Snow Bound

Harrison's New Website

2008-08-15T06:02:00.000-07:00

Please take a look at the Harry's new website-

http://orphans.boysunderattack.com/

Photos, stories and newsletters are available there. Stay in touch!

Welcome

2008-03-16T05:26:00.000-07:00

Welcome to this blog site.

The diary of one year's residence in Yuzhno- Sakhalinsk.
November 2006- November 2007.

May Sakhalin find a home in your heart,
as it has in mine.

Goodbye is not the End

2008-01-22T03:21:00.001-08:00

I've left Russia now-

I left Sakhalin Island on November 5th 2007, with hopes to return in the hazy future.

Meanwhile, home. Home, which is once again Australind, Western Australia.
Home, employment of some kind, and waiting. Waiting to see what lies ahead.

I've started a new blog to keep the blood flowing through my typing fingers-

follow the link to http://writersbloc-felicity.blogspot.com/

stay in touch.

xx felicity

At the Airport

2007-11-18T22:22:00.000-08:00

A lot of people came to see me off at the airport. That made it... pretty hard.

It's important for everyone to say goodbye. And I will see the Harrys again soon, when they come back for holidays next year (please God!!)

Sunday November 4th

2007-11-18T22:04:00.001-08:00

These photos are courtesy of Rebekah Harrison.

Thanks Beckles, for your outstanding camera work! xx

Vlad and Trac

Masha, Felicity and Ryan (below)

Vlad, Jake and Ryan

Open Day- scenes from home

2007-11-14T19:56:00.000-08:00

We declared my last Saturday to be a home day. Visitors were welcome, and we just enjoyed eachothers company. Here are some scenes from around the house.

A Borsch storm

Scott, Alison, Jack and Ryan spent the afternoon with us- they're a family from Clifton Park! Luke, Jake and Beckles spent last week (their school holidays) with Alison and the boys at their home in the Zima compound. A home away from home.

Natasha (above) and Kartso (below).

Jake- I caught him fussing with his hair in the mirror!

Daisy, taking Becky for a walk.

Poses inspired by the Lenin Square statue of Lenin.

Trac and Kostya (home at last!)

Team Russia

Girls' day

2007-11-14T19:28:00.000-08:00

It was the week of 'last times.'

Janet, Masha, Tracy and I spend quality girl time together. For Trac and I it's a breath of fresh air. A time and place of trust where we can be ourselves and speak openly with people who support us but aren't directly influenced by our work. Who share our values and encourage us in our hopes and plans for the future. And we, theirs.

Autumn- a strong sense of preparation lies in the air. There's so much change to take place in minimal time. If even one week goes by without your notice, you've squandered half the season.

Happy 12th Birthday Jake!

2007-11-09T16:56:00.000-08:00

Three birthdays in a week is more than usual- but such is the last week of October in this household!

Some people started going a little crazy...

Jake turned 12 on the 31st, and we gathered for a meal with family and friends at our house. Jake doesn't like fuss at times like this, he likes to sit back and see that everyone's enjoying themselves.

What does Jake like? A lot of people asked me. Jake's a hard one to buy for.

He likes gadgets, nice smells, chocolate, and beautifully textured material. What would you do with that? Here are a few suggestions:

A wool-lined chocolate-flavoured self-seeking keyring; A perfumed silk shirt; a fragrance-emitting chain-mail covered alarm system; chocolate-coated turkish delight.

Kostya's back, and he's 21!

2007-10-30T07:19:00.000-07:00

After 2 years- 2 years of waiting and praying, smsing, calling, writing, visiting, encouraging-
Finally he's back.

Kostya's home! And he turned 21 on Sunday.

Our house is full at the moment. Not quite to capacity, thank God. But... only 2 young people and baby Gela are visitors in these photos.

Men of the house.
Roma, Alissa and little Angelina

Autumn photo shoot

2007-10-26T19:02:00.000-07:00

Crisp air, fresh skies, delicate leaves- the Glory of God revealed in Autumn.

This week in court

2007-10-26T18:22:00.000-07:00

Wednesday morning was a continuation of Katya's mum's trial. Katya had received a letter requesting her presence so she could testify. She hadn't been allowed to attend the previous hearing(s).
Trac and I went with her-

She hadn't seen her mum since May, when it all happened and her mum was arrested.
To see her would be hard enough. But to be alone in the straight jacket of legal procedure in a small room where her mum would be caged behind bars in a corner...

We arrived at the courthouse and followed a group of people Katya seemed to know down the long corridor of closed doors. We stopped and waited outside one of them, until a young man who turned out to be a legal secretary opened the door, invited us in and explained some basic protocol.
Stand when the judge enters. Stand when replying to a question from the judge. Otherwise don't speak at all. Don't make noise. Turn off your mobile phones.

Guards entered with Katya's mum. She's short, like Katya, with dark chocolate-brown hair, and deep brown eyes, like Katya. She has a low, gravelly voice. Quiet.
She sat still in the barred corner, with guards on either side of the room. The female guard sitting next to me spent the entire two hours sending messages on her phone.

When Katya first saw her mum, tears started streaking down her cheeks- they didn't let up until she went to sleep that night.

The judge called Katya to testify. Her mum's lawyer asked questions- what kind of a mother was she? Why did you live in a children's home for 6 months? Where is your brother now? Why was your baby sister already in a baby's orphanage when your mum was arrested? Do you love your sister? Why did you let her go to the orphanage? Describe your relationship with your mum. Is that a hard question? Do you love each other? Are you friends? You won't answer? That's all.

After they'd finished with Katya, the judge asked her mum to give a full account of the incident- so we heard all the gory details. Thank God Trac and I couldn't understand much in this part of the hearing. But Katya could. She heard it all.

I lent Katya my sunglasses on the way home.

The hearing will continue next week.

HOME

2007-10-18T23:28:00.001-07:00

THIS has been my home for the last year- but now it's time to start closing, finishing, completing, saying goodbye. I'm going back to Australind in 2 1/2 weeks.

The last couple of days at home have been very full of stressful things, but we are enjoying life and each other all the more for it.

Kostya (who's been in the army in Khabarovsk for the last 2 years) is coming home to Sakhalin next week. Two years of praying, waiting, supporting, smsing (Tracy's phone didn't often leave her hand these last 2 years! She's on 24 hour Kostya support standby) is coming to an end.

He's had a very difficult time, and new difficulties are arising with his return. Suffice it to say that we will not take part in the struggle going on for Kost. We're working through each new trouble with patience and endurance (thank you Lord for the passport and visa office, where we can learn such things!!)
We will prepare him a place in our household, and leave the rest for Kostya to decide.

Roma (above) has been going through troubles of his own. But in recent times he's turning more to us for friendship and relationship than previously. He'll be able to look for work again once his passport and documents are in order (they expired a month after he turned 20).

Natasha has grown and matured a lot since the summer. She spent the summer living with her sister (who recently turned 32) and working for her aunt, taking care of her baby cousin. For the first time Natasha has spent bulk time with these family members, and I wonder if she is finding a confidence and peace that comes with knowing who you are and where you're from, through her sister and aunt.

Nastya may have got herself a job today- she was calling around a couple of hours ago, and searching the papers for ads. She visits us occasionally, when she needs something (which is not uncommon)- but more often she's visiting without Anton, and I find her more approachable at those times. She finished her computing course this summer, and wanted to continue studying, but there's some rule about living at the school's dorm and money for a second course, which counts her out, at least for now. Hopefully she'll be able to earn enough money, stay focussed, and then pay her way through a second course. She can do it, it's just a matter of motivation...

It's a good thing I don't have paper airline tickets- I'm sure she would have taken them off me and hidden them by now ;-)

Day of Thanksgiving

2007-10-18T23:06:00.001-07:00

We celebrated the Harvest Festival in a Day of Thanksgiving at church last Sunday.

The table at the front of the church was LADEN with fruits and vegies, produce from the dachas, cottages belonging to church members.
Groups of people, and individuals performed songs, dances and poems. I was not among these, although it wasn't for Pastor Peter's lack of trying to persuade me to ;-)

After the celebration service we headed upstairs for afternoon tea (after which we didn't need dinner!) and talked, sang songs, "hung out" church style.

Grils' Night! at Ryan's

2007-10-18T22:50:00.001-07:00

I'm not saying Ryan was there: I'm saying thank you very much for lending us your pad!

While Ryan traipsed around central Europe, we took shifts to enjoy solitude, quiet, remembering what it means to be a human being at his place.

Friday night was girls' night which means one thing (well, two): good movies and LOADS of chocolate!

Beckles getting down with some cake.
Note: anyone interested in buying a snowboard, please contact Ryan!

We awoke to a taste of the season to come on Saturday morning: the first real snowfall.
It stayed on the ground all day-
Ryan, check your freezer for a snowball Beckles saved for you!

Chekov Peak: memories of Autumn

2007-10-13T05:19:00.000-07:00

Chekov Peak

2007-10-07T06:42:00.000-07:00

Saturday Ocober 6th opened with a thick fog across the city. As we packed for a day-long hike up Chekov Peak, thoughts turned to warm jumpers and beanies.

We were a group of about 20 people, who hiked together. Masha organised the trip as a birthday celebration for herself- and she did a good job of organising the weather too!

Chekov Peak is, I've been told, about 12 km walk from the city. After the walk, we began to climb. There were some very steep parts of the path- not rock climbing or cliffy, but hard going for someone of my fitness level. The ground was mercifully dry. I can imagine us all sliding down from the top in the mud!

With Masha

But whatever pain we individually went through was all but forgotten once we'd reached the summit. We could see the Sea of Ohotsk to the west; the city lay still thickly covered in cloud below to the south; mountains lay wherever we turned. The forest was radiant with some of the brightest autumnal colours I've seen.

Around the top we found a ground-covering plant carrying loads of red berries- brusnika, I don't know what they are in English. Like a mouthful of pure Vitamin C, we ate all we could. A resident of Sakhalin can never get too much of the stuff.

We were really slow going. What takes a relatively fit person 5-6 hours to travel took us a good 9 hours: it was dark as we walked back along the road into the city- again under the thick cover of cloud, with not even a start to light our way.

Goodbye Artor

2007-10-04T07:11:00.001-07:00

Artor, our guitarist, song leader and sometimes drummer, has gone. Left the island.

IF I understand correctly
(it's a little frustrating, never being sure of anything because I may have misunderstood)
he is from Ogligorsk, about mid-way up the island. His pastor there asked Artor if he'd consider moving to Vladivostok on the mainland, to help with a new church plant there.
So- he's going.

It's hard on his girlfriend, Katya- but it may not be long before they get married, in which case she would probably go to live in Vladivostok too.

