Tour de Caucasus

Wish you were here! Here's a couple of pictures and a short video clip of Rod's recent 2-day bike tour with some students from Nalchik. They covered about 125 miles on nearly-impassable roads - high up a valley in a remote and unspoiled region called Bashil. Most of the cyclists were inexperienced, the weather was oppressively hot and humid, five bikes and two supply vans had flat tires, one or two of the riders took spectacular spills and the memorable border crossings all added to the adventure.

Special guest cyclist: Rod's brother, Glenn, from Lynden, WA! (Top on the left.) The other picture is taken in front of one of the cyclist's family village store where the group stopped for provisions. In lieu of Gatorade, luke warm, fermented mare's milk was the power drink of choice.

This is fun:-)

Don't forget to turn on your sound.

Jail Birds

Rod got back from Dagestan late last night. He and the team had a huge run in with the authorities about their registrations (or lack thereof). Throughout Russia, it’s necessary for foreigners to register their presence with the local police within 72 hours of their arrival in a new city. Easier said than done, I can tell you. Arbitrary laws, irregular office hours and corrupt officials all make it almost impossible to abide by the rules.

As it happened, Rod et al were detained, sent to appear before the judge at a late night session of the court, fined, and had to sign 'confessions' – the wrestlers among them, however, were exempt from paying the fines simply because of their favored status as sportsmen. Afterwards, the authorities who were antagonistic the whole time asked to pose with the team for pictures!

Kids' Games

One aspect of our work here is reaching out to children. Some of our younger team members and their friends visit a nearby orphanage a couple of times a week to play with the children. These visits are not for the faint-hearted. The facility is foul smelling, poorly equipped and under-staffed. Many of the children are malnourished. Diapers, bedding and clean clothes are in short supply. Some of the children have curable medical problems which are left untreated.

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”
(Jn 14:18)

Some of the more sporty people on our team have regular outreaches to children’s homes, orphanages and camps for Chechen refugee children. They host kids’ games – a fun-filled program of sports, activities and competitions. Some of the children, especially those from nearby, war-torn Chechnya, have lost not one, but several male family members in the ongoing conflict. Sadly, this present generation of children in Chechnya is fast becoming the last remnant of their homeland.

I love this picture of this lad in his school uniform.

Looking for Bobby Fisher

Last weekend we visited co-workers in the nearby republic of Kalmykia, the only Buddhist region in Europe. The Kalmyks are descendants of the Golden Horde that never returned home after the Mongol Khans retreated from Russia. Just eight hours away by car is the capital – Elista. It boasts the largest Buddhist temple in all of Europe. Built less than two years ago, it was sanctified by the Dalai Lama.


Elista is also the international chess capital of the world. “City Chess” – where we stayed and many world-class competitions are held – was opened, not long ago, by the less-than-stellar-American actor, Chuck Norris, star of Texas Ranger. Apparently, Chuck plays chess better than he acts.

Inside the foyer of City Chess

PRISON BREAK!

Sans Rod (who's recently been diagnosed with a mild form of shingles), the team and I went to the mountains for a couple of days of R & R. We live about two hours away from Mt Elbrus - one of the Seven Summits - the seven tallest mountains in the world. Elbrus is the tallest mountain in Europe.

The getaway was anything but an R & R for me because some of us did a 5+ mile hike up a steep mountain face in knee-deep snow. (BTW, do not wear ankle socks on such a trek.) The spectacular views did not compensate for the aches and pains I felt the next day. Mental note: must find older teammates.

On our second day, we got word that there'd been a 'problem' with one in our party. We immediately thought the worst and assumed that someone had been injured skiing or hiking. We were practically giddy with happiness to learn that 3 of our guys were in jail, instead. As it happened, they were hiking in a forbidden military zone and were arrested by soldiers and hauled off to jail. After a lot of drama and a little Frisbee playing with the guards, they were released. The fun we have here.

Spring retreat with Ronnie Stevens

We had exactly 100 people, including our staff at our recent retreat outside of Nalchik. Dargins, Arabs, Circassians, Tabasarrans, Syrians were just some of the nationalities represented there. Our speaker, Ronnie Stevens, did a stellar job addressing the audience from John’s gospel. Not surprisingly, it was provocative - as the gospel always is. A highlight of the weekend was on the final morning when four young men from different Caucasus people groups each prayed to the Most High God in his own native language!

By the way, repelling was the favorite freetime activity. And national dancing was a big hit in the evenings. The video below gives a flavor of some of the local, national music.

