Staying in the village is always a contrast from the city. I have actually had many visits to villages now, so I am not a big stranger to village life, but I won't claim to be accustomed to it. One of the big adjustments is the lack of running water. That is, no bathroom, an outhouse, water collected from a well, washing hands from a small supply of water. No matter the number of times I have been to an outhouse in my time, I still don't "enjoy" the experience. Another part of village life that is a stretch is that there are just so many insects flying into your face in the Summer time.
It was a therefore a good thing that Saturday was a cool day, windy and damp. It kept the insects down. The festival that already been postponed a week, went ahead despite the threat of rain. The number of festivals I have attended in the past is now stacking up. Something that appears to be a constancy is that they are always attended by government officials, near and far.
As far as festivals go, this one was lacking vibrancy. That is not meant to come across as a criticism, sadly it is just a stark observation of a culture and language that it terminally on its death bed. I find that kind of thing hard to say as a linguist and ethnographer. I highly value people's cultures and strongly desire to see them desire. As a comparison, the Ket language is actually much stronger although it is also highly endangered.
The festival ran from 11 am til after 4pm. When we got there in the morning, we discovered that they were waiting for Aleksandr (our acquiantance) to turn up before starting. He is highly esteemed in the village, and the president of the committee. He was wanting to avoid the cold weather as he felt it would cause his cough to flare up badly.
The festival was opened by government officials from the district municipality.
Before the festival started this lady, an official of the Pasechnoe village was passing out bread and vodka to the guests present. As we were guests of the village and festival, we were also expected to "partake." I couldn't help thinking how this resembled institutional communion. In the backgroud are four men who are also outsiders and guests.
We didn't partake however in the general activity of many of the men there. I did sit down with these men at one point. Their one goal was to get drunk and it was actually slow going entering into conversation with them. They poured me some beer. As I didn't want to endorse alcoholism (I will still drink a beer elsewhere when not causing people to stumble), I refrained from drinking it all. I had a sip, which was followed by the old man next to me not realising it was my drink, so he finished it off for me!
The audience, which was most of the village sat and watched the performances from the stage.
These two ladies are performing a skit in the Chulym language. They did this by reading from a script. So there was little evidence of natural oral usage.
One of many musical performances.
Can you spot the foreign made vehicle? Villages are full of old Russian made vehicles. People spend most days working on keeping their vehicles running. The vehicles are almost all either four wheel drives, or motorbikes.
This is the flag for the Tyukhtetski Rayon. (The municipality district governed from the town of Tyukhtet. Pasechnoe village is a part of this district.)
Among the officials present was a Nenets man, who is living in Krasnoyarsk and works for the government. That is third time in a month that I have met Nenets people. We will hopefully invite him around for a meal soon.
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