The music team is beginning to despair, and then I told them about my plans to go back to Australia by the end of the year! I'm sure that soon the tide will turn, and people will begin coming to the team again!!

Igor and Jarik Clayton

Ruslan 'barabanshik'

Supremers

Sergei Zepplin

AFL Grand Final

2007-09-30T06:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I saw my second ever AFL game- the relaxed final between Port and Geelong.

Our friends (from Australind!) Scott and Alison and their boys live on Sakhalin, working in the oil and gas industry here. They have a lovely home, and cable TV! So Scott gathered all the Aussie men from the neighbourhood to watch the game together.
It was also Alison's birthday. So they invited all 6 of us to spend the night and celebrate life in a very Australian way.
It felt like all of our birthdays.

We were laughing about it together-
our eyes wide, talking excitedly about visiting Scott and Alison, where we watched a game of footy, saw some Rage, listened to the new Missy Higgins album, ate 'real' sausages, home made sausage rolls, real BBQ sauce, and egg and bacon and cheese toasted sandwiches.

How does this sound to you guys at home? Exotic? Exciting?

It's the small things in life.

Recent developments

2007-09-30T06:15:00.000-07:00

A young woman in our church who has a 10 year old son is out of work and as of last Wednesday, they had nowhere to live- so they moved in with us!

She has about half a flat's worth of furniture which has slowly been enveloping the girls' room, where Natasha is sleeping, and the boys' room which her son Vlad is sharing with Luke and Jake. It's interesting having another adult, and another child in the house (not in the teenage demographic!) - and we're slowly settling in around the changes.

We want to help Natasha find work and get back on her feet, and give Vlad some stability in his life (they haven't had a stable home for about 6 months I think)- so they'll be here with us for as long as they need to be.

You'll see more of them later.

Kateso's married!

2007-09-21T23:00:00.000-07:00

Our Kateso's married!
Yesterday was the big day.

It rained- but by 3pm when she and her husband Ruslan, the bridesmaid and best man and their close family arrived at our house for the pre-ceremony gathering, the rain had stopped and the sky began to clear.

Thick clouds. Moist air.
Kate's ivory glowed against the grey and green.

At our house the professional wedding MC had arranged games and competitions after Russian culture. Kate waited upstairs while Ruslan and his entourage arrived- Ruslan had to complete various tasks to earn his bride.

He had to guess which lipstick-kiss on a poster is his Kate's; to write Kate's name in rice on a board looking only into a mirror; to split a log of wood (determining how many children they'll have); guessing which shoe box contained Kate's shoe- and finally, when he'd passed the tests, Ruslan was presented with his bride.

Lovely, isn't he? Jake, in his element.

Thankfully, Ruslan wasn't happy with the "bride" his friends had tried to fool him with- Kate came down the stairs on cue, ready to greet Ruslan and his family.

In Russia, couples marry in the registry office. The office is open on certain days of the week, so couples and their small groups of witnesses are lined up in the foyer, waiting for their turn.

We arrived a little late, thanks to the taxi's non-arrival... We missed the first two minutes, and the ceremony was nearly finished. There were some musicians at the back, who played bars of this or that song on cue; the photographer directed everyone to their places, and the wedding was conducted by a woman in a nice suit, wearing a tight bun.

After Ruslan and Kate were presented to us, we greeted them and presented them with flowers etc. Then we were ushered into an adjoining room so the next wedding party could come through.

In the adjoining room was a long table laid out with champagne glasses (enough for one per adult) and two trays of chocolate.

We toasted Kate and Ruslan, some people said some things, and we we chatted for a few minutes.

Before leaving the registry office, we took group photos; and when Ruslan and Kate arrived, he carried her down the steps while we delighted in throwing plastic rose petals, grain and small coins at them.

Kate particularly wanted the 6 of us to come with her to take photos between the ceremony and the reception; it's tradition for newly weds to pay their respects and take photos at monuments throughout the city.
So we visited Lenin Square, Glory Square, and Kate and Ruslan paid their respects at the Neftigorsk memorial (remembering the town at the north of Sakhalin that was devastated by an earthquake in 1995).
There they fed pigeons.

The reception was held in a restaurant, and was a little more familiar- though there were still games, a couple of admirably short speeches, more kissing than Pearl Harbor, as Jake said, and dancing. It was a media event.

Congratulations Kate and Ruslan!

3 days on the edge of my seat

2007-09-21T22:11:00.001-07:00

At the last minute we were invited to join the pastor's and leader's conference happening this week. A team of pastors and teachers from the States were coming, and Pete, Trac and I agreed we wouldn't miss this opportunity to hear some teaching in English, no matter what the topic.

I guess I expected to hear a lot about building and increasing the local church, encouraging people, how to counsel with wisdom, etc etc. What I heard was something I've been learning about just very recently, and I had so many questions that were answered!

The Harrisons and I were very privileged to go out for dinner with Tom and Nelson, (left and right) - we had them all to ourselves for several hours.

These men have studied the Bible extensively, but never been to a Theological seminary; Tom is linguistically gifted (which is an understatement) and can understand meaning from the original Greek and Hebrew texts that gets lost in translation into English.

From Tom and Nelson I learned to 'dig' into the Scriptures- when I come across something that doesn't make sense, the answer can be found in another part of the Bible.
Here is an example:

John 7:52
The Pharisees (Jewish religious leaders) want to arrest Jesus. They were upset when their guards didn't bring Jesus to them, and they said "check into it, you'll see for yourself that no prophet comes from Galilee."
That was their reasoning for why Jesus couldn't be a prophet, let alone the Messiah.
Well- is it true? Can a prophet not come from Galilee? Because Jesus did.
Did Jesus give us a hint to the answer?

Check out Matthew 16:4
The Pharisees are testing Jesus- they asked him to show them a sign from heaven.
Jesus replies that a wicked generation asks for a sign; the only sign that will be given them is the sign of Jonah.

What's the sign of Jonah? Many people say that in the way that Jonah was kept in the belly of the fish for 3 days, so Jesus would stay in the belly of the earth for 3 days, then he'd rise from death. But what if there's more in Jesus' oblique answer?
Where's Jonah from?

2 Kings 14:25 tells us that Jonah is from Gath-Hepher. The other place this town is mentioned in Bible is Joshua 19:10-13, where it tells us that Gath-Hepher is in the region of Zebulun.
So... where's Zebulun?
Isaiah 9:1- Zebulun is in - wait for it- Galilee!

And the question is solved. Jonah came from Galilee, the Pharisees didn't know what they were talking about, and God shows us his wisdom and love by spreading the answer to our question across the centuries between Joshua and Jesus.

In teaching us this, Nelson could add his own experience. He's visited the area of Galilee several times. He's been to Nain, where the widow's son was raised, and he's been to Nazereth, the hometown of Jesus. Gath-Hepher is right between these two towns, 10 minutes walking distance from Nazereth. Jesus would have known the town Gath-Hepher from his childhood.

Do you understand what all of this means?
I'm so excited by the possibilities.

A story I heard

2007-09-20T05:09:00.000-07:00

**

Some years ago, a foreigner was visiting the USSR.
As he was walking along the footpath, his foot caught in an open, unmarked manhole, and he all but fell in to the pungent, briskly-flowing sludge below.

In his frustration he berated a passer-by.
"Why on earth is this man-hole left uncovered? It's unbelievably dangerous. There should at least be something to warn people to be careful. In my country we would mark a hole like this with red flags!"

"But sir," replied the passer-by, "When you entered the USSR, didn't you notice the big, red flag at the border?"

**

The welcoming committee

2007-09-20T04:26:00.000-07:00

Home bodies

2007-09-16T05:20:00.000-07:00

Roma's 20

2007-09-12T14:23:00.000-07:00

Sunday September 9th was Roma's 20th birthday- and the city's 125th.

We had a crowd for dinner, then they went into the city to see the concert and fireworks that accompany any celebratory occasion here-
Roma and his girlfriend Alissa arrived after everyone else had left, so we had them all to ourselves!
We couldn't have arranged the timing better.

First dinner crowd

Now that Rome's 20 he has to apply for a new passport- all Russians over the age of 14 have a domestic passport that acts as an identity document- they need a passport to et a job, pick up a parcel from the post office, or to make a large purchase.

One of Kostya's paintings

2007-09-06T00:25:00.000-07:00

Our house is decorated with pictures and paintings from Kostya. He has very little free time as a soldier serving his compulsory 2 year sentence, but the time he does he spends productively.

Mostly he uses the gel pens Trac posts to him occasionally; this was his first time to branch out into paints. He laid the watercolor on pretty thick to get a strong consistency.

Sakhalin Orchid

2007-09-03T14:44:00.000-07:00

That is, I think it's an orchid.
Native or introduced?

Does anyone know?

How many gentle flowers grow

2007-09-02T17:23:00.001-07:00

3 doors down lives a babushka. She is very kind to us: her husband sells us his diesel when we've run out (our heating and hot water runs from a diesel boiler); they brought us jars of birch tree sap to drink in early spring; and she often bring us herbs and vegetables from her garden- not to mention the flowers.

Baptisms

2007-09-02T16:19:00.000-07:00

On Saturday Valya and Sasha were baptised, along with several men from our church.
We drove in a convoy to a lake that's in the marshy plains, outside of the city. I'd never been there before.

After a little worship and prayer, one by one the candidates waded out to Pastor Peter.

Afterwards they were presented with a Bible each, and then a great feasting on watermelon began!

Sunday School

2007-09-02T15:32:00.001-07:00

Sunday School celebrated the back to school season as well. Becky was less than excited about standing at the front to sing a song and say a few lines with the other (much smaller) girls- but she did a good job, and was by far the best when it came to actions.

The kids perked up a bit when "Congratulations you're about to survive another year" gifts were presented to each student.

Back to School

2007-09-02T15:10:00.000-07:00

Students across the nation collectively grit their teeth on Saturday, September 1st 2007, for what was the first day of the new school year.
Bedecked in new school attire, laden with books and stationery all neatly placed inside their new school bags (kindly supplied by Pa and Granma), our three really looked the part.

All the best for the new school year!

Kate's birthday

2007-08-26T18:30:00.001-07:00

It was Kate's birthday yesterday- and also a celebration of Ruslan's birthday last week, and their wedding in -20 days, as Ruslan counts it.

Kate and Trac and Ruslan spent a lot of time on Saturday developing a rally-type game-
her friends met at our place, then when they were ready Kate gave them their first task. They earned directions to the next check point by completing the task.
I was stationed at Check point 2, where a team member had to act the word "dream" as a charade for the rest of the team to guess. Luke was at Point 3 by the Spring with a mathematical problem for them to deal with- in total there were 6 check points. We all "ended up" at a picnic in the forest, where Ruslan had set out picnic blankets, goodies, and got the sheshlik cooker fired up and cooking some kebabs.

