Photo: The Fishermen, gift from sister city Duluth
April 6,1996 Saturday gave me a chance to catch up on sleep. I jogged down to the lakeside and viewed some of the statues, including The Fishermen . At 1 PM Valery, his wife, Sasha (driver), and Konstantin (interpreter) picked me up and took me out to the country to the dacha of Uncle Konstantin.
It was explained to me that many Russians have dachas in the country. Typically, they will leave their city apartments on Friday afternoon and spend most of the weekend building the dacha, adding on to the structure, working the greenhouse, and scheduling in long banya's, or saunas. Uncle Konstantin's dacha is surrounded by thick Karelian pine and birch woods, as well as by other dachas. In mid-winter, when the dachas are mostly empty, vandalism occurs occasionally.
Photo: Valery & Uncle Konstantin on dacha porch
Valery and I went cross country skiing while the women went into the sauna. We skiied down to Lake Onega and out to where some men had been ice fishing. The hole was 2 feet thick in the ice. I was very impressed with the Karelia made ski's.
Uncle Konstantin prepares his sauna with a fire under a metal container that heats water. The sauna itself was split into two areas, one where some pans of cold water were handy, and behind a curtain, the hottest part of the sauna. Two wooden benches, one lower and a higher (hotter) one, took up the super heated space. Within seconds of entering the steamy room my glasses frames almost burned my finger when I touched them. Sweat came freely. Uncle Konstantin showed me how to strike myself with branches from a local plant to get the most out of the experience.
Photo: Uncle Konstantin cooling off from sauna
Periodically we took a break to drink tea or beer. To make the sauna hotter Uncle Konstantin would throw water, mixed with eucalyptus oil, on the stove. At times I would have to breath deeply to get enough air. After a while we jumped in the snow to cool off. Then back In the sauna. Afterwards, we had a dinner of fried chicken, raw bacon, fish, salad and soup, with many toasts of vodka.
On the way home, Valery's wife asked me what I thought of Russia. I said that times appear to be difficult and with the June elections, Russia appears to be at a crossroads. She asked me what I meant by crossroads, I said that the opportunities possible under a free economy, would not be realized if leaders were elected that did not support economic reforms. She angerly replied that there were no opportunities, many companies were shut down, many people unemployed, and conditions were not getting any better. I thought to myself that if the wife of one of Russia's new capitalist's is this negative, is there any hope for the country?
I drank everything in the refrigerator that night to replenish what fluids I lost.
Photo: Valery on skis on Lake Onega
Photo: Ralph on skis on Lake Onega
Photo: Valery on dacha porch
