My hopes for bringing reindeer to the Ket were big, and I did not expect to have these hopes shattered so quickly. Yet I do have a deep respect for Yura and know that he understands the situation far better than I do. I asked Yura if the village of Kellog is similar to other northern villages. His response was yes, this was definitely the case. At the same time he could see a lot more hope than I could. I imagine he has been to villages where there are no believers at all. After all this is an unreached part of the world with unreached people groups.
I woke up feeling depressed about Kellog. The depression is contagious. Not even a week in the place and it was really getting to me. I have no doubt that it is one of the reasons that we were sleeping ten hour nights. The night before I listened to a song on my iPod called "Nothing is impossible." It was a song that really encouraged Melody and I as we prepared to come to Siberia, and we had used it in a slideshow with pictures of Siberian People. Listening to this song again encouraged me and reminded me of God's plans to bring his kingdom to all the earth including Kellog. So I determined to pick myself up. The four of us went on a prayer walk around Kellog for 2 hours, binding evil spirits and praying blessings on the village. It was just what I needed to do, and I know important for the village.
Yura and I talked some more and he explained to me that there is hope for the future, it will just take a lot longer. The fact that he has perspective and hope encourages me.
This is Kolya. His mother is Ket and his father is Russian. Kolya did make a decision to follow Jesus. I can even see it in him. So I have no doubt that he is a believer. But he continues to struggle with alcohol quite strongly and is not really accepted into fellowship as a result. This disappoints me. I know that believers need to draw strong lines at times to protect people from addicitions, but I only hope that there could be more grace for people who are caught up in them. Much of Kellog is this way. In fact perhaps up to as many as 50 Ket in Kellog have responded to the gospel, but so many of them are caught in a trap of alcoholism and depression. Please pray for a break through in their village. Kolya is a sweet man. He invited us to go fishing on Thursday night, but I was sick by that stage and had to opt out. We did visit Kolya and his family on the Tuesday.
This is Alexander, Kolya's father. Sadly his mother did not stick around, I think she had been drinking too much. We did have a good chat with Alexander though and learnt all sorts of fascinating things. Alexander is an orthodox believer. There is no orthodox church in Kellog. Sadly there is no fellowship between the pentecostal and orthodox believers.
Among some of the fascinating facts we learnt (some from Alexander, some I gleaned from other people along the way):
A sable fur can be sold for 1500 rubles (about $70 AUD), but the price used to be 3000 rubles.
Reindeer meat (there are wild reindeer in the forest) and moose meat sells for about 170 rubles a kg ($8). (These are the prices the hunters get.)
Fish sell for about 40 rubles a kg (less than $2).
Expeditions are made by professionals in the forest to look for oil and mineral wealth. Every year there are discussions about closing the village of Kellog down.
There are "Old Believers" 120 kms further down the river from Kellog. There is both a monastery for men and a convent for women. Each has about 100-150 people. Old Believers split from the Orthodox church in the late 1800s when the Synodal version of the Russian bible came in. They were opposed to any changes in the church. Today Old Believers are not even registered in the Russian system, they do not officially exist on the Russian books. Yet deep in the forests of the north they live separate and ancient lives. Alexander told us that he has not been to the city of Krasnoyarsk in 25 years, and if I remember correctly, he has not left Kellog in that time, although he may have been to Verkhnimbatsk. The more he talked, the more I realised what an isolated an interesting individual he was. I began to imagine that he himself was an old believer. He is probably as close as I will ever get to one.
The plane used to come to Kellog until about 5 years a go. It was cheaper than the helicopter. I don't know why the switch was made.
There were still a few domesticated reindeer in Kellog until 1983.
The cow his family had last year was the last remnant of the collective farms. They have eaten it now, and there is no livestock what so ever in Kellog.
2 comments:
That sounds like a decent price for the reindeer and moose meat. But I wonder how many buyers there are for it? Is it flown out by helicopter, or is it sold to people arriving by air? Is there an agent or wholesaler, or is it sold directly to the consumer? Is there a possibility of expanding this enterprise to provide more income for the Ket? Or will more income simply lead to more alcoholism?
The simple fact is that most people are not very motivated. Even though these are the prices available, not so many people really catch that many sable.
There would be plenty of buyers for the sable, and nearly all commerce takes place via the helicopter. Whether this is through agents or not, I am not quite sure, but most people there would not travel much, so my guess is that a Russian would come in and rip the Ket off.
I would love to see them expand their options, but they simply are quite depressed.
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