Kate and Friends
The late afternoon glow drifted down into a dusky darkness- then the rising moon brought with it a light of a different quality. What beauty we have at our doorstep.
Happy Birthday Kate and Ruslan!

Wedding Number 2: Ruslan and Tatiana

2007-08-26T17:50:00.000-07:00

Tanya's sister, Ira, was married last month. This month is was Tanya's turn: we played at both weddings, and this time I had more than a clue as to what to expect!

Ruslan and Tanya chose to have a church ceremony. To marry in Russia, the couple plus witnesses should go to the marriage registration office where there is a legal ceremony performed by the state, a toast is made and from there the couple continue to celebrate as they choose. Orthodox couples take a 4-hour long church ceremony, some have their pastors perform a ceremony of blessing where the couple make Christian vows; most couples simply go on to a reception in a hotel or restaurant, if they can afford to.

Saturday's ceremony for Ruslan and Tanya was short and beautiful, then we all went back to her father's house where we celebrated, played music, watched skits, ate food, saw fireworks and, when most people had already gone... there was dancing!

Natural drama

2007-08-26T17:20:00.000-07:00

Dramatic clouds cover the sky, trapping the rich afternoon light; it dances from reflective surfaces, and fills us with a deep, innate desire to be outside.

Sasha and Vlad (aka Mr Putin)

Maxim, practicing being 40.

Katya

Vaisa, Luke and Pete bringing in the shopping

Wintery summer days

2007-08-22T18:30:00.000-07:00

For those of you in Australia, I'm enjoying the winter along with you. Soon it'll be autumn, and then a winter all of Sakhalin's own.
Apparently it's not a normal Sakhalin summer- thank God, because it truly is not preparing anyone's spirits for the 6 months of white frozenness ahead. I'm glad it's not always like this.

The wedding is on Saturday! A young couple from our church are getting married and they're having a service in our church, as well as the official registration ceremony that many Russian couples leave it at. We (the music team) are practicing unceasingly, and so far the hard work is showing itself off.

But for some reason, everything wants to happen this week. There is a concert Ryan is playing in on Friday (that's tomorrow) and Saturday night, 3 different groups of people we HAVE to invite for dinner this week before their birthdays/ weddings/ going home to the mainland, the wedding on Saturday, and I'm feeding my friend's bulimic cats for the next three days while he's in Seoul.

Today Pete, Luke, Jake and Sasha have gone to the stables- our friend keeps her horses there, and knows the owner very well. He's building new stables this year, and the boys have gone to help him. They might be busy for the next couple of weeks! A good way to end the summer holidays.

Music

2007-08-17T05:59:00.000-07:00

I've been caught up in a whirl-wind of creative activity-

I don't know what the trigger was! After nearly a complete year of dormancy, I've began to write again! I played with a design on the computer, I've been listening to music Ruslan gave me almost non-stop- Belarussian and British! and my guitar is getting tired of me, as I am of it-
now that Sergei (our church music team leader) is back, we have a rush of power back in our practice nights, I have a lot of music to learn as usual, and there's another wedding coming up; the sister of July's bride.

I have a headache - but I'll continue on!

must...practice-
must.......

Music Festival

2007-08-17T05:42:00.000-07:00

The music festival happened last Sunday- the groups from Belarus all arrived the week before, stayed at different people's places (including ours) and traveled to different towns, churches and summer camps around southern Sakhalin before the big concert.
They sure worked hard.

There were a couple of different groups- and singers. They played in short rounds- cycling throughout the afternoon and into the evening.
Starting at 3 and finishing at 10pm, there was a lot of time to hang out and hear them all. And for the audience- if they didn't particularly like one style of music, it was only a quarter of an hour before the next group would play. So where's the problem?

I know I'm biased, but these were my favourite guys. Nick gave me a copy of their earlier CD too, so I knew most of the songs when they played.

Antivirus: Ruslan, Vitalik, Max and DimaNick on sound

Our own Sergei joined Spasenie with his blues harmonica

Why does this always happen?

2007-08-10T20:19:00.000-07:00

Some of you might know that I studied English literature and creative writing at uni. I love stories, books, language... yet I rarely read.
I wondered why. So- I picked up a book and decided to remind myself of how great reading is.
And couldn't stop. After putting in some serious hours to finish every book in the series, I searched out another story- images, emotions, characters, events needed to keep flowing through my mind.

I finished my last book at 4:30am. I'm sleep deprived. A little bit cranky. I can't stop thinking about the characters, continuing the story to myself. And I'm looking for another book to start.

I need my life back.

I'm so like my mum.

Rock rocks!

2007-08-09T20:54:00.000-07:00

Peter and the boys, Luke and Jake, got home from camp yesterday.
Exhausted, hungry and sick of being wet, they had a great time! All said and done.

When Trac and I sat down with Pete late last night to tell him all that had happened in the two weeks he'd been away, we realised just how MUCH had happened! Some suspicious incidences involving strange men just walking into our house (repeated again this morning)- I mean we do have a door to knock on!

The whole hospital thing with Roma; the boys getting work; the Russian wedding we attended; our washing machine flooded our house so on the next sunny day we had to lift the big carpet in the lounge, take it outside, wash it and dry it and then replace it; and we had 3 members of a Belarussian rock band stay with us on Monday and Tuesday!

There's a Christian music festival in town this weekend- about 4 groups from Belarus came to Sakhalin, and the Med City Band which I don't know a lot about, but I think hail from New York. Throughout this week they've been circuiting around the island, playing small concerts at camps, a prison, ...they're the only places I heard about.
The guys that stayed with us are Ruslan, Nik and Max from Antivirus. They're great guys- thankfully Ruslan speaks English fluently, so we could ask a lot of questions ;-)
Russian is spoken in Belarus, but Belarus is much more European than Russia. The similarities and differences (from what we could gather in a couple of hours) are fascinating. I'd love to visit Minsk some day!

They (all the bands) are playing tomorrow night at Grace Church, then the big concert is at 3pm on Sunday afternoon, in the soccer stadium in the park.
I hope this is the first of many events to come!!

Tuesday, at last

2007-07-31T05:22:00.000-07:00

Tuesday is the first day of our "weekend"- alway a day looked forward to. It's a day our household is closed- meaning that young people aren't welcome to visit today, only those who are living here. When all 4, or even 6 of them are at home, it hardly feels any different!

But today Trac, Beckles and I got a good few hours to ourselves.
And we coloured our hair- I've learned a lot from Trac already. it's great living with a hairdresser!

**
Yesterday Jenya and Anton started working in Holmsk- a port city on the west coast, north of Yuzhny. They're working in a team renovating the interior of a 5-star restaurant. They'll be away for a month! It's usual practice for workers to live in the building they're working on - they'll need blankets and pillows to sleep on.
They called last night- to tell us they miss us, that they love Holmsk, that we should go there to visit them on the weekend, when they have time off... maybe they will!
They came back this evening and will stay until tomorrow, to deal with some legal matters and documentation. We miss them when they're away! But we hope they'll learn a lot while they're away-especially that they'll learn to find satisfaction in their work, and learn to rely on God for their needs.

We might see them fairly often throughout the month ;-)

Now he's Home

2007-07-30T05:27:00.000-07:00

He came home today. And, well, not many of my questions are answered, but here's the story I got (just to set our minds at rest)

He went to Korsakov with his uncle, who's the same age as him.
His uncle went back Saturday evening to Yuzhno Sakhalinsk, Rome stayed in Korsakov with friends and got rip-roaring drunk.
There were four friends.
Mobile reception in the area is dodgy so he left his mobile at his friend Andrei's house, while he and Dima went driving to the sea. They had a car accident- due to copious amounts of alcohol, Rome (conveniently) doesn't remember what happened. He woke up in hospital in Korsakov at about 1pm Sunday afternoon.
Dima was in the bed next to him. They got up and left the hospital on their own.

Went to Toli's place, their other friend. Apparently Toli had driven the car back to his place. Maybe he took them to the hospital??
They called Andrei to say they were coming over, and arrived at Andrei's at about 6pm. It seems that we'd missed Andrei on the road where he really was going to meet us and give us Roma's mobile.
It would seem Andrei didn't know how Roma and Dima were at the time.
Roma doesn't know why he told us he'd been transferred to hospital in Yuzhny...
All the ends still aren't meeting, but- that's the story I've got and I'll have to make do with it.

Thanks everyone who kept in touch and I'm sorry- very sorry! for getting us all concerned about very little.
Tracy and I explained to Roma how worried we'd been and how everybody had already heard about it, and he'd better be ready to answer everyone's questions for a long time to come.
I don't think he realises - cares? - how big a deal it was.

Times like this really make me wonder...

Roma's not in a coma

2007-07-29T05:38:00.000-07:00

This is good news, is it not?
I'm trying to look on the bright side.
Let me tell you the long, sad story.

We were in church. The singing part had finished and I'd scooted around the back of the church to sit with Tracy and Simon and Ira, who translates the sermons for us.
2 minutes into the sermon, Trac got an sms from Anton who was at home, asking her to call home right now.

So Trac and I went out the back to make the call. I spoke to Jenya- he had just had a call from Roma's girlfriend (well, ex-girlfriend by one day) Alissa, to say that Roma had been in a car accident in Korsakov (port town, to the south of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk) and was in a coma in Korsakov's hospital. It wasn't long afterwards that I, Simon (who kindly offered to drive us for the day!) and Tracy, Anton, Jenya and Alissa were in the car, headed for sunny Korsakov.

We found the hospital- but there was no such young man, named Roma or otherwise, admitted to the hospital. Our one source of information was the man answering Roma's cell phone, which was intermittently available throughout the day. His name was Dima... or was it Andrei? There seemed to be a name change at some point. We called the police, but they had no record of a car accident yesterday in the area. The second time we spoke to Dima/Andrei, he said Rome had been moved to a Yuzhny hospital because it was such a severe situation. He would meet us on the highway at a bus stop near the site of the crash to hand over Roma's phone.
He didn't show.

Later, when we got home, Natasha tried Roma's phone number again and Dima/Andrei answered it, then put Roma on! Something is true: Roma's not in a coma. Roma told Natasha that he IS in hospital in Korsakov, he'd just woken up and spoken to the doctor, and he would be there for at least 2 months. So we called Alissa who had gone home herself, to let her know the latest news- Trac could hear her yelling at Natasha over the phone- it's not true! Alissa had called Roma's phone again herself, and one of his friends answered- maybe Dima/Andrei. He told her that it was all a joke- that when Alissa had called Roma late last night, they were pretty drunk and Roma didn't want to talk to her. He told his friends to say he had been in a car accident and was in a coma.