99 bottles of beer on the wall

Circassian students are passionate about their national music

Dubai

We've just come back from a Russian package holiday to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Dubai is one of only four destinations from the Nalchik airport. The other three are Allepo (Syria), Istanbul (Turkey) and Moscow. Although it's an Arab emirate, only 13% of the population in Dubai are Arabs. Still, the call to prayer resounds five times a day from the mosques throughout the city. The other 87% of the population is comprised of expats, laborers (mainly from Pakistan, Bangeldesh, India and the Philippines) and tourists.

The picture above of the men on the camels epitomises the curious blend of bedouin culture with the thoroughly modern city that's sprung up in the last 15 years and continues to grow at an incredible rate. (All of the high rises in the background are under construction.) The Burj hotel - on the bottom left - is the world's only 7 star hotel and is designed to look like an inflated sail. Its inflated room rates start at $1,000 per night.

For more about this fascinating city, see the current edition of National Geographic. It's the feature article.

Dagestan, a Kalashnikov and Poor Mike Tyson

Rod writes: a few highlights of my recent trip to Dagestan. On the journey were Stephen Barrett, two-time US wrestling champion and colleague here in Nalchik, and Ewan and Greg, two friends who live in Krasnodar.

Click on map to enlarge

Makhachkala - population 600,000 - is the capital of Dagestan on the far eastern end of the Caucasus mountain range. Dagestan is a republic of 35 different nationalities, almost all Muslim. Interestingly, there are no Dags in Dagestan. This chaotic but fascinating city is dominated by the Avars, the largest ethnic group in the region. The name means Land of Mountains in local dialect. Highest peak is 14,000 ft. A massive mosque towers over the other structures in the city. It’s been very unstable there over the past decade due to crime and terrorism.

Derbent in the southern region of Dagestan, isn't far from the border of Azerbaijan. It's one of the most ancient cities in the world, continually inhabited since the end of the 3rd millennium BC. A 14th century fortress towers over the town of 120,000 people on the shore of the Caspian Sea.

Derbent

Me, a policeman and a Kalashnikov

On to Tabasarran where the men of the village speak Tabasarran as their first language and Russian as their second. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Tabasarran is the hardest language in world. The villagers live in hand-quarried rock homes held together by clay/mud mortar and seemingly hang on the side of the mountain. Wood stoves, NO tables of any kind (food is prepared, served and eaten on a carpet on the floor), no indoor water or plumbing, a few cows, chickens and some sheep. Temperatures in the bedroom dipped to near freezing at night.

A woman fetches water from a spring at the edge of town

A wooden sled used for transporting manure, rocks, etc.

We visited the local rug factory. Six women sit at a loom and in 8-9 hours weave about 8 inches of rug. We saw one rug which took six women one year to weave. It’s the only industry in the region, besides farming and animal husbandry.


On our way home to Nalchik, our driver was called Ibragim. He looked like a gangster but, in fact, was a great guy. He wanted to know about Mike Tyson and why he was so persecuted in America. Ibragim invited his friend, a detective in the local police to accompany us back. He carried a gun with him "just in case." Against the driver’s advice (and with Margi’s words of warning ringing in my ear), we decided not to drive back through war-torn Chechnya – although it would have cut off five hours of the journey.

Got back to Nalchik at 8:30 pm. It was -6°c and snowing. So, we’re going to have a white Christmas after all. And Margi can stop worrying.

"I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These things I will do; I will not forsake them." Isaiah 42:16

Rod's friend Bill

Recently the American Ambassador to Russia, William Burns, came to Nalchik for a visit. Rod was invited to hear him speak and answer questions at a closed session at the university. Ambassador Burns was on a mission to promote - among other things - more American ventures in this region. He said that he was voting with his feet to allay American's fears about the security concerns here. Although Rod wasn't able to use his influence to personally and forever alter the course of American / Russian diplomacy, he did receive a very nice email afterwards from his new friend, Bill, offering his help if ever we need it.

Rod's in the back row and the only one with light hair.
(It's debateable if it's white or blonde.)

No photos, please!

Well, I finally did it. I went to a Russian banya. I always said to myself that I wouldn’t go until I’d gotten down to the weight on my driver’s license. Still, my friend, Cindi, and I felt compelled to accept an invitation to girls’ night out at the banya of the local police training college.

Now ladies’ changing rooms and communal showers are not among my most favorite things. Neither are beer, green tea and dried squid. Put them together for any kind of occasion and it fills my heart with dread. When I confided to our hostess, Oksana, that American women generally like to be fully clothed when we get together, she gave a hearty laugh and assured me that the experience would be more enjoyable than cake, vodka, and, uh, intimacy with one’s husband.

Here’s how it worked. We got undressed and into our ill-fitting white sheets. To add to our humiliation, we donned felt ‘dunce’ caps. Then we sat around a long table heavy laden with the aforementioned food and drinks. The beer, apparently, makes one sweat better. (It caused merriment all round that I brought bottled water for the occasion.) Finally, when Cindi and I could stall them no longer (and it wasn’t for lack of trying, believe me) we meekly followed them into the sauna for Round One.

