The Great Sakhalinskii Runaround

The Great Sakhalinskii Runaround

We arrived safely and on time in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on Saturday 21st December. We have been staying in the House of Hope, where Peter and Tracy Harrison have given up their room for Janene and I. On average there are around 14 of us in this three bedroom apartment. We're comfortable despite the crowd, and despite a stomach virus passing through our three youngest and a couple of others in the house.

Medical maddness
A very important part of our application for Temporary Residency is undergoing several medical tests and obtaining stamps on a supporting document to show we have passed them. Sounds easy enough.

Well, try doing that when there are several hospitals in town, nobody telling you straight out what you need to do, and dragging four children along in bulky winter clothes.

DAY ONE out on the paper trail, we went to one of the hospitals where we hoped we could get all our tests done in one day. Jake took us, and we paid to get our tests done - around ten of them! The first piece of bad news was that the kids would need to get all their tests done at a different hospital just up the road.

So we ducked over to the next hospital to pay and book them in for their tests. The registration desk sent us upstairs to the head nurse, who wasn't there. Jake enquired in another office. They sent us to another floor with a waiting room filled with parents and crying babies and long queues.

Jake found who we needed to see, and she went off to obtain forms. A little while later she came back and told us we couldn't get the tests done there. A wasted hour or so.

Around three hours later, you can imagine how restless the kids were.

After some phonecalls, we found that the hospital nearby to the House of Hope apartment would take the kids and do the appropriate tests. So we headed home, deciding to get those tests done today so the kids could relax while we came back and got ours the following day.

Jake went to the hospital to book them in. He came back with some good news. We could ALL get our tests done there - in fact, we also discovered we CAN'T get our tests done where we had just paid that morning. Had the registration desk at the first hospital told us, they would've saved us wasting a whole day.

Good news: we got a refund.
More good news: there'd be less tests
Bad news: some of the tests are located in different parts of the city.
More bad news: clinics operate in different time brackets - not at a convenient 9 to 5.

DAY TWO
Another 8am wake up and a walk to the hospital. We breezed through the first two tests and I was greatly inspired by the progress. We had a finger prick test and they bled us into a test tube. I don't know why. The nurse was gracious and passed the three youngest without bleeding them. Only Layna was disappointed, as she wanted her finger pricked.

The next so-called test was more embarassing for the boys than the girls. It brought flashbacks of Sister Steiner visiting the high school to check our development, the shock of her cold hand as she directed us: "cough!". So today we had to stand in front of an elderly nurse, shirt off, and pants down. I guess she wanted to make sure nothing was missing?

The girls got off lightly, she just wanted to see their belly buttons. For fluff maybe?

Two tests down, all in the same building, all within a half hour or so. Looking good!

The next test was a TB xray in an adjoining building for Janene and I. Jake went in and the lady told him "the machine's broken, come back next year." Well of course, we don't have until next year! We were bewildered, annoyed, flabberghasted, disheartened etc. Yet we noticed other people were still in the line for an xray, so we asked a different nurse.

"No it's not broken, go through that door and enquire."

So Jake did that, and they told him the machine "wasn't working properly" and they were only doing emergency xrays for those that definitely needed them.

We noticed however, that there were only a few in the line, and those that were seemed to also be preparing documents for visa applications. They were going in and coming out with xrays of their lungs. Didn't look broken to me! So Jake went back and told them it WAS urgent. So they dealt with Janene and I within a matter of minutes.

I was starting to get a sense of the Russian mindset. You really have to pester them to get things done, and it's not unusual for them to spin a yarn to get out of doing their job.

We moved on to the final three tests, which were all located in the city. The first was a children's TB testing clinic. They weren't going to take us, but then decided they would. We'd have to come back at 3pm, meaning a three hour wait in minus temperatures.

So we decided to walk to the next clinic for our next test. I have no idea what this clinic was for, only that the Russian word was "СПИД", pronounced "spid". Possibly it's a clinic for testing blood for HIV etc? I'm still not sure, because when we arrived, we were told nobody was available today to do the testing, because they were all off on a New Year party (during work hours, mind you).

Bitterly disappointed, we moved on to the next clinic, where we'd be tested for narcotics by means of a urine sample. In we went, but again, we were told "Sorry, come back at 3pm".

It was now snowing outside, and Amalia was crying, Layna was tired, and everybody was totally sick of walking. So we went looking for a restaurant where we could waste 2 hours out of the snow. We found a fast food restaurant similar to Maccas, with very comfortable seats, and very annoying music (which is not unusual for fast food restaurants, right?). Although it cost over $40, it was great to relax. Everybody's mood improved and after almost 2 hours, we walked back to the kids' TB clinic.

Amalia was happy, singing and whistling. Layna was having a great time laughing and playing with Jake. Things were much better. We got to the clinic and the lady doctor there checked them over physically. She was very gentle with them, and the girls were giggling like crazy as she checked their hearts and lungs with the stethascope.

We moved to the next room where they all received a small injection under their skin, which will be checked and measured on Monday for a reaction. Amalia cried, but the others were fine.

Back to the narcotics clinic, we were processed fairly quickly, and again, Amalia, Layna and Clayton were excused from the testing, as it might be unlikely that they're using heroine or steroids. Janene, Eli and I had to go into a toilet one-by-one with a nurse and pee in a disposable tea cup, which she would then test while we waited.

ALL CLEAR! Time to go home. Amalia was already asleep.

It was a crazy huge day. Unfortunately Monday is our last day to get the final test done (at the SPID clinic), and a couple of other things. If anything doesn't happen on Monday, we'll need to wait until the new year. That would set us back at least one day in our lodgement of the residency applications.

We're hoping everything is complete so that we can lodge on the first day they open (9th Jan). As they only accept seven applications per day at the visa office, we'll be lining up the night before to protect our place in the queue.

The Harrisons are amazing people who are taking such great care of us. They are tireless in what they do. They are also very keen to make sure we are able to move here by June next year to join with them in the work of the House of Hope.

Please pray for us during this exhausting process so that we get it right and our residency application is approved. We need encouragement. We also need good health, clear thinking and cheerful spirits.

Thank you :-)

Sleepless

Oh look, it's 4.46 am...

And why am I awake? Haven't you ever had one of those nights where your brain is working overtime processing thoughts, scenarios and dreams, and after an hour or so, you conclude that: A) you're actually not really asleep, and; B) you're not getting back to sleep anytime soon? That's me right now.

In short, my brain has been very excited just now projecting scenes on the cinema screen of my imagination of us picking visitors up from the Sakhalin airport and taking them for a tour of our home city and new house. Then, the scenes of daily life in an abnormally-big Russian household including the faces I don't even know yet.

It's all very close now, having just spent yesterday organising copies of all or supporting documents ready for notarisation on Monday, and with tickets in hand for Yuzho-Sakhalinsk on Friday.

We will be taking the next big step towards making Mother Russia our adopted homeland. This includes an overnight queuing at the Federal Migration Service on the first business day in January to get these applications in first, in order to be part of the yearly intake quota.

That's when we come back here to Krasnoyarsk and await the outcome of our application (typically 4-6 months).

It's something all our supporters can pray about. Knowing that you are, I can probably go back and get some sleep!

Goodnight (спокойной ночи)!