So- what to believe?
There are a lot of un-accounted-for facts here.
Did Alissa hear about the accident from Roma's friends late last night, or at about 1pm today as she'd told us?
Was there a car accident? Or was it not reported to the police because the car was driven off the scene? If there were narcotics involved they would want to steer clear of the men in navy blue.
Why did the hospital tell us he wasn't there, if he was?
Why was Dima/Andrei going to meet us on the highway to give us Roma's phone if he was with Roma (in the hospital?) when Natasha called him, about an hour later?
Why did he tell us Roma had been transferred to a Yuzhny hospital?
And another point, which seems seems insignificant but still doesn't make sense- did Roma and Alissa break up 3 days ago, which is what Roma told us three days ago, when we last saw him, or yesterday, which is what Alissa told me?
Where is Roma? He is probably in Korsakov, at a friends house, or at the hospital?
Is this true? Or completely fabricated?

Only one thing we know for sure: Roma's not in a coma.

How to celebrate a wedding

2007-07-29T04:37:00.000-07:00

I felt a bit roped into the situation. It was announced at music practice one day that we were playing at a wedding. I kind of understood, but wasn't sure that I was included, or... what, really. I didn't know who the bride and groom were.

Well, I was included.
And now I'm glad I was.

We met at our church at 3pm to practice. At 4pm we were to go together to the place, wherever it was, and set up to be ready for the party (bride and groom). Then Olyessa (pastor Peter's daughter) happened to mention that we'd be outside- it looked like rain, the wind was picking up and Trac and I agreed that we needed to go home for jackets! What a palava. I had no idea what was going to happen.
At this point we were getting late, so Trac and Bec took a taxi home and back to the wedding and I went there in the van with all the other musicians.

Becky, looking lovely

We headed into the are of the wedding- it was in one of areas of housing in the city that are unsealed- making everything on the road and open to the air, dirty. We drove into - the backyard of the bride's father's house! Which had a big under cover area, like a big kind of patio, with canvas sheets around the poles to create walls (great windbreaks!) Long trestle tables were set up, the rough wood covered in brown paper, groaning under the load of food and drinks (no alcohol though- this was a thoroughly Christian wedding! The bride's grandfather is Sakhalin's oldest pastor). There was a bridal table decked in white, with balloons and streamers and the word 'love' decorating the canvas wall behind it. The other walls had hand-painted posters of love, happiness and wise sayings. And along one side was a raised platform, with speakers, keyboards, guitars, a sound desk and microphones aplenty.
The stage (I'm tucked away there at the back)

The evening was filled with songs, puppet plays, skits, games (where the groom, Slava, had to find his new wife from among a group of women, while blindfolded. Or where the mothers of bride and groom had to guess their son or daughter's voice from a group of voices.) Ira and Slava even sang a couple of songs together! And you know what? No one really cared too much. Some people wore jeans. A couple of singers were a bit off, I know one of our songs plummeted to death, but it didn't matter. We were there, contributing, feasting, talking, laughing, rejoicing.

Slava and Ira, overlooking our trestle table

Beckles, me and Olyessa

At church on Sunday morning, I looked around, and recognised so many people who were at the wedding last night. I'd never met them before.

Worst things? It was jolly cold, and because I didn't actually know the new couple I didn't want to take photos.
Best thing? I get to do this again next month, when Ira's sister Tatiana gets married!!
Woohoo!

They've gone

2007-07-27T04:56:00.000-07:00

It happened this afternoon, at 2. They had to come back to get the projector, of course. Wouldn't be normal if something hadn't been left behind.
*sigh*
Happy camping to them.

Someone must have packed playing cards, coz it is really raining down.
That heavy sound of dropping rain. Warm, still air. The upbeat of each drop from the ground. A couple of lightning flashes have broken the darkness.

***Katya, Roma, Trac and I just rushed outside to catch a glimpse of lightning, un-window-pane-fettered. Trac found a mud-puddle. Katya's still in shock that Trac went out there bare-footed. Trac's covered in mud.

I took Daisy for a walk earlier; had to shower the dirt off her legs afterwards. Yeah, she loves that.
I had a lot of practice last time we took care of her, so today was bez problema.

Tomorrow Trac, Bec and I are going to a wedding! A young couple from our church are getting married. We don't know them at all. But I'm playing with the music team at the dinner part (it's going to be a new cultural experience, for sure!), Bec is singing with several other young girls, and Trac may be called upon to make some sort of speech/greeting.
That's all we know.
I'm praying that whatever we choose to wear will be appropriate, that I'll remember the songs I have to play, that Bec will be able to find and practice the words in the morning, that we'll have someone there who can interpret for us...
I'll let you know how it goes ;-)

Camp

2007-07-25T18:44:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow Pete and Luke and Jake are heading out to a 2-week Chrisitan summer camp.

Summer camps are the go here- most kids spend at least a month of their holidays away on camp, and Chrisitan kids are no different.
Pete's going as a team leader, and the boys are along for the ride.

The camp is held in tents, by a lake, close to the middle of nowhere. I've heard lots of stories about it- the little flies that bite your bum, the warm lake water- the best for swimming in! Washing clothes by hand, good food, crazy amounts of time cooped up in a hot tent learning old russian hymns, and an awards evening where all the little campers don their evening dresses, suits and ties for a formal dinner.

It's like no camp I've ever experienced. Thank God, that's not about to change!

Trac, Becky and I are holding the fort on our own for two weeks. We'll miss the guys. A lot.

Happy Birthday Luke!

2007-07-25T18:32:00.000-07:00

July 25th 2007- Luke's 13th birthday.

Finally, Luke is a teenager. Ooohhh, he's been waiting for this moment for a long time!
Finally, Pete and Trac truly are the parents of a teenager. They hadn't noticed the moment sneaking up on them.

We spent the day at the park! Eating Russian BBQ, Luke chose a ride, back home for pizza ala Pete, hanging out with a couple of our friends Luke had invited. It was a chilled-out day, no full-on party, no crowds of people, no great demands. Just like Luke.
He's my kind of guy. You're the best, Luke!

2-2

2007-07-23T05:11:00.000-07:00

Hey there, lil bro- Happy Birthday!

I hope you're having a blast, a ball and a wheel... ;-) All your favourite things.
Wish I could be there with you today!

(mum, don't worry- this photo was taken late at night!! LoL)

Birthday

2007-07-20T04:46:00.000-07:00

My friend Ryan is flying back to Perth today, for a holiday. As usual, I loaded him up with personal belongings for him to carry back to Australia for me- I feel bad, we treat him like a delivery service! He can’t go to Australia without ferrying this or that across the equator on our behalf. He says it’s no problem, though. Well, due to some unforeseen circumstance, he missed his flight, and so he’s leaving today- take two. But because of the delay, he’ll be spending his birthday tomorrow in Hong Kong.

Happy Birthday Ryan- we’re all thinking of you!!

200 m

2007-07-20T04:35:00.001-07:00

Have I mentioned that we live 200 m from a forest?

You can walk up hill for 10 mins and stop seeing other people, or hearing city sounds other than the nearby military base’s rifle practice. It’s all just there, and if you come prepared with mosquito repellant, quick reflexes to brush away the ticks, and keep an eye out for bears, you have nothing to worry about but enjoying the forest you’re in.

It truly is lovely and, though I know little about flora, especially here, I find it quite remarkable. There are plenty of coniferous trees, typical of cold climates- but then there are huge herbs, and plants I would describe as tropical. I like the way a friend once put it- there’s so much energy in the ground here, that all this greenery leaps up, and shoots enormous stalks and leaves into the air, making the most of the short summer months.

Our friend Ira invited us to join her for a picnic in the forest this week. We ended up walking nearly to the top of the hill, when Luke found a trail leading down to a river, with an open grassy area (that the bears had cleared ;-) just perfect for eating in. It’s only an hour’s walk from our house!

Horses

2007-07-20T04:18:00.000-07:00

Janet has a horse, Chaika, who gave birth to a foal last week. She took us out to see the young one- he was very shy, and quite appealing to her dogs ;-)

At less than a week old, he was already past the wobbly stage. I don’t know that I’d ever seen such a young foal before. He’s beautiful.

A Crowded House

2007-07-12T21:23:00.000-07:00

It's summer and ... that's why it's raining. Go figure

So we're all inside, there's a movie on, no one's talking to me and I can spare a thought for our crazy week! Anton and Nastya got kicked out of their apartment this week, for reasons unexplained, and rather than have them sleep on the street, of course they came to stay with us! And their dog Gruff. We had the questionable pleasure of taking care of Gruff when he was a wee little one, and that's what he did, everywhere- that and yelp. Well the weeing has become less than constant in the last three months, but the yelping has kept pace with his body size. Thankfully they only needed to stay one night.
It was good to see them though. Anton used to live with us, but since moving out and getting a job he doesn't have a lot of time to visit anymore.
How does the proverb go? Distance and the heart...?

Our days off got a bit sabotaged by the whole event, and others (non-youth) needing to visit and talk, etc. I decided to take some drastic measure to preserve my sanity, so I went walking.

"Gulat' " is a concept I've only encountered here. It may be a Russian thing, a youth thing, a lower socio-economic thing... I don't know. Our young folks here fall into all these categories. Gulat' means to go out. Usually with someone else, but I went on my own. To go out and to hang out, walk around, not do anything but just spend time. It's often related with drinking binges... I won't go into that here. But basically, what I did was I walked around town, ALL afternoon. I wouldn't want to do it every day, I couldn't walk much at all the following day!! But I got my much-needed time out, alone. And- I might just do it again sometime.

Because he lives I can face tomorrow- because he lives, all fear is gone! Because I know he holds the future, and life is worth the living just because he lives.

Home Groups

2007-07-06T16:53:00.000-07:00

Our church has organised home groups to meet across the city- we host one at our house on Monday nights.
Pastor Peter gave us material for the first three weeks, and he came to lead our group himself last week- which was our first meeting. There was only he and ourselves there- although that's no mean number. 10 of us altogether. And he spoke in Russian, explaining the message to us in limited English as he went along.
We sang songs together. In turns- English and then he sang in Russian.
Jenya, Anton and Sasha began to really listen, and Pastor Pete's jovial nature and Belorussian background brought out a few smiles.

As he left he gave me a pile of material for the next two weeks. He'd be away, and I may have to lead the group.

