Siberian road trip - Part 1: The Shor people

Nathan is surveying seven different people groups in four different countries. Three of these people groups all into our domain here in Siberia- the Tuvans, the Shor and the Altai. I sent him down to a friending Tuva for a week. But to meet the Altai and the Shor, I have decided to take him along, since the train connections are complicated and he does not have enough time.

Crazy or not, I decided to take him in our car to parts of the country I have never been in before. The day I tried to leave home, I already had dramas. I decided to get the car washed in the morning. After I left the car wash place I filled up petrol straight away. This was my first mistake. Little did I know, but some water froze in between the brake disc and the wheel hub in the rear right wheel. I was on my way to pick up Nathan at the train station returning from his Mongolian trip. I didn't get very far when I was flagged down by a passing motorist telling me that my rear right wheel was not turning! This was a shocking turn of events for me, and of course I was worried that I would damage the car. I managed to turn around and drag the wheel off the side of the road in snow most of the way back toward home, where there is a tyre changing business. We decided to take the wheel off. Lightly using a hammer we tapped the ice off the brake disc, reattached the wheel and everything was ok. Thank God!

After stopping for the first night in a tiny hotel by the side of the highway, we got any early stay around 6am. I had begun to feel like I was getting a hang of driving in Russia through all sorts of conditions including crazy city drivers and snow packes country roads. Nothing however could have prepared me for the shock of Wednesday morning. There was a stretch of road near Kemerovo that went through a mountain pass. Somewhere around 8am, still in the dark, I was driving up curvy mountain roads, slowly and carefully. I put a wheel slightly off the road to then find myself spinning out of control on a very icy road (the studs on the winter tyres made no difference at this point). As we spun, and I cried "dear Jesus, help us" there was a car coming towards us but we missed, then we spun off the road. At the last moment I thought we would hit a pole. It was a very harrowing feeling to be in a car that was completely out of control. Nathan explained to me that I had been over correcting with my steering. And I seem to remember that I hit the brakes (which is a serious no no on ice). I bravely got back behind the wheel, for it all to happen again a minute later. (There is nothing that could have prepared me for these situations.) I handed the wheel over to Nathan to drive through the rest of the icy section (he comes from a mountain town in the US).

After that adventure we were shaken, but we still had a full days drive to get to Tashtagol, the capital of the Shor region. We made our way in to Tashtagol in the early evening. We were rejected at the first hotel, when they did not know what to do with foreign passports. The second hotel was a little nervous too, but I explained that I am a resident of Russia and they could not refuse me. They kindly obliged.

Yesterday was our day for exploring the Shor people, their culture and villages. Having read up on their culture, we had something of an idea of who they are. We prayed, and then chose a road out into a valley where there are some mixed Shor/ Russian villages. From our estimation, there may only be pure Shor communities further out into the Taiga on extremely difficult roads. Some of them are not even marked on the map.

I got back on the horse and drove to the villages. This time it was a snow packed road. Truthfully I am a lot more comfortable on a snow packed road than on black ice. We stopped in the first village when we saw a group of men standing around a motorbike. We got out of the car and performed a little experiment. I wanted to see what their reaction to a couple of outsiders would be. We stood there for a few minutes waiting for someone to say hello. Nobody said anything. I walked towards the men only to receive "what do you want!". I joyfully replied in truth (as it was such a sunny day), "I simply wanted to say that this is such a wonderful day that our God has made and I love him very much." Well, this man angrily turned his back on me and walked away. None of the other men wanted to speak with me. Moments later, the firs drunk man was hassling me, inviting us to come drink beer with him in his home. But he was no person of peace, so we excused ourselves and got back in the car and moved on.

Next time..... what kind of reception will we receive in the second village as we go searching for people of peace?