After New Years, life quieted down again with one small change that made all the difference. I had mentioned that I had been praying for a language helper. One day, our dog (or a dog we helped feed) began barking, signaling that someone was in our yard. I went out and saw an older lady standing outside my gate. I walked out and greeted her. She told me that she had made several things, that they were made very well, that she had gone to school to learn to sew and that I should come over and look at them and buy something. Well, who could say no to that! We took off immediately for her house. When we arrived, she put on tea and we drank and ate, as is custom, and then looked at the beautiful things she had made. There was a rug made out of 8 goats skins. Boots, just my size, made out of deer legs and hats made of out fox. I was delighted. I told her that I would return with my husband tomorrow and we would discuss it. As I was leaving, I turned to her and asked if she knew anyone who had an hour a day to help me with language. Her house was quiet. She told me her two daughters were both away during the year at college. Her husband spent the week at the farm taking care of the animals and she lived alone. She smiled at me and said she could teach me. I was thrilled although skeptical as to whether it would really work out.
Curt and I returned the next day and bought those boots that only very, very traditional people wear. From then on with those boots and my traditional hat, I was always asked, "Are you Ragu (code name for the people group we worked among) or Russian?" Do I have a third choice?
And again, I asked this woman, Zoya, about language lessons. She said she didn't know anything about teaching but I could come everyday and she and I would talk together. And she wasn't kidding. I called everyday before I went, she was always free and would rarely let me leave earlier than 2 hours together. She was insistent that I take her tapes, books, magazines and read and listen to Ragu constantly. She took me to the school library and helped me pick out books on a kindergarden level to begin reading. She collected magazines for friends so that I could look at pictures with Ragu descriptions. She was appalled when I said I would be taking Sundays off. She became my closest friend and the one thing I miss the most about our village.