I have spent the last three days on the sofa with a dictionary, trying to translate the four pages of stuff for Monday night. Last night I finished and typed in English the first two pages. Hopefully the second half uses a lot of the same words (>_<)
Today my task is to find and type out songs that we know in both English and Russian.
Please help me God!

Khabarovsk

2007-07-03T19:45:00.000-07:00

Pete's family came to visit us early in June- just a couple of hours after the Grace team had left! Several days later, we trooped off to Khabarovsk, to visit a young man there who is having a hard time serving his country.

I found Khabarovsk to be a beautiful city; far more European in appearance than Sakhalin! Sakhalin, full of buildings we fondly call "Soviet blocks" - Sakhalin, with a different history to the rest of Russia- settled over the last 60 years at first as a penal colony, later advertised as a land of new opportunity... sound familiar? But Khabarovsk has old buildings and infrastructure, lovely facades, wide paved streets and built along the river Amur.

And it's hot. It was hot in early June, reaching 36 degrees on our last day! High humidity and a large mosquito population make it a curse for some, but for me it was a slice of hope- summer has finally arrived!

Khabarovsk is quite a remarkable place. About an hour drive north of the Chinese border, Khabarovsk experiences temperatures of -40 degrees in winter, and +40 degrees in summer! That is... a difference of 80 degrees. Celcius.
The cost of living there is two thirds, or sometimes even half to cost of living in Sakhalin. Now that I've been there, I understand why so many Sakhaliners are moving to the mainland. Soon only the wealthy will be able to afford to live on Sakhalin.

We had the great joy of spending the week with Helen, a young woman who just graduated from university and acted as our interpreter and guide while we were there. She made it possible for us to visit our young soldier. Praise God, after many threats and interviews with the bureau of National Security, he was released to visit us for three days!!

Now that we are back in Sakhalin, we are waiting for the next 4 months until he completes his time and comes home.

Gently gently

2007-07-03T19:38:00.000-07:00

Call it paranoia, call it a love of conspiracy theories, call it an inflated sense of self-importance.

But the three of us here have discussed it and decided that, taking evidence, recent circumstances and political forecast into account, it is best to be less forthcoming with facts, names and pictures on this blog than I have been. So please- read between the lines, and try to guess the rest ;-)

Felicity

Luke

2007-06-27T07:28:00.001-07:00

200 metres from home

2007-06-27T07:21:00.001-07:00

On a certain day

2007-06-27T07:08:00.001-07:00

We weren't allowed to forget that May 31st is a special date, and should be so marked in our calendars: It is Anya's birthday. She turned a sweet 17.
And was overjoyed that our Australian visitors would share it with her. She speaks English reasonably well and thrives on attention. The perfect birthday gift.

The not Faraway Forest

2007-06-16T06:06:00.001-07:00

I consider myself blessed to be living on the outskirts of the city, at the edge of a forest.
The only time the forest is not a blessing is when the snow is melting- but, thank God, that season is long gone! Picnics and sunbathing by crazy Russian girls (not me, mum!!) are to be had for the thinking.

Another great point is that our drinking water is free- it just takes a little effort to fill up and carry the 19L pump bottle home. But that's the boys' job!

To walk about 100m from our front doorstep and be surrounded by trees is beautiful. It's a place of escape- from the house, from people, to pray, to think, to play...

Antoucha

2007-06-16T05:59:00.000-07:00

Off the back of a truck

2007-06-16T05:48:00.000-07:00

I know that the market-eers here are regulated- each store displays it's own array of certificates of approval, registration, familial protection... judging by the offical-looking blue rubber stamp adorning them.

But there is another kind of seller, which tends to move about, setting up tables outside market buildings, selling bunches of hand-picked flowers from the forests, home-made relishes, pickles, and korean salads, hand-knitted socks, booties, scarves and gloves, and cheap plastic house slippers.

There's the "cheap table"- a lady who regularly sets up a trestle table on the sidewalk and sells out-of-date (usually edible) food stuffs for minimal prices.

There's a couple who seem to grow their own produce, mostly potatoes, and sell them direct;

And there's the back of the truck.

Sunday Morning

2007-06-16T05:31:00.001-07:00

Jesus is RISEN!!

Bussing it

2007-06-16T05:01:00.000-07:00

When the weather's good and we don't have too much to carry, it's nice to walk. Otherwise, we take a bus.

Catching a bus in Sakhalin is an experience in itself. Most of the buses that serve the city are 15-seater minivans, and they are numbered with a list of their stops, or a circuit map, on the door. The 45 takes us to the Chinese Markets, Grace church, and home. The 16 will end up at the mental hospital. We can catch the 92 or the 63 to the airport; and to go to church on Sundays we can take the 15, 16, 81 or 105.

Good on ya, 81!

A kiss of snow

2007-06-16T04:46:00.000-07:00

We are forever grateful to Sakhalin for showing off our ski slope to the Grace team: it snowed overnight, and the snow hung around, gracing Gorny Vostok for the rest of the day

A range of weather

2007-06-14T21:24:00.000-07:00

A definite stress of inviting visitors to Russia, and particularly Sakhalin Island, is the registration process that we must begin (we have discovered) as soon as possible. That way the process may be completed within the first week of stay, and avoid unnecessary, inconvenient and somewhat expensive repurcussions... enough said.

On the first full day of stay, we took the team into town to register. Facefulls of sleet later, we made it panting and wet to our doorstep. I don't know that I have ever been so wet while fully dressed.

Kate met us and filled in the forms. Filling them in by hand, in duplicate, for three people takes a bit of time. But she was more than happy to take the morning off work for us. Thank you Kate!!

The team stayed in a flat we rented for 10 days. It was very close to our place, just 5 mins walk! And was the perfect place to hang out, have meetings and to pray. The kids were impressed- not only did the flat have a TV, they could watch the National Geographic Channel!!!

From an outsider's perspective

2007-06-05T19:51:00.000-07:00

After living in a place for more than 2 weeks, first impressions begin to fade and it's very difficult to recognise the differences. Well, to some extent.

Here are some photos of the city that Dave took on the taxi ride from the airport. Note: Sakhalin is not always this overcast!

A wooden Dacha (cottage) along the road. Families often own a dacha- they are out of town, and usually don't have electricity, water, sewerage... families that live in town use their cottages as vegetable gardens and day-time or holiday get-aways. But many people do call a dacha their home. Picturesque, but terribly prone to fire.

The hospital at the top of our street.

An apartment block in less than the best state... but there are a lot of such buildings around.

View of apartment blocks from the kitchen window. Usually Russian apartments look pretty crumby on the outside, but inside can be very comfortable.

The Grace team arrived!

2007-06-04T02:34:00.000-07:00

Sakhalin airport, May 25th 2007: Dave, Frank and Jenny (mum) take their first footsteps on Russian soil.

Sakhalin airport is very small and it does feel quite parochial, climbing down the steps of the plane to the tarmac, hand luggage clutched tightly under one arm as the other is busy ensuring your stability on the rickety staircase, pushing onto a crowded bus and getting dropped of at the immigration desk where you wait for everyone from business class to be processed before you are- but your laughter will quickly die down when you see the unblinking eyes, stilletos and gruff commands from the woman wearing a khaki suit and possibly holding a gun.
Keep your eyes cast down and pray they won't send you back to Seoul on the plane you just 'disembarked' from.

But we were there to meet them- the Harrisons and me. I'd last seen mum (and Frank and Dave) in November, 6 months before. But for the Harrisons, it had been over 12 months since having face-to-face contact with visitors from home. Very exciting.

They brought a LOT of luggage with them, and left with very little. The purpose of their trip was to encourage us, see what we do, how we live, and give us some good and Godly advice and support. The short 10 days they spent here was jam-packed full of talking and tears, jokes and laughter, sleet, sunshine, snow and mist- they left us with new ideas, fresh vision, encouraged and supported and loved. What a team! What a taste of things to come!

In the last week of spring

2007-06-04T02:27:00.001-07:00

Paaarrrtteeeee!

2007-06-04T00:25:00.000-07:00

Party it was for May 23rd- we'd planned and invited and it finally came together- with 30 or more guests we had a full house, and plenty of new introductions. But it was good to have everyone together. Next time we might have less people at once...
Masha, me getting older and Ira- both Masha and Ira have interpreted for us at different times, and are good friends.
Trac, Felicity, Lena and Ira
I said goodbye to Jenya and Anton before they headed out after the party.
Ryan found his favourite corner of the room and stayed there!

Trac cooked for two days straight, making everything but the cake!! Thanks for such a great party Trac.

Scott Elders, group photographer and former resident of Clifton Park- 10 mins drive away from my home in Australind!

I can't deny it any more- I'm a quarter of a century, and there is no turning back. :-(
Best to go through it with a bang!

May 23rd

2007-05-22T06:42:00.000-07:00

I have noticed a weather pattern over the last 20 or so years- it always rains on my birthday.
Tonight (the early hours) is no exception.

* * * *

Today is jam-packed full of plans- I'd better get some sleep so I can cope with it all!
Trac has been flooding the fridges with roast chicken, kebabs, and something secret she won't show me all day, and is talking feverishly of plans for crepes, deserts, salads and serviettes tomorrow; our friend and interpreter Kate and probably her boyfriend Roslun and maybe a friend of their's, Daniel, who she's trying to set me up with (she's wasting her time), are coming over for lunch because they can't make it for the ; party tonight! We've invited over 30 people to our little house! I've demanded that the boys make it their plan to be here, and we have food galore, the chocolate game, M&M relays prepared (in our line of work we're never short of games to play!), good music and a healthy mix of Aussies, other random internationals and Russians! We have a lot of cleaning and tidying to do before then- so I'll say goodnight and get some rest ;-)
(Something you have to make allowances for as you get older, right dad?)

Music

2007-05-22T06:08:00.000-07:00

I love my Russian church. As a family we're getting to know some of the other members and leaders, and they are so passionate about living for Christ. I respect and admire them. I love how Russian our church service is, too. It's on the occasional side that we sing songs that I know the English lyrics to- we prefer Russian songs, and we praise God with Russian rhythms that just call my feet to dance!!

On Sunday the pastor's wife asked me to come to music practice with the musicians on Tuesday, and the music team practice on Thursday. I was so excited- I've been itching to play with other musicians for months- years! And all my memories from my years on the Grace team came flooding back- both the good and the difficult ones! All precious and character building, in their own way ;-)

Well, tonight was Tuesday and so off I went, caught the bus all on my own (a small feat in itself) and went to church and played. My guitar is getting repaired by the music master at the musical college in town (some of the cream-coloured capping over the top of the neck had chipped off) so I played an electric guitar. I found that my memory for chord patterns has improved with my age (which took a giant leap forward about 30 minutes ago!! (>_<) and everything I've ever learned came back to me. Woohoo!
I'm looking forward to Thursday. The team leader, Sergei, asked me if I can sing in Russian. I guess I can, if I have enough time to learn the songs. Now this WILL be a challenge!

