August 20 2008

Svetlana had mentioned that her parents had met and married here. Her mother had herself grown up in an orphanage. Her father had been a building engineer for the KGB. She has lived here all her life. The Sapporo hotel we stayed at was her previous job, she worked as a receptionist. Most of the business there had been related to the oil industry and still is. Somehow at one point she got herself involved in a local adoption helping out since she knew English and the area so well. She was instantly hooked and is the type that mothers nearly everyone. One became 2, 2 became many and then she was hired by WACAP full time. She has no fear to standing up to oncoming traffic and stopping an entire street so we can cross. (Russian pedestrians don’t have the right away in the slightest) Apparently she wasn’t aware of that. And no fear to say her mind or about whatever she feels needs to be said. Yet she is one of the sweetest people. The entire time her only worry was whether or not we were enjoying ourselves, what we wanted to do, and making sure every single arrangement had been carefully taken care of. 6:30 pm sharp we jumped on to the train heading north to see the kids. This was an experience alone that made the trip worthwhile. Everything was from when the Soviets had built up the area in an effort to further communism. I guessing they were worried since this place was so isolated from the rest of Russian they wanted to assure their strong presence. The train was a very old diesel train with sleeper cars. The train was surprisingly clean and comfortable. A small box with snacks, drinks, and a bottle of cognac was provided. At one stop Svetlana had us hop off to see cooked crab that was being sold by locals. Each stop is strictly 10min long and we had to run back to jump on the nearest car and work our way back to our own car. Not much sleep at all, anticipation of seeing the kids soon, and numerous stops on the way. Very beautiful place, green and well covered with trees.