Visas, visas

I’m in Japan again. It seems that I only get time to write when I’m in Japan, waiting on a new Russian visa. It might have something to do with the internet speed too. We’re signed up with DSL now and are paying for it, but haven’t got it working. Haven’t had time to follow it up either. The last month has been insane.
Good, but insane.

December 29th the two Australian winter teams were supposed to arrive- one team for Lastochka Children’s home, the other for a new Children’s Home we’ve only recently made contact with, on Mira St. The idea of the teams is that they stay at the Home for 2 weeks, run activities, talk and play and give the kids their attention. The teams come every winter, sometimes in summer too. A lot of the team members have come to Sakhalin multiple times, which is great- they continue to build relationships with the kids they met the previous year/summer. The boys that live with us were particularly excited to see John again, as he’s gotten to know them over the last 4 or 5 years.

So, they were supposed to arrive on the 29th, but there was a big blizzard and the airport closed for a couple of days. They arrived January 1st instead, and just left this Friday, Jan 12th. It was great having Aussies around, and a young family with 2 small children actually lived with us for the time they were here. We had 16 people sleeping at our house a couple of times!

Unfortunately most of us got really sick while they were here, which Trac assures me happens every time. The team has gone, but two 20 year old girls from Sydney are staying on with us for a while. Today they should be going to NovoSibirsk (an 8 hour flight from Sakhalin!!) for 2 weeks, then coming to stay with us again for 10 days.
But while they’re away, it might be just us (who actually live there) staying in our house!! First time for a month.

Back to Japan- I’m staying with friends I stayed with last month. It hardly seems that I’ve been gone! And this time I won’t have to get another one month tourist visa!
The day I was supposed to leave for Japan last week, I got my 3 month letter of invitation!! The document I’ve been waiting for since September! Yesterday I went to the consulate, and my visa will be ready to pick up tomorrow!

I had some trouble leaving Sakhalin this time.
I had bought a ticket to Japan and was all set to leave on Sunday 7th- though I was sick with a fever, didn’t had my letter of invitation and really didn’t want to get on a plane that day. A blizzard was forecast and, sure enough, it started a few hours before my flight- praise God! The airport closed and we were told to call for more information at 8am the next day.
Well, the blizzard continued for two days and finally the airport opened again on Tuesday 9th. The next flight to Japan was on Wednesday.

But this caused me some concern- my visa expired on Tuesday 9th! I spent all day Tuesday with our friend Victor, talking to officials and asking what my situation would be. Finally someone at the Passports and Visa office told us that because the situation was caused by Forces of Nature, there wouldn’t be a problem and I should leave on the next flight, on Wednesday.
So on Wednesday, this time with all the necessary documents, I headed back to the airport. Only to be told that I would not be flying today, because my visa expired!!
The plane left without me on it.

Finally Pete thought of calling the Australian Embassy in Vladivostok for advice. They pointed us, thank God, in the right direction! The lady at the tourism department took control, and within a few days of running around, getting photos, filling in forms and paying money, I got an extension visa until Sunday 11th. Finally I was allowed to leave Russia!

So here I am, thanking God that yesterday my visa application process was very smooth, praying that there’s not a black mark next to my name for last week’s visa issues, and that I will go safely back to Sakhalin on Friday, as planned!

Life in our house will (should. Lets not be presumptive!) be back to normal as of this week. The kids started school again yesterday, Roma’s back at uni, and Jenya’s gone back to his old job of washing cars. Most people who went “home” for Christmas are back, New year celebrations are FINALLY over (the last thing to be celebrated was Old New Year, Jan 14th) and most of our visitors are gone too. Yay! I feel a big cleaning coming on… L

LoL and proper Russian study. I’m also thinking about joining a Japanese language class when I get back. I’ve forgotten so much and Japanese and Russian are getting so mixed in my head. Already here in Japan I’ve been stuck because the only word I could think of was the Russian one- not even English!! LoL

I don’t want to lose what I struggled so hard to learn.