2005-02-20 - Great humanity shown at Chirko
Great humanity shown at Chirkovo
20 Feb, 05 - 19:07
GPS-pos: N67°34´ | E155°46´ | Alt: 8 M
-49°F this morning at 9.30 a.m. It is Sunday the 20th of February and a clear day with a cloudfree blue sky. We´re still in the logcabin at this tranquil place called Chirkovo. I am getting better by the minute, but Johan´s feeling low at the moment. He´s got a sore throat and feel generally knackered, so we´ll hang on for a few more days before setting off. Which we don´t mind, since we enjoy it and we´ve also realized our Russian is taking giant leaps forward.
´´Why don´t you stay with us until April?´´, Sasha asked us yesterday, partly seriously, partly joking, ´´weather´s great at this time. It´s almost light all day and very warm. No more than -4°F, even though, nights will still be cold. As it is now, you might die out there, since you don´t have a stove to warm your tent.´´
´´Well, right now we feel like we´re eating you out of the house´´ ,I answered, ´´and, unfortunately, we have deadlines to keep.´´
´´Food´s no problem. You´re welcome to stay as long as you like´´ ,Sasha said and added clearly, ´´we enjoy your company.´´
As usual we get along very well with, and enjoy the company, of the local people along the Kolyma. Yakuts are generally easy going and uncomplicated people. They show you a lot of respect, give guests a lot of space and make you feel like royalties since they´re extremely generous both with themselves and with what they owe and have. But they don´t show unnecessary emotions. As an example, I can say I´ve never seen a Yakut man and a Yakut woman outwardly show deep emotions for each other more than respectful and loving smiles. Therefore they don´t buy personal flatter easily at first, before they know you properly and, like all other people, than clearly show that they like it a lot. And for this reason, they don´t say anything to flatter and inspire us neither. Neither to each other as far as we´ve noted so far. However, their actions show the greatest of human dignity. And generosity.
´´I shoot this moose a couple of years ago´´ ,Sasha explained when I joined him in his cold storage yesterday, a garage, which was almost stacked from floor to roof with frozen nalim and moose meat.
We´ve therefore stuffed ourselves during the last three days, since Sasha brought out a gigantic leg from a big moose and placed it in the cold storage located just outside the door. Which means every time you´re hungry, you just open the door, carve off what you need and stuff it down the cooking pot! And, from the same leg, Sasha cut out 5 kg;s of meat, cut it into cubes for us to bring with us, once we set off northward again. This people never stop to astonish us with their generosity!
And we need all help we can receive. We´re still way off our goal and good physical shape, which I noticed today when we walked to a neighbor, an Even caribou hunter, 4 km;s away to borrow some sugar and tea. It took us 3 and a half hour to cover 8 km;s -without the pulk!- even if we ate a lot of casserole offered by the hunter. Moose Head Casserole including teeth, ears, eyes, lips, cheeks and nostrils. |