MAY DAY picnic in the park

2007-05-01T17:06:00.000-07:00

It has become a tradition- for a family that's lived here for two years, anyway.
May Day, public holiday and beginning of the spring celebrations that fall across the first 10 days in May, is spent in the park. We weren't the only ones there, either.

We have "our" little secluded spot by the river that we always head for.

And do we know how to picnic!

Bringing in the supplies ;-)
Trac and Pete setting up camp
Beckles and I lounging around

Beckles Me and Jake

Luke, Becky, Roma and Jake Luke. Please refer to him as "Cool Dude"

The muddy remains of our snowboarding slope

благая вест

2007-05-01T16:50:00.000-07:00

Our church- Blagaya Vest- is AWESOME!

It's hard to give you an idea.
we go for the rock version of praise songs, we listen to the instrumental "Theme from Local hero" originally by Dire Straits during our tithes and offering (why don't we do that in Australia?!??) and... we just love it.

Sorry these photos aren't very good but this is what it looks like from my point of view.

His kingdom, his power, his glory will be forever!

Late Snows

2007-05-01T16:41:00.000-07:00

The snow had melted.

It was sunny. Getting warm. Then one day, on April 29th, we woke up to see...

A big snow fall.

Wet snow sticks to everything. It was a beautiful salute to the end of winter.

Goodbye! Goodbye white coldness! We'll see you again too soon.

Unrecognised Genius

2007-05-01T16:18:00.000-07:00

You've met Jenya before. Here he is, just to refresh your memory...

He has a gift. He can break just about anything he sets (or doesn't set) his mind to, simply by walking past it.

But there's another side to his gift- he is a creative inventor.
He can take any household appliance and, much to Peter's frustration, take it apart and make it "better" and/or something completely different.

Anton and Jenya had a friend give them a tatoo recently. Once the scabs had come off (I know, ewww) they weren't happy with the result. So Jenya took apart a battery-operated nail buffer, remains of the OLD laptop, electrical tape and a guitar string and made himself a tatoo machine.

As much as they said it didn't hurt, I'm sure it did! But, I have to admit... they did a good job!
Don't try this at home folks.

Ice Fishing

2007-05-01T15:13:00.000-07:00

There is a man, Victor. He goes to our church. And he keeps his car out the front, at our house. So we see him in passing nearly every day. (Incidentally, his wife just had a baby boy. Congratulations Victor!)
Well- he invited us to go ice fishing with him several times. Finally Pete was able to take him up on the offer- bundled up in as many warm clothes as possible, off they went, to spend the day on the ice, hauling in fish.

Pete in action Victor Fishing people scattered across the bay The ice is about 1 1/2metres thick- enough to hold the weight of a vehicle

April picnic

2007-04-15T03:33:00.000-07:00

What can you do on a beautifully sunny day, when the kids are on holidays and everyone's at home? Go on a picnic, of course!
(Australian style)

Luke guarding the fire

Pete and Luke hard at work Roma collecting the firewood. For a ...small blaze

Step a mm off the path and you'll be knee-deep in snow.
Jake standing on the path
Bec taking a swing - Pete taught her to hit the ball 5 minutes before!
Jake the great bowler Trac fielding

The mountains have been clear lately

2007-03-19T05:27:00.000-07:00

We live in a basin. To the north: mountains. The the south? Well... the ocean. Japan. The east: mountains . The west: mountains.

They are beautiful, and sometimes very clear.

Looking out of the window to see mountains in the distance further confirms the fairytale feeling I have about living here. When I'm in the forest, it's Narnia. When I see the mountains, it's Mordor.

Birthdays

2007-03-15T17:45:00.000-07:00

Jenya’s birthday was February 13^th. We asked him what he’d like to do. He’s one for staying at home and hanging around, so we weren’t surprised when he asked if he could invite his brother to have a family dinner with us.

Sasha, Jenya's brother, and Jenya

He didn’t want any other friends, just us and the boys who live here.

Sasha, jenya, Anton 2, Sasha, Anton 1

He turned 20. This year was the first time he’d celebrated his birthday on his birthday, and had a family celebration for it. Cake. Presents.

I wish I’d been able to get a better picture of his smile.

Jenya and Anton

The building

2007-03-15T05:19:00.000-07:00

Ever since Pete and Trac first came to Sakhalin, they’ve had long-term vision for a building- a building that will be big and centrally located, that will suit our needs and be a place where a future full-time team of 10 can live and work!! (Currently we are a full-time team of three; Pete, Trac and myself).

Well… there is a building we’re interested in at the moment. It used to be a bakery, but has been empty for 3 years. It’s one block from the school that Luke, Jake and Becky go to; it’s smack in the middle of 3 student hostels that most of our young people live in; it’s about 10 minutes walk to the centre of town.

It’s big. It is built in a U shape, and the back wing can be separated from the main hall area- perfect for live-in team members and family. We want it.

Here are some pictures. Becky and the others at the back of the building Rome at the front of the house the front gates to the courtyard Behind the building- the windows could be our bedrooms

Rome and I in the courtyard

To obtain this building in any way will be a miracle: we haven’t more than a few cents to our collective names! To renovate it in a style that will suit our purposes will be a huge challenge: namely, if this building is for us, God will give it to us.

We’ve met with the owner, we’ve discussed it with our Russian and Australian pastors, we’re discussing it amongst ourselves, and … we’re waiting. For a miracle.

Some scenes from around town

2007-03-15T03:25:00.000-07:00

Bec and I taking a stroll on a footpath
lenin's face still graces our town
In the park (Gagarin Park, named after the first Russian dude in space!)
The day someone stole the rubbish bins
Luke, Kat and Jake walking on a footpath
Buying fish... Pete tried ice fishing actually. I'll have to wait til next year!
Eating at our favourite cafeteria, Goloboks!
Kat from NSW, hip-deep in snow

Snowboarding

2007-03-14T05:44:00.000-07:00

I’ve been learning to snow board. Now, I am not heavily into sports and I have no clue when it comes to winter sports! But who could pass up the chance to learn? And make good use of the snow we have so abundantly.

It’s changed my point of view completely- now I’m cheering when we have a blizzard and I’m so disappointed that the sun is warmer and staying longer every day… LoL

Roma has boots and he bought a board at the beginning of the season. I’d sometimes go outside with him and watch as he tried to board down the gentle incline at the top of our street.

Those days are far behind us. Since then he’s taken me, and Luke and Jake a couple of times too, to the slope in the park. It’s a short bus ride away, and we usually walk home. LOVE living next to a ski slope!!

At first Rome and Maxim (when he was here on winter holidays) held me up and showed me how to turn, how to stop, how to turn over and (most importantly) how to fall.

Then Ryan bought a new board and boots, so I used his extra pair…

He and Rome, Dina from Ryan’s church and I went snowboarding one Saturday in February, at Gorny Vostok. Dina and I stayed on the beginners’ slope where we belong, while the boys went up the mountain on the real slope ;-) Dina and I on the beginner's slope Ryan, Felicity, Roma, Dina

Time out for Roma after tackling the big slope

But the real adventure was coming home. We’d caught a taxi up the slope, but Ryan knew of a track through the forest that we could board down to get back to the city.

The snow was more than knee deep, which was deeper still for petite Dina!! We slid down on our boards, crawled through unchartered snowfall on our hands and knees, and boarded as much as we could. Several hours later we arrived home, laughing, wet, and exhausted. Thanks for being so patient, boys!!

Ryan and Dina, at the top of the forest track

Finally, at the end of the season, I have bought my own boots.

I’m hoping I get a chance to use them before December!! LoL In any case next time I go snowboarding it will be so much better. Because my boots fit me really well. The board will have to wait for next season.

Anniversaries

2007-03-14T05:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Pete and Trac’s 14^th wedding anniversary!

So Monday they took off- they hired a fully furnished flat about 10 minutes walk from our house!! It even has a Jacuzzi… and they’ve been there for the last two nights, enjoying having time to themselves, privacy, and a real bedroom to sleep in! (Usually they sleep on a divan in the lounge room).

Congratulations Pete and Trac!!

... an entry I wrote in February

2007-03-14T05:31:00.000-07:00

House Bound

February so far has been very quiet. We’ve all been pretty much house-bound for the last two weeks with the flu and colds etc. Fortunately I didn’t suffer the flu (I did my time with it in December!) so for me the weather has been perfect for snowboarding, ice-skating and just getting outside in the crisp air for a bit. Now that it’s really quiet I do actually have time to study Russian, read some of my many books, write long emails and etc but with the quietness comes unmotivated lethargy to do anything but sleep!

And I don’t want to sleep because I’ll just lay there and think, and I’m sick of my own thoughts
*sigh*
Part of being house bound with 3 kids for two weeks I guess…

The kids go back to school on Monday. They’ve had almost two weeks off school for quarantine- excellent idea, this quarantine. Some of the unis have closed this week for the same reason. If a bad flu or sickness is going around the schools and colleges will just close!

Russian kids have heaps more opportunities to get of school than I ever did! Besides quarantine, our kids have enjoyed snow days (blizzards). I have yet to find what joys await us in the warmer months ;-)

Bec and Jake hamming it up in the girls' room

snow

2007-03-12T06:28:00.000-07:00

It's all disappearing- fast!
There are still some blizzarding motions to go through but temps are back up again- it was +6 degrees yesterday!! So the snow melts and then re-freezes on the ground during the night, as... ice. And walking the next day is a real challenge-

Unless the temp is in + degrees again, and then we skip through muddy puddles on the ground, keeping a SHARP eye on the passing cars, trying to dodge the most mud-be-splattered parts of the footpath so that our jeans and boots won't become camouflaged with the path. Lovely.

We call it Spring.

Remembering Becky's 10th birthday

2007-03-11T05:23:00.000-07:00

Our cat, Begira

Out for pizza! Ryan and Luke Anton and Jenya
Becky and Jasmine

Becky's birthday cake
Kate and me!
Jenya, Roma and Felicity We all live here! Jenya, Luke, Pete, Jasmine, Jake, Trac,
Me, Becky, Roma and Anton

WOOHOOO

2007-03-09T17:05:00.000-08:00

Hello

People

People, we are ONLINE!

On-Line.

After months. MONTHS of waiting. We have DSL.

We paid our connection fee on December 25th. And now, today, March 10th, we are, finally, connected.

