Water from the well and a four hour chat- June 13th

On Friday Melody was not even aware that we had made it to Kellog yet, as we had planned to be in Verkhnimbatsk for 5 days. I discovered that there were no phone cards for sale in Kellog, so I decided to ration the card that I had for the 12 days there. Thankfully I had the chance to use the village administrator's satellite phone to call Melody for 5 minutes.
The village administrator is Russian and has been there for 18 months. The only real employer is the government- the school, health clinic, kindergarten, government housing.

We spent about 1.5 hours collecting water from the local well. "There's a hole in my bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza." I got to singing after carrying numerous buckets. Here is Sasha pulling the bucket out of the well. I did it another time.



The well goes a fair way down, perhaps 10 metres. Kellog is in permafrost country. This means that the groung beneath the surface never thaws out. It makes for nice cool water coming out of the well.



There aren't any cars as such in Kellog. There are a few people who have motorbikes with side cars. The only big vehicles are operated by the administration.



Other than collecting water we did some work in the potato garden at Mikhail's place.



As I mentioned, the only real employer is the government. These men are making a log cabin, it was fascinating to watch. The process seemed to move very slowly though.


I have mentioned previously the plight of the Ket people. They had a very successful collective farm for reindeer in the 1930s. But then the second world war came. Many men did not return, and those that did came back without limbs. The collective farm took a nose dive after this, until it disappeared altogether. This is the Kellog war memorial. For a small village, 100 deaths is a huge impact.


Later in the day, Yura and I went to visit Gennady. Sasha came with us. Gennady is a believer too. In fact there are really only two believing Ket men at present in Kellog. Yura and I had a really good chat with them. Before I knew it, four hours had passed, and I have to admit I was impressed at how easily I was following and participating in the conversation. It was nice to be free from translating too. Yura and I encouraged them to pray and worship God in the Ket language. This was a very significant conversation. When we did pray, Yura prayed in Evenki, I in English anf then Gennady in Ket. (This was the first time he had ever prayed in his native tongue.) Sasha found the step a bit daunting and did not try it while we were there in the village. I hope that Gennady learns well and can then encourage Sasha too.