Without going into graphic detail, I can tell you that women here are far less self-conscious about their bodies than we Americans are. And they get no end of pleasure from beating one another to pulps with swags made from birch twigs and leaves. As if this wasn’t enjoyable enough, afterwards one had to jump into an icy pool. (At this point, Oksana’s words of comfort rang very hollow indeed.)

In between these forays into the sauna, we returned to the table for more food and drink. After several rounds, Cindi and I were limp with exhaustion and faint with hunger for food that actually tastes good. At the first opportunity, we made our excuses and escaped.

The experience, by the way, was so awful that we plan to go again next week☺

Russian Gateway to the Muslim World

The main mosque is Nalchik is a ten-minute walk from our flat. We often hear the daily call to prayer resonating from its minarets. And here’s another reminder that we live in a very Middle Eastern part of the world: flights from our Nalchik airport fly to only three destinations besides Moscow: Istanbul, Turkey; Dubai, the United Arab Emirates; and Aleppo, Syria.

The mosque below is located in the very heart of a village outside of Nalchik.

(below) Graves in that same village.

Some tombstones are written in Arabic, not in Russian as you may expect.

Cycling: it's not a sport, it's a sickness

One of Rod’s goals this year is to have more fun! All of our team members this year (sans me) are sports enthusiasts. I'd be glad to join them on their adventures to the mountains if only I could stomach the hair-raising rides in rickety old vans along the winding roads. Picture me at home in bed reading a good book. And eating chocolate.

Mausoleums and Outhouses

We went on a team excursion the other day to the foothills of Mt Elbrus. First stop was the Lower Chegem waterfalls. Here we saw the tree (below) colorfully decorated with rags, ribbons and rubbish. In a curious mix of pagan and Muslim customs, people here hang such things as prayer tokens.

Next, we stopped at Rod’s favorite gorge, the Upper Chegem, to eat at a roadside café. We had shashlik (roasted, marinated lamb on skewers), salads and hitchini. The latter is a delicious local dish of fried dough, grated, cooked potatoes, goat cheese, a generous slathering of butter and possibly some glue.

We hiked further up the valley to a medieval burial ground dating from the Ottoman Empire. Exact dates aren’t known, but the tombs are probably between 500-800 years old. These ancient mausoleums across the hillside provided a panoramic backdrop for an impromptu, al fresco lesson by Rod on local history and culture. We learned that this region was completely deserted when all the Balkar villagers were deported by Stalin in 1943. It became a virtual ghost town until they were allowed to return in 1957.

Speaking of the fresh outdoors, here’s a picture of the local bathroom/loo facilities. Unbelievably, one had to pay for the privilege of using them. But not me! I opted, instead, to go without water for the day and risk dehydration and gangrene. This particular ‘ladies’ room’ is going to be featured in my next book entitled, Toilets and Border Crossings I Have Known.

A wedding album

Here's a few photos of Drew's recent wedding to Katie Kerper. They were married outdoors on July 15th at Blackbird Farms in Portland. Weather was warm, sunny and breezy - the ceremony and reception reminded Rod and me of a picnic in the English countryside. It was a perfect day in every respect - thanks to the help and support of so many family members and friends. Your many kindnesses to us and our children means a lot to us. Please know how much we appreciate you.

Exchanging vows

Mr and Mrs Andrew David Powell

Rod and me, Drew and Katie


Brother and sister


Cutting the rug with Mom

Mr and Mrs Joel Klein at their wedding in January

Two weddings and three dead people

What a whirlwind few months we've had! First was Chris' wedding to Joel in January and then Drew's wedding to Katie in July.

And now we're back in Russia. We typically have some 're-entry stress' in readjusting to the Russian way of life. On our way to the airport in Moscow, we saw the body of a dead woman lying in the road - and cars swerving around it at breakneck speed. And just the other day here in Nalchik, my friend and I were emerging from a walk in the woods when we happened upon two policemen with rifles running at their two downed suspects lying beside two flaming cars. Both incidents were stark reminders that we’re not in Kansas anymore.

Where in the world are the Caucasus?

Click on map to enlarge

We live in the Southwestern part - Arizona, as it were - of Russia. The Caucasus are a mountain range that divides Europe and the Middle East. Our region - the northern part of the Caucasus, is politically and geographically a part of Russia; however, ethnically and religiously, it's more akin to the Middle East.


Nalchik is halfway between the Black and Caspian Seas. Turkey and Iran are among our southern neighbors. We're also due west of the troubled Chechen republic which has been at war to gain independence from Russia for almost a decade. And you may have heard of the tragic events that took place in the school in Beslan two years ago - well, that's less than fifty miles from our town.