Adios, Bayan Olgii

It was my second last day in Olgii. The 7am flight was postponed to 8pm. I had planned to do a load of laundry before leaving today. I got them in the washing machine, poured in the soap, and heard Alex say, "The water and electricity are off again." This is a daily occurrence. I figured I would wait a while and still have enough time to dry them on the line.

I had fried dough for breakfast, since we couldn't fix anything hot. I packed and got cleaned up. I had also planned to hit the bathhouse today, but the power's out there, too. By lunch, I removed my clothes from the washer and packed them up. There's no telling how long the water and power will be out. Alex suggested we have lunch at Pamukkale because they have a generator. Once again, I had a kebob and was happy.

We went to the women's project for a biz lesson. Altanai strung a piece of black fabric to a metal frame for me and Max. This alone was a fascinating skill, getting it taut evenly. Once mine was done, another woman showed me what to do. They can do a string of three stitched in a second, whereas I was working on one stitch for five minutes. The needle work is simple enough, but there is something confounding about it. Max and I stitched for two hours and made very little progress. My favorite part of the whole thing was breaking for afternoon tea. The women were gracious, coming to look at my work and smiling. If I understood correctly, the work is done with a chain stitch. Little did I know, when you pull in the wrong place, it all unravels. I got mildly frustrated with putting together 8 stitches, then accidently undoing 5. Although it was a great experience, biz work is not for me.

We said good-bye to the women and walked to the apartment. The driver picked us up at 5:30 and we found out at the airport that we'd leave at 7:30. It wasn't much earlier, but it was better than 8pm. Unfortunately, we gained an hour on the way back, which got us in to the guesthouse late.

As we waited at the airport, a large man, resembling a heavy Chairman Mao and wearing his full army uniform, was making quite a commotion. Apparently he was intoxicated and groping women. As I looked at my boarding pass, I figured I would be stuck sitting next to him. Imagine my pleasure when I entered the plane and a nice young man was in the seat next to mine! Amazingly, they didn't even let Mao on the plane. I think all the passengers were relieved.

The flight out of Olgii was beautiful. I was able to trace our drive to Bayan Nuur, where fresh snow from last night covered the Altai Mountains.Baca lagi