Woooohooooo!

I will be keeping in much more frequent contact with you now.
Because-

We're connected!

Since I've been back

2007-01-26T19:14:00.000-08:00

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.

あゆみちゃん

2007-01-18T01:56:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I went to Toya Lake. It's about 2 hours by train from Sapporo, right in the neck of Hokkaido.

(view from Ayumi's room)

Ayumi was the school nurse assistant at Akashi Shimizu High School, while I was working there. Now she works at Takasago High, hence her presence in Hokkaido- this week was the 2 nen sei ski trip, and Ayumi was on staff as the nurse.

I didn't intend to be in Hokkaido this week, but due to blizzards, sticky visa situations and flight availability, our paths crossed! SO yesterday i went to meet her.

I'd been worried about my rapidly-decreasing (and quite small to start with!) ability in Japanese, but once I met her I realised what the problem was- I can speak Kansai dialect much better than standard Japanese!! LoL

It was so good to see you Ayumi! Come visit me in Sakhalin soon!!

ice sculptures

2007-01-17T04:56:00.000-08:00

They decorate the two town squares of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk from December 25th-ish until January 7th. If it's not too cold, you can spend hours there, watching the sculptors at work. Huge blocks of ice lay scattered around the area, ready to be chiseled and drilled and shaped into a beauty. Lenin Square is the most popular to visit.

The ice sculptures are just a part of the decorations.

The sculptures by night: Christmas night!

Visas, visas

2007-01-15T20:14:00.000-08:00

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.

Bec's birthday

2007-01-15T19:56:00.000-08:00

Bec's birthday was December 16th- our house was a continual party from Bec's birthday until Katya R's, on January 12th!!

I've got some great pics of Bec's party but I'm having trouble uploading them...

Our friend Masha took Bec birthday shopping at the markets, and she came home with a gorgeous outfit for school. At the kids' school the uniform is dress pants for boys, skirts or pants for girls, a white shirt and a blazer. Snazzy.

Bec's standing in our room in this pic. When I came, Jasmine was there too, but now it's just Beca and me. I have the top bunk, she the bottom ;-) We have the flue in our room- hence it's the warmest room in the house! No complaints there...

Hanging out in the lounge

Roma keeping Luke and Beckles in hand

Roma's new passion: snowboarding! He bought this board recently, and has been practicing down the street or on the sledding hill nearby- with mauch pain! But he's picked it up really quickly, and is heading to the bigger slopes now. He was hanging out for Ryan to come back from Perth to go boarding with him! Here he's showing Pete the dent he collected when he ran into a girl learning to ski.

A big Snowfall

2007-01-15T01:23:00.000-08:00

THeres a lot to be done after a big snow fall.

Luke by the half-completed wall in front of our house

Bec and I peering into Luke's snow cave

Bec wore Pete's boots outside, laces trailing... no wonder they were frozen curly!

The way to the shops- just out the front of our house.

Jasmine and me when I first arrived in Sakhalin

2006-12-18T14:53:00.000-08:00

Sorry for leaving you hanging...

2006-12-18T14:40:00.000-08:00

I've been back in Sakhalin since Wednesday 13th December, which would make it a week now since I last used the internet... sorry bout that!

I got my tourist visa ok, took the train to Hakodate on Tuesday and flew from there on Wednesday.
Thank you so much Cynthia, Ho and Laura-Jane for having me that week!!

It's good to be home. I really missed everyone here- a good thing! And since then the boys and I have all been getting closer. For the first week Anton and Jenya ignored me! But now we hit each other every time we walk past, so that's really encouraging ;-)

Although it's good to be back, I do have to go to Japan again, in January. My visa runs out Jan 9th, and in Sakhalin the New Year holiday is from 1st- 10th Jan, so there's not much chance of getting anything out of the visa office before I go :-(
What that means is this:
In Jan I'll probably go to Japan about 8th or 9th, get another tourist visa, come back to Sakhalin, go back to Japan in March (about 6th or 7th), and HOPEFULLY then get a 3 month visa, which we can apparently turn into a 1 year visa once I'm here.
I really can't be going back and forth from Japan every month!!

So- there are the bare facts.

It's a week to Christmas and a lot is going on here-
there are two winter teams from NSW coming to 2 different orphanages here (on a 2 week program). They'll arrive Dec 27th and leave about Jan 11th. There may be a couple of people staying in our house with us over that time. And Anton's twin brother Maxim, who studies in Khabarovsk, will come stay with us over the New Year holiday too. I've never met Maxim but everyone here says he's a lot of fun ;-)

Jasmine (from Sydney, who has been staying here for the last couple of months) flew home yesterday. She should have just arrived.
Now that she's gone it's me, Trac and Becky against 6 boys- the ratio's plummeted!!
I guess I'd rather live in a house full of boys than a house full of girls, though.

Maybe you can tell that I just woke up by my writing... I'll get back to you in a more alert way sometime in the very near future!!

And for those of you supporting me- THANK YOU. Please know that your love has been such a blessing!!!

xx Felicity

The Latest News

2006-12-07T00:35:00.000-08:00

I called Trac this afternoon. It was just 5 minutes after she'd heard the news herself, and was just wondering how to contact me.

The news was all fairly bad.

1. Trac's bad news: she's not coming to Japan. In fact, she cashed in her ticket today. The re-entry permit will, they told her, take from 1-6 months to issue! Until she has one of these permits, she can't leave Russia. SO... no emergencies in Australia Please!!

The positive side: now we know that we need to apply for multiple re-entry permits as soon as we get a long term visa. They put the paperwork for Pete, Trac and the kids in today.

2. My bad news: the passport office told Bishop Peter (who has been applying for my letter of invitation since the beginning of September!!) that it won't be ready for another month.
I had a little tear when Trac told me that. Ok, there were several.
I don't want to be in Japan for Christmas!

But the conversation ended on a positive note. We agreed to get Kate (our interpreter) to ask Pastor Peter (our Pastor) to ask if there are any more fees we need to pay for a faster issue. If there are, we'll pay them, and hopefully get the letter by tomorrow.

If that doesn't work, Trac will apply for another tourist invitation for me- that shouldn't be too hard to get. And that visa shouldn't be too hard to obtain. It does mean that I'll have to leave Sakhalin, come to Japan and do all this again in 4 weeks time...

at least I have friends in Sapporo now.

So I'll call Trac tomorrow at midday and ask for the news. If she has the letter, it'll be all go- I'll hop over to the consulate as quick as my little legs will carry me and start filling out forms. If she doesn't have the letter, I'll have to change my return flight. Please God...

How it feels to be Russian

2006-12-06T18:50:00.000-08:00

I don't know.

But I know you sure get different reactions in japan when you LOOK Russian.

Here's me, used to living in Kansai and everyone assuming I'm American. I felt like a movie star. A supermodel, at least.
Then I'm in Sapporo, and people are avoiding making eye contact, walking a bit further away from me on the path, heads down...

Maybe people in Sapporo are shy...?

It took me a while to realise what it was.
My coat!
I'm wearing a short, fake, horizontally- striped fur coat that only a Russian would wear.
And I've got the blank expression thing happening too- after only 3 weeks in Sakhalin!

Life is very easy for Australian people.

I'm still all alone

2006-12-06T18:44:00.000-08:00

And I don't know what's going on!

I'm here in Sapporo, having a reasonably good time, I must say- meeting new people and staying with new friends.

But I want to share my frustration with you!!

I haven't heard from Pete and Trac- I don't know if Trac could get a re-entry permit or if she can come to Japan at all. Or when. I don't know if they've received my letter of invitation yet. So I can't even begin to apply for my new visa.

And I haven't heard from Dell Japan, who should be contacting me regarding Pete's laptop service...

It's so annoying!! I enjoy my own company but 5 days is, hello- enough!

:-(　　*sniff sniff

Ok, that's my pity party for the day.
Hope you're having a good one!

It couldn't have been easy- that's not Russia!

2006-12-03T23:33:00.000-08:00

:-(

I arrived in Sapporo yesterday morning- alone.
Trac wasn't allowed to leave Russia, as she didn't have a re-entry visa. Kate had called the passport and visa office, as well as the airport the week before, to ask if Trac needed any paper work to come to Japan- no, no they said.

Well that was last week.

Folks, welcome to Russia

So I don't know if Trac got a re-entry permit today or not- I haven't been able to call her yet. I hope she will arrive in Sapporo tomorrow or the next day. Then we can get on with the fun!!

Aside from the fact that I'm alone when I wasn't supposed to be, I'm having a great time!

A week or two ago I emailed my friends in Japan, asking if they knew anyone in Sapporo I could stay with. My friend Dawn has some friends here, and two of them offered to host Trac and myself- which is fantastic! It's always more fun to stay with someone than in a hotel I think, even without the expense factor.

Well, I followed the directions Laura-Jane gave me, and took the train from the airport, and a taxi from the station, and I arrived at the Sapporo International church just in time for the message!! haha ;-)
It was SO GOOD to be in a church in Japan again- it's 4 months since I left Japan and I hadn't really missed it until NOW.

Cynthia was there- I'm staying with her for now. Maybe I'll meet Laura Jane later this week ;-)
We had lunch at the church, then attended the first part of an English cell group upstairs, then went to a different church to join an English monthly Bible study group- and being December it was a Christmas service! I have met so many people already!

I feel a bit overdressed here in Sapporo- it's only -3 degrees C today, but I'm wearing what I wore when it was -12 degrees in Sakhalin a couple of days ago. My coat is big and furry. I think that people here think I'm Russian ;-)

The purpose of my visit is, obviously, to get a Russian visa. But I can't do that yet- I don't have the letter of invitation from Russia that I need to apply. You know, the document we applied for in SEPTEMBER... If I had waited back in Australia to get it instead of going to the hastle of getting a last-minute tourist visa, I'd still be in Australia.

I wonder if it will be ready, so Trac can bring it over to Japan with her when she comes in a day or two. I hope so!!

oooh, it is so GOOD to be in Japan again! Life here is so easy- I know how everything works, I know the system! I can catch public transport alone, I'm not afraid to walk down the street alone at night, I can ASK FOR DIRECTIONS, I can pass the time of day with the taxi driver, I can read restaurant menus and signs and I LOVE IT!!!!

I was worried I'd have forgotten all my Japanese but no- it's still there! And people in Sapporo seem to be either less jaded about foreigners that Kobe people, or they naturally speak slower, maybe they're simply more patient- I find them easier to understand than Kansai-jin!!
-wierd **

Who could've known I'd be back here so soon?

Tickets!!

2006-11-30T15:32:00.000-08:00

Woohoo- we got tickets!!

