Flight plans

G'day. Spring time is still here. A couple of times we have been afraid that it was running away again. This afternoon we had some light snow, but now the sun is shining brightly and there is not a flake on the ground. The weather is now consistently above zero every night and up to 10 during the day. Not very warm yet, but I am hoping for a 20 degree day any time soon!

In follow up to the recent fishing story, Melody, Abigail and I have been out fishing a few times recently. Every time we have been out we seem to meet people. We have now handed out the story of a Buryat ex-Shaman three times this week. Yesterday we had some good chats with some Sakha guys. One of them was half Evenki. I am hoping to invite them over for a game of Aussie Footy this week. We'll see what happens. It's strange that when I have been out with another team mate, we have rarely ever met indigenous people. Perhaps Melody and I are supposed to do this more often ourselves. As we only have a couple months left, this is how we want to spend the spare time we have when not working on other tasks or studying. We are still hopeful for the students we have made friends with, but will not neglect meeting new ones, despite having less time to start new projects.

I have been doing some more research to try to make the reindeer project happen. Last week I found out that the boat only goes up the Yenisey River three times in June and that this will not help. It goes nearly every day in July, but this does not work for me, I need to be packing our house up in July.
Today I found out about a plane that runs to Turukhansk 6 days a week. We can fly there, and then be there on a Monday to register for a helicopter flight. Helicopters run three times a week to Kellog (where the Ket people live) from Turukhansk. The tickets can not be booked earlier. We simply have to be there on the Monday to register. Hopefully we can get on the helicopter that day, but we may have to wait for one later in the week. The good thing is that we can turn around a little faster than previously thought. I had thought the helicopter only went once a week, which would have made a tight window for travel in June.
I am still making plans with my Finnish friends, but things are looking positive. The latest thinking is that we need to speak to the local administration in Kellog. This may be good though as it would mean that the reindeer would simply be transferred from one administration to another. The idea is looking more possible all the time. There are still many potential obstacles, so please remember this when you talk to Dad.

Anyway, I'm in a good mood today as things have been happening this week. I also had an individual Russian class this morning. This was encouraging for me in my Russian, despite the next class being cancelled.