreed to wait up for Alona. At about 1:15 Melody gave up. Then a phone call came just before 2 am that Alona had arrived.

This is the exact reason that we have come across the world, to get to know the indigenous peoples of Siberia, especially a people like the Evenki. We are perfectly aware that there are cultural differences that allow a person to give you a few hours notice that they are coming to stay with you, so we have put these aside and are making the most of this opportunity. We have greatly enjoyed the last two days with Alona. We have been blessed as has she. We are eagerly awaiting Yura's arrival this evening. They should be here most of this week. This is a rare opportunity for us to get to know some people, badly in need of fellowship, as they do not get any, where they live.