Trac and I are going to Japan-

ooh here come the onsens, rice balls, nabe, Japanese lingo (** can I remember it?!???) Woohoo!

We're flying out Sunday 3rd, coming back Sunday 10th- 1 complete week is, please God, long enough for me to get a new visa!

If not, I'll stay on in Japan and Trac will come home. ;-(

The kids here are already threatening to rebel or cry or party or whatever their particular reaction is when they're upset someone's leaving...
the panic in Luke's voice, "but mum, you're our primary care-giver! You can't go away for a week! What will we eat?"

He doesn't realise, obviously, that it's usually Pete who cooks at night.

"Don't come back!" Roma says.
"We no want girls. Only boys. Boys house. Go away"

I'm not sure where that leaves Jasmine and Becky...

November Update

2006-11-30T14:53:00.000-08:00

We’ve had a great week here on Sakhalin- a full week, a week blessed with meetings, answers to prayer, provision and some great opportunities to trust God and stretch our faith… ;-)

Here are some of the highlights:

House of Grace and Hope Team

Felicity has settled in well, and got into some kind of household routine. She’s met the boys who live here and is getting to know them, caught up with some of the kids she knows from last year when she visited us here, and met new ones.

Our house is awesome! Such a blessing- we worried at first that it was too far out of town, that the kids would have to catch a bus to school… but we’ve discovered some unexpected bonuses. Because the house is further out of town, less kids come- but when they do come, it’s to really visit us and spend quality time with us, not just to use the bathroom or to eat. Recently a couple hung out with us for 9 hours!! We have a lot of time to get to know them.

The kids have already commented that they like the feel of the house, that it’s different from the last- we wonder if it’s because the household is less hectic, and as a stand- alone home we don’t have the surrounding influence of the neighbourhood.

It’s true that we have to catch a bus to get anywhere- but our bus stop is at the beginning of the bus run so the buses are usually empty! It’s not a problem for the kids to hop on a bus to get to school.

Then there’s the space. Just having space in the bedrooms to relax and not be under each other’s feet all the time is like heaven. And the kitchen is big enough to cook meals for 15 with no problem ;-)

Since Wednesday last week we’ve been meeting as a team for Bible study and prayer in the evenings before bed, and with Luke, Jake and Bec in the mornings before they go off to school.

We’ve seen answers to prayer on a daily basis, from the kids catching buses in the morning without waiting in the cold or being late for school, Bec’s teasing issue at school being resolved, financial provision, and Jenya finding work.

God is showing us how to work as a body, each with different functions but coming together as one in all our decisions, with God as the head of our house. Some situations we’ve had to deal with this week have made it difficult for us to make decisions together, even to be in the same place at the same time! But God has really shown us that doing things at the right time in the right way as a united team is the only way!

* * * * *

Meeting Scott

It was a girls’ lunch meeting at the Sakhalin Centre- Trac and Jasmine were ordering, Kate was helping and I was… hanging around at the back staring at the menu board. A group of business men came in behind us and one of them caught my eye a few times.

“Are you guys all Australian?” he asked, obviously Australian himself.

There are a lot of us over here, working for Sakhalin Energy (Shell). I didn’t know why he found it so surprising. Maybe because all the others are men.

Well we started chatting- apparently he recognised me because he and I had come in on the same flight the Tuesday before, and stood near each other in the immigration line. What part of Australia was he from? Perth! Well, Bunbury actually. To be more specific, Clifton Park!! We were blown away.

Trac realised I was talking with someone in line and she heard God say, “This is a divine appointment.”

She turned and heard her name (“wow, Trac is from Kingston!”) and came over to introduce herself. His name was Scott. Scott?!?! Could she ask his last name?

She instantly knew who he was. Trac had been emailing his wife Allison, who attends MOPs at Grace and had heard about us from the Grace website. She and her two sons will be moving to Sakhalin early next year and so emailed Trac to ask her questions about life here. Unbelievable.

After lunch Scott exchanged details with us and Trac invited him to have dinner with us.

On Tuesday evening he came, bearing wine and cheese ;-)

Good thing you don’t need wine glasses or even a corkscrew to enjoy good company!! LoL

We had a great evening, improvising with the wine and meeting each other properly.

Our friend Ryan came too- he and Scott had heard of each other before but not actually met.

After dinner he spoke about his family’s plans to move to Sakhalin, and then made a suggestion that is an answer to prayer!

The family have a space allotment in a shipping container to bring their things to Sakhalin , and they have a lot of space left. Could they bring anything over for us? They also have furniture they don’t need anymore- do we need any furniture?

Yes! Yes! Yes!

Yesterday Scott called us. He has spoken to the appropriate people and has arranged for them to include boxes of linen (our quilts!), two chests of drawers and a trestle table he’s giving to us. Praise God! We need these items and the shipment will arrive in Sakhalin sometime in February.

* * * * *

Roma

This week we’ve received a pledge for Roma’s 3^rd semester at uni (he’ll finish his first semester in December) and indefinite support for his everyday needs (such as buses, books and clothing). He is going to university by faith!!

This week Roma started attending a church-based Bible program which runs three nights a week for three years and ends with a diploma. He gets home at about 11pm on these evenings, then often talks with Pete and Tracy about what he’s learned or other questions for a good several hours longer!

He completed the Alpha course last week, which was run by another church. It is so encouraging to see his thirst for the word, his quick growth in Godly ways, and strengthening character.

Jenya

Jenya’s been in and out of work for about a year, since he finished technical school. He’s been living with us on and off since August, and tried a few different jobs. Now he’s washing cars which is tough work when it’s so cold (the temperature is averaging 0 degress C at the moment) but he said that his boss is good (ie not drunk or abusive) and the money is better than his last job. He studied something to do with mechanics at school, but he’d really like to be a welder. He’s greatly influenced by his peers and we are praying that he’ll learn to depend on God to make his decisions.

Anton

Anton hasn’t been home much the last couple of days. He works two nights on, two nights off at a restaurant - those hours will increase next month when he finishes his probationary period.

He is tougher than the other guys we deal with- and he’s the leader of most of the Lastochka kids. Pete jokes that he’s the godfather. With Anton and Jenya moving in with us, we unwittingly changed the social dynamics of the Lastochka group. Anton began to see how many kids come to us for help or advice, instead of going to him for help, and he felt that his authority was being threatened. As he realised this Pete and Trac saw his walls go up and he became difficult to communicate with.

But slowly he’s been opening up to Tracy, and at those times he can understand English and Tracy’s Russian- this is in private moments, usually at night. During the day with everyone around, he’s a tough guy who doesn’t understand us at all.

Slowly he’s been opening up more and making an effort to communicate with everyone, even with Peter! And while this is a very slow, ongoing process, we are greatly encouraged and looking forward to watching him grow and recommit his life to Christ.

Felicity

Felicity’s letter of invitation has finally come through!! After about 10 weeks of waiting…the surprise was that it’s a 3 month invitation (we applied for a one year invitation!) but apparently she’ll be able to extend the visa in Sakhalin to a one year visa. We don’t know the details of how to extend it, where to extend it, or even what type of visa it is (it could be a cultural exchange visa or a missionary visa). But it has come, and we can go from there.

Felicity is in Sakhalin on a tourist visa which runs out on December 4^th. She’ll go to Japan to get a new visa (which will be a 3 month one) and Trac is keen to go too, for a break and a chance to pick up some cheap household items from a 100 yen store!! Plastic containers, kitchen ware and etc are quite expensive in Sakhalin, so we believe we’ll be able to get some good value for money while we’re in Japan. Please pray that God will go before us, provide for our accommodation and visa and shopping needs, and that it will be a special time of refreshing and refuel for Tracy.

Peter is also very tired and we’re looking for an opportunity for him to get away and get some R&R too. So far nothing has come up but we’re expecting an opportunity to arise very soon!

Kids

Only 23 days now to Becky’s birthday… she continually reminds us! We’re all looking forward to it- she’ll be 10, and we’re hoping it’s cold enough to go ice skating!!

The last couple of weeks have been quite hectic, and it’s showing on the kids. They know the stresses of the household, they’ve had a few late nights and all of them are struggling at school. It’s so boring, they have some Australian school work to do but it is hard slog for them. Becky burst into tears one morning, sobbing that the girls in her class (she’s a year younger than them, as she was put into Jake’s class) tease her about her dirty bag, she couldn’t wear these shoes with her skirt because it’s ugly and she couldn’t wear her pants because the button had come off 3 days before… it was the first we’d heard about any of it! These issues were easily resolved, of course- and later in the week one of the teachers overheard the girls teasing her and she was sent to the principal! So there’s been no more teasing either!

The school is very keen to keep the kids- most foreign kids go to the international school run by Sakhalin Energy, so it brings great kudos to the school to have foreigners there. We’re praying that that will extend to the teachers themselves, that they’ll make more of an effort to teach and include our kids in their class time.

Jake and Bec complain about their English teacher (who often tells them they’re wrong!) but yesterday she asked Jake about Australian schools, and Jake made her laugh! Her mood improved and the whole class enjoyed the benefit!! Now Jake has seen there’s hope, and we’re praying for this teacher every morning!

Luke continually amazes us at his knowledge of the Bible and his hunger to know more. He just devours books that he has- his dream in life is to be Dave!! LoL He (and Jake and Bec too!) think that you’re number one, Dave, and to be like you would be to really live! He’s been going to the youth meetings at the Korean Grace church, and last week Jake went along too. Luke is growing in Godly confidence and character.

He does tend to struggle with the boys who live with us, though. They annoy him and rub him the wrong way- he’s the most reactive and takes their actions over-seriously, so we’re monitoring them closely and intervene when necessary. It’s a learning curve for him.

Jasmine

Jasmine’s been with us for over a month now. The first few weeks were all over the place, with the move and the trip to Khabarovsk. The one thing that God laid on our heart for Jasmine was that we were not to organise her while she is here, but support her. This is her time to grow in hearing God and following His direction. It has been hard for her in some ways, but we’ve seen her growing and become comfortable with this situation.

God has already used her in some incredible ways- she has a huge heart for the young people here, especially for the children in the drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre, and the kids who visit us here in our home.

She has been such a blessing and a strong team member. Not only helpful to us but has inspired and encouraged us with words of wisdom, her music and joy.

Broadband

To get broadband we need to apply with the house owner’s passport. He lives way up north and didn’t bring it with him when he came down recently. He’ll be back in February. Besides this, there’s no way to set it up in our home at the moment. So we wait. :-(

Thanks for your support! We love you and miss you

From

The House of Grace and Hope team

Peter, Tracy, Luke, Jake, Bec, Felicity, Jasmine