Trading stories

Tatiana

Today was a busy day. I started the day by transcribing an oral text that Baba Anya gave me in Evenki. She described the events from the Indigenous Day celebrations.

Babushka has been disappearing of late. I think PJ has been annoying her. PJ has not had a good time up here. I honestly think the devil is trying to use his situation to make us ineffective. The poor kid, the last couple days before we left he had the Summer flu, as did I. He was still sick with it when we traveled and got here. He cried most of the way on the plane (people who complain about babies on planes and say they shouldn't be there, really are insensitive jerks). After he got better from the flu he has been teething. One tooth is breaking through, but we think another one is on the way. Aside from this he has no real idea that we are just here for a visit. He is feeling disoriented. On top of all that, he still has a fiercely independent streak so he keeps trying to run away.

To not make everything seem gloomy, Abigail and Melody both avoided the Summer flu. I was worried about them having diarrhea while having to use the outhouse. Thankfully they have been spared that. Also the bugs have been almost non existent because of the cooler weather. (But we still had 24 today.) They have been in the forest though, and PJ has quite a few nasty bites. He can't catch a break.

So due to Babushka's absence I was unable to work with her any further on Evenki.

But we did have two visitors today. Two different Evenki speakers that we were hoping to visit came to us today. The first is a lady called Tatiana who I met at Sayanskoe Koltso. Tatiana came for a few hours this afternoon. I recorded a story from her life in Evenki, and also took a word list for dialect comparison.

Her story is awfully tragic. She had 8 brothers and sisters, all of whom died but her. Many of their deaths were bizarre. Her mother died when she was 11. It is so clearly a curse. Statistically those kinds of things just don't happen. After Tatiana shared her story it seemed appropriate for Melody to share an oral story she had prepared. The story is about Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. We believe that we would like to invite people to the Living Water, but even better yet, through the story let the Holy Spirit invite them. The invitation is between her and Jesus, and we honestly don't know her thoughts. But stories are always so easy to share, people so happily listen to them.