Since I've been back

Finally, a chance to breathe!

It seems that I only have time to write emails when I’m in Japan, waiting for a Russian visa, waiting for a flight back to Sakhalin…

The last month has been so out of the ordinary that I’m actually looking forward to getting back into the daily grind of life in Sakhalin.

December saw our home inundated with people, both expected and unexpected! Christmas took us by surprise, so on Christmas Eve Trac and I set out on an 8-hour mission to the markets! Anton’s twin brother Maxim came back to Sakhalin for a holiday – he’s studying at uni in Khabarovsk, and will probably go back at the end of February. He’s one to keep the atmosphere lively! He and Anton love to practice their wrestling moves in the lounge room, keeping us all entertained!

Maxim and Olyessa

We’ve had military police knocking on the door looking for someone who doesn’t live here, and we met the owner of our home’s wife who let herself in without knocking, asked to have a shower and then asked Tracy to blow-dry her hair! The owner himself visited us on Christmas Day and asked for various documents so he could apply for DSL internet for us. We couldn’t actually go with him, as we had a Christmas party in full swing! He understood.

After Christmas, two girls from a city north of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk came to stay with us for 2 weeks, over the New Year period. We knew that Katya A’s (she visits us regularly) cousin Valya was coming, but we were surprised to meet 2 Valyas from the same school in the same city!! The other Valya is Sasha’s (who lives with us) sister, so of course she was welcome too. We weren’t too sure about it all at first, but looking back, we couldn’t have managed without them! They picked up a lot of the housework, freeing us to do other things.

Valya, Sasha's sister

Valya, Katya A's cousin

Even so, Pete, Trac and I shared some nervous glances as we sat down to plan where everyone would sleep- sometimes we had 16 people sleeping at our house! Our friend Janet, who runs a Wednesday night Bible study in her home, rocked up loaded to the hilt with sleeping bags, cutlery, a microwave, blankets- the very things we were desperate for!

But what really kept us busy were the winter teams. Every winter (and sometimes in summer!), KOI send teams of volunteers from Australia to Sakhalin, to stay in Children’s Homes in the city. The purpose of these teams are to build relationships with the children who live there, run programs for the kids to enjoy and, where possible, to teach the kids about their way of life.

Many team members come to Sakhalin every year! The kids we know were so excited to see them again, and often talk about what so-and-so did, said, wore etc, last time. This is the point at which we know that the teams are effective, and well worth the effort and expense.

Usually one team comes, but this time there were two. We’d just recently made contact with another Home just down the road from us, so one of the teams went there. Usually the teams live and do everything on site. But this year a young family with 2 children (a 2 year old and 6 month old baby) were a part of the team- hard enough to travel with small children, let alone live in one room with the rest of the team!! So they stayed with us for two weeks.

The team unloading at our place

One thing I noticed is that, no matter how many people were in our house, it never seemed crowded; even though there’s only one bathroom, there was no tension or long queues; no matter how many people were staying for dinner, there was always enough for everyone. How great is our God!

Two girls from Sydney stayed on with us after the rest of the team went back to Australia. They’re in Novo Sibirsk (New Siberia) at the moment, visiting friends for a couple of weeks, and will stay with us again in February, until just before uni starts in Australia!

It has been great having so many Australians around. It really has felt like a season of celebration with Weetbix, Vegemite, Milo and Peanut Butter floating around the kitchen (on waves of euphoria). The team members looked on with amusement as we gently lifted two bricks of Weetbix out of the fast-emptying box, smelled that card-boardy packed shredded wheat smell, caressed the rough surface and placed them, one at a time, into a bowl of milk…

The team left on Friday 12^th, and I left for Japan on Sunday 14^th. There’s a long story behind my departure- I had a lot of trouble leaving Sakhalin! Flights were cancelled due to a blizzard, forcing me to overstay my visa by a day, so I had to get an extension visa for several days until the next flight to Japan… but it worked out for the best! Because I was delayed by a week, I was in Hokkaido (the northern island of Japan) at the same time as my friend Ayumi, whom I used to work with at Shimizu High School! It was great to catch up with her, even though it was only for a few hours!

Now I have been to the Russian Consulate in Sapporo and obtained a new visa- it’s longer this time! 2 months and 2 weeks, so I won’t have to come back to Japan until March! But the word is that I can extend my visa for a year once I’m back in Sakhalin, because I’m not using a tourist visa anymore!!

We’ll see. If I can extend the visa to a year, I’ll only have to leave Russia again at the 6 month mark… about July.

* * * *

Back in Sakhalin, the freeze has begun- it isn’t snowing much, but the temperatures are hanging in the -10 to -20C range. Surprisingly, it’s not that cold! It seems that once the temperature is below -5C it’s all pretty much just… cold.

We get out and walk around and go snowboarding for hours at a time and my nose hasn’t fallen off yet, nor have my hands turned blue ;-)

And life goes on as usual. We’re busy shopping and getting supplies for the coming month, looking at buying some bunk beds and better quality mattresses (!!!) and enjoying the winter. It hasn’t snowed much at all for about a week now, the roads are getting quite icy (which means slippery!) and the snow on the ground is hard packed and getting dirty- terrible for making snow angels! Outside the wind is picking up and seems to be blowing in a circular movement… I wonder if we’re in for a blizzard?!

That would be good.