May 25 2005
It’s hard to keep track of the days when the sun never sets and you work the weekends.
The weather has been foggy and flights in and out have been cancelled but today was Terry’s day to almost cancel the flight. This story starts back several letters ago when in Nome Alaska we were asked to transport boxes for BEMA into Russia as our own luggage. If you remember I was proud of myself for refusing to do this, I thought. Today a very large and important looking Russian came to our work site looking for me, handed me a paper to sign stating I was accepting responsibility for the 2 boxes left behind in Anadyr. He was talking to me a mile a minute and I’m sure I had a blank stare on my face as he went looking for Olga the translator.
Olga explained that someone needed to sign the paper for them to release the turbochargers, and somehow my name was on the paper in both English and Russian. It was only a release form…so I signed it. Next the large Russian started shouting at me to turn over the "Green Paper" with the help of the interpreter. I told them I did not have the "Green Paper" on me. At this point both of them said, "you MUST have the "Green Paper!", with a shocked expression like I had just broken the #1 rule of Russia…ALWAYS CARRY YOUR PAPERS.
Ok, a little panic set in and I asked for back-up. Olga got Larry and we both tried to tell them we have no GREEN PAPERS. The Russian got on his radio and next we both are asked to enter his truck and drive to the main office. At the main office there are 2 men in uniform (later, I found out they were the pilots) and the women in charge, again asking for the "Green Papers".
Larry and I both told them that we had nothing to do with this and that a kid named Cutter spoke with the officials and Bema’s agent. The women asked "what kind of name is Cutter???" In unison Larry and I said we didn’t know that’s what people call him. "Can we find him?" were the next words out of her mouth. We told her he worked as a surveyor and was in the field. They handed me a radio and told me to contact him.
In my best radio voice I took the radio and said "Whyle" (Cutters boss) do you or Cutter have the GREEN PAPERS???" Now this is broadcast thru 20 other radios and on top of that the BIG Russian pointed to the different buttons to help me operate a radio I have used thousands of time before. There was radio silence where minute before everyone was babbling, I asked again and Whyle and Cutter answered that they would be right down. At this point I felt a little more relaxed since it was Whyle who asked us to transport the items.
Yes these two had the paper and all ended well. The paper turned out to be a receipt necessary to retrieve the parts. The urgency was the helicopter was waiting for the signed paper and "GREEN PAPERS".
Why me?
In the camp on several pieces of paper we are referred to as Terrance Fellabaum and the other guy. On the drive back to the job site Larry said he was no