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On June 17, 2005 writes OLGA:

The CRIMEA TRIP

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN ...

At last I'm home! I have just come back, these two months (without 3 days, but that's such a bit!), so this long period of time is over now! And there were so many events, so many people, so many small successes and some accidents, too - so there were so many of them that it'll be a long story divided into chapters. So..., let's go.

WHERE

Since the 17th of April I was in Crimea, in Saki. Saki is a small town, built around two big sanatoriums for wheelchairers. In that town everything, every bit, is adapted for the wheelchairers - or at  least it used to be so during the Soviet times. Many patients are just living there, they do have appartments, shops, houses ect. Actually in the former USSR that was the only place of that kind. There is a special infrastructure and the local climate is special too. There are two lakes wit healing mud and mineral water. It is miraculous indeed. Besides that here this is the only place a wheelchairer could feel himself a normal active human being. So it has been now the 4th time we had been going there. At our first visit there in the year 2002 we had met there a wonderful family, that keeps their own house - a small hotel for 4-7 peoples. This time we were staying at them's. there are no free putevkas anymore, staying in the sanatorium would be much more expensive, and my physiotherapist ( the most important thing!) had already left sanatorium. He keeps a private practice now, So there was no sense to go to sanatorium at all.

The family consists of 3 persons only: Anatoly ( the father, a bold man with perfect engineer mind, that could construct anything but he is a bit narrow-minded), Ira ( his wife, local intelligentsia, she had just got the director of the local history museum) and - at last but not the least - Julia - a girl of the very dangerous age of 13. She is a girl with rather high potential, 

I used to try to develop it a bit, but there was no enough time. Never the less there was some success.

Besides them there were a lot of guests: two babies with their supervisors ( a really noisy company that was!), two young peoples from Kiev, a painter from Kiev too, a Georgian family with a son in the sanatorium - and they were highly interesting peoples, dancers, artists. We watched there performance by video - but Michael Flatly with his Riverdance could take some rest! Excellent!

So sometimes our yard was as noisy as an Italian one! especially when the local puppy was barking too!

WHEN

That was a long period of time. When we first had come the cherry-trees were only going to burst flourishing. But now all the berries had already ripened. And there should be so much peaches! they were flourishing too when we had come.

So this period was long, may be even a bit too long. I've got exhorted. But i have a lot of successes too. I had made some pictures and records of them. I was taught to walk with one stick! the funniest thing is that it should be easy to walk with two sticks - but my left palm is unable to hold it! I have to train it now. I came to Cremea with my mother, she was very "useful" in organizing everything ( if it could be said "useful" about a living person). But by the 13th of May they were exchanging with my father, her holiday leave was finishing. psychologically it was very good ( by that time we got so tired of each other that I was trying to keep silence if not always then most of the time). When she got back Moscow she fell asleep 20 hours a day. So that was good for her too - to stay at home alone i mean.

But during that week, on the 21st of May a disaster happened - but that was my own mistake. I was trying to walk by my self with a tool, i've never used before - I don't know what is English for but it is actually like a walking trollley without wheels and moving one-by -one supports. I used to walk with it at the instructors hall but then I got it to home for the weekend days and tried to do it with nobody around. And I fell! right on the concrete fall! it was very painful I would say! But! - While falling I tied to do my best - I kept my feet and my head, I broke nothing, even this my new artificial joint, I did not hit my head at all (but my neck was paining afterwaed Well, I'd say everything is well that ends well. First it was a useful experience, second since i had cricked my thigh muscle and it was aching I had to change my walking manner a bit and it was good too! that would not happen if there were no falling! But I should not tell about it my mother! But the minus is that it's still aching.

As i had alrady told gthis period was too long a bit - i trained so much that last 5 days I'm feeling dizzy al the time - vestibular apparatus was overloaded, now I need some rest - so I do. But I'm looking forward to Germany trip.

MIND DEVELOPMENT

In the meanwhile these things did not occupied my mind. I was staying mainly inside this small yard - actually I had got unused to crowds of people and I felt better at home. So while I stayed at home we were reading manuals with Julia, playing with puppy and I was reading a lot by my self. I read, for example, the "Razor's Edge" by Mohem - in English ( besides while reading it I was always recalling a sentence from the Rendt's "Writing Clinic"^" make the sentences as short as you can". Mohem is by no doubts a prominent writer, but his sentences occupy 4-7 lines. When you'd get by the end you'd have to come back to trace the meaning.

Beside that book I read several novels by Dumas, Haggard (unexpectedly interesting they were) and a manual set, very instructive one on the human history. The last one was VERY interesting and highly instructive espevially in the part concerning modern history (well, I know the ancient one more or less). It was published by the Cavendish publishing house. There I had read a lot of interesting things about modern economy, society, depressions of Europe and the USA, the British Commonwealth and modern word situation. I'd got from there that the NZ is very special place. It meets my requests as full as it'd be possible, it seems a vivid example of "how it should be" I wonder why Rendt had moved there, it perfectly fits his character. I would like to know the reasons which had moved Rendt to NZ - it suits his character so much!

BACK

We have just returned home. But the very last day of our staying in Crimea it had started raining and a thunder storm happened. So it seemed it was time to leave indeed. 
But I had returned to Moscow walking on my own feet!

Olga