Day 27: Songs, war stories, and a catch

We return to Kolkja already in the morning to visit Mother Varvara, who became one of the focal points of our trips here; a wonderful lady with plenty of stories to tell and information to share. Her son is on the lake fishing as we talk with her in her house; as we go along and chat about this and that, Varvara starts to sing some traditional songs for us.

Back on the road, we meet an elderly man without teeth, who is on his way to visit his friend, and spontaneously invites us to join him. We agree and go with him, yet as we arrive it turns out that his friend is ill and in bed. So instead of paying him a visit, the man we met sits down in front of his friend's house with us, and starts telling us about the war in Afghanistan, where he had to fight for the Soviet army. Tears roll down his face as he tells how the war left him disabled, with his legs full of nails and screws. We spend a rather long time talking, and every time someone walks past on the street, they greet the man. It's a small place, where everybody knows everyone, yet we also sense that this particular man is treated with a certain extra respect.

We drive back to Kasepää and go over to Timofey's house, but nobody opens the door as we knock. Maybe he's not at home, but we're afraid that maybe Timofey is at home, but prefers to spend the last days with his wife uninterrupted and alone. We leave and go back to Kolkja.

Where behind Varvara's house, we meet Vassily, a smile lighting up his entire face. Vassily had spent his day fishing, but unlike two days ago, he was indeed luckier today and brought home an impressive catch: A whole number of large fish, among them a superb pike. Vassily is laughing and looks very enthusiastic, the successful fishing day obviously made him a very happy man for the day. The men heat up the sauna and serve vodka to celebrate the fishing day's success, and Vassily tells us enthusiastically about the biggest fish his father ever caught, a pike that was so large that when you carried the fish over your shoulder, its tail fin would still touch the ground. Unfortunately, though, the fish was already pretty old when they caught it, and didn't taste good. Certainly today's catch will be very tasty though!