[Just a little note, this is actually the 601st post on my blog, I didn't even notice #600 slip by. That's one post on average, every three days for the last five years. Not bad hey? Makes you want to keep your readership up!]
Monday morning rolled around. We had big plans for the day. We were going to get out into nature with Aleksandr and try to record an oral story with some context and tangibility. When we woke it was already raining quite steadily. Aleksandr told us that the first 30 odd kilometres was clay road. If that gets too wet you can't drive anywhere! If that happened, we could easily be stuck for a week before the road dried out enough.
We couldn't risk this unfortunately, and it certainly was not good weather for filming outside. So we quickly packed all of our things together. We were able to pray with Aleksandr before leaving.
Also, I had planned to buy ten litres of raspberries at a bargain price from a local village lady. But when the steady rain hit we could not afford the time to find her and risk getting stuck.
There were a couple of moments when we did slide around a bit. Once we passed the clay we were relieved. Then we were on sand for the next 80 odd kilometres. Again I was relieved when we reached the paved road. But, then as our driver likes to "feel the need for speed" (that's a direct quote), I was relieved once we got home to Krasnoyarsk.
The drive home was also punctuated in the second half (once we got back into mobile phone range) of calls with Melody. PJ had dislocated his elbow. This was a bit of a nervous time. He had to go to hospital in the ambulance. Were they going to insist that he stay in the hospital? It was an adrenaline filled time for Melody who had to go there without me. Thankfully a friend was visiting her, who could sit with Abigail for the time she was gone.
[A bit of a note. The ambulance sounds dramatic, but it is the routine way that doctors make house calls. It didn't end up being a hospital but a "trauma point" clinic. If it had been serious I guess he would have gone to hospital after that. But Melody was exhausted from the uncertainty of the situation. The silver lining to the cloud, is that we are one step more relaxed about the Russian medical system now, despite all of its short comings.]
Life in Siberia is always an adventure!
2 comments:
and always wonderful to learn from the experience of others - look forward to learning from yours!
Good to know it all worked out for you and P.J.
It is not always easy when the unexpected happens with children.
Thinking of you all.
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