Reality not illusions

I'm really glad we visited Marina today. Although we have been having a good time at Yura and Alona's place, we needed to get out on our own, and feel a small amount of independence. We were all set to catch the bus when Yura insisted on driving us into town. We took the offer, even though it made us feel less independent.

Marina lives in an apartment in the centre of Baykit. An apartment here is a far cry from the apartment we live in. It's in an old two storey wooden building. Two things about her apartment surprised us- there is a wooden fire stove there, and there is no toilet. These are features of village houses, but not something you would expect in an apartment.

I must confess I was looking forward to the idea of sitting on the throne, and was let down when I discovered one did not exist. Both Melody and I thought, "what's the point of having an apartment without a toilet." This means communal out houses, and believe me they are not as inviting as the one in our present back yard. Now I really appreciate what we have. :)

The environment surrounding the apartments was depressing me. It's hard to explain unless you experience it for yourself. There were no drunks outside on this occasion, but there was simply nothing nice about the place. Even though it's still Summer, there was no co,our outside, just dirt and mud. There is just no chance I would want to live there. Even a few weeks there would be unbarable.

It's a good thing we went for a walk with Marina, as some of the houses along the way looked nice. It was enough to break the depressing feeling that Melody and I were both feeling.

I told Melody before we came here that my goal when leaving was to be able to say, "yes I would like to go back there." After our first visit to Tuva, I told God that I didn't want to live there. (A treeless place is too hard for me.) Then after my visit to Kellog, the place was so depressing that I never wanted to return there. Even today the thought of going there is just a bit too much. We will have to see if we reach that goal. I hope that we are mostly on track.

The thought of going to the reindeer herd (in the future) is still there, but I am under no illusions, it would be much harder than I could imagine. We know a single American guy who is with them at the moment, but:

1) He is single, not having to worry about his kids getting sick; or his little boy disappearing in the forest.

2) He grew up in wild Idaho, so is already a bush man. Don't forget that I have a lot of city blood in me, even though I am not nearly as soft as some.

3) He is a unique guy. His brother deliberately chose the life of a hobo for many years, to incarnationally bring the gospel to homeless people. That's what I call hard core. So, our friend joined his brother in this life for a year. Such experience uniquely qualifies somebody to leave civilisation behind and go join reindeer herding nomads in the middle of the Siberian wilderness.

Everybody is uniquely qualified to do what God calls them to do. It is hard though, sometimes feeling that we are compared to this acquaintance of ours by Yura. It might not be true, but sometimes comments of comparison are hard to hear.

Back to our day today. Getting out and seeing Marina was enough to remotivate us with our plans here. We have more people on our list to visit. We have more things that we would like to do with Yura and Alona. Alona works in the local museum. We definitely need to pay a visit. A third of the way into the trip we are not stuck for things to do, and we are reasonably comfortable here. There is even a washing machine in Alona's kitchen. Loogxury, I tell you Luxxxury!