+ MISSION WEEK

Mission week continues.  Our dear Friends and Benefactors, we have a little surprise for you –the story of the Evens.  The Evens are one of the major tribes living in Kamchatka.  They are not the native inhabitants, their ancestors came here with the reindeers and settled here, and so here they are.  They hunted in order to survive, and because there is a lot of snow in the North of Kamchatka and it stays long, they used dog sledges to move from place to place.  The rest is told as a fable. :)

THE DOGS AND THE MAN

Three dogs were sitting near the tent in the snow: Stadek (Оронка) – the herding one, Głosek (Лайка) – the hunting dog, Sanek (Нартка) – the one who pulls the sledges.  The dogs were quarrelling with each other.

Stadek was boasting:-

- I am the one who helps the man the most: I look after what is the dearest to him – the reindeers!  And that is why the man should give me the best morsels.

– But Stadek, you are wrong!  I'm the best dog – Sanek replies – and the richest morsels the should be for me.  After all, it's I who pull his possessions, without me he would not be able to roam from place to place.

Głosek was getting angry:

- You are such braggarts!  Without me all of you would be starving: after all this it is I who search for the prey while hunting in the taiga.

The dogs began quarrelling and quarrelling, until they rushed at each other and began to fight so that their fur flew with the wind.

Each of them cried:

- I am the best dog.

The man came out of the tent.  The dogs ran to him and one by one started boasting:

- I'm the best dog: I search for prey while hunting in the taiga! – Głosek boasts.

- No, I'm the best dog: I pull the sledges helping you to roam from place to place! - Sledges growls angrily.

- Oh no, no, then I'm the best dog: I look after the reindeer! - Stadek tried to outshout Głosek and Sanek.  The man laughed:

- Just look how you are boasting!  None of you is my best dog: I feed each of you in the same way, I need each of you equally and equally cherish you.

The man then returned inside his tent.  The dogs took offence at the man for valuing them equally, for not favoring any of them and not considering anyone the best.

Głosek spoke up:

- Let us go away from our master.  We will help each other; we won’t die of hunger.  Let the master know how it is to live without us.

He persuaded the other dogs to do it.  

The man came out of his tent and saw that all the dogs had escaped.

The dogs went into the taiga.  Głosek saw a squirrel, barked, began to run through the snow, and chased the squirrel onto the pine tree boasting:

-   I did what was mine.

The squirrel was calmly sitting in the tree, not at all afraid of him – after all, there was no hunter with a shotgun near the dog.

Sanek ran to Głosek saying:

- It is thoroughly useless.  You chased the squirrel onto the pine tree, but who's going to shoot it, as there is no hunter?

The squirrel continued sitting on the branches and swinging…

The dogs raised their noses up looking at the squirrel, and licking hungry snouts.  They sat there for a long time, then began to yowl miserably.  

The night passed away, the morning started.

Głosek sprang up:

- I sniffed a hare! – he ran after the fresh footprints.

He found the hare, barked, and ran to Sanek and Stadek.  

Sanek says to Stadek:

- Get on my back, I will give you a ride to the hare, after all I am the one who pulls, and you are the herding dog.  Oh, see, the hare is running straight at us.

The hare stared in awe: a dog was riding a dog!  

The hare jumped over the ditch and disappeared in the thicket. 

Several days and nights passed.  The dogs grew totally thin.  Their fur started falling out; bare ribs were protruding.

Głosek is howling piteously:

- Death is slowly coming to us, dogs. What shall we do?  We won’t really survive without our master.  We shouldn’t have taken offence. 

They decided to go back to the tent of their master.  They returned. The man heard the murmur.  He came out of his tent:

- Oh, my fugitives have returned!  What a temptation you had!... You got hungry, poor ones...

The man gave each dog a large, oily fish.  The dogs, overjoyed, began voraciously devouring the fish, looking around.

Since then, the dogs have been friends with the man, serving him faithfully and not arguing with each other.  Stadek looks after reindeer, Głosek looks for prey in the taiga, and Sanek pulls what is needed. 

For the Lord our God all of us—or to put it differently—each of us, is the most important, and furthermore, we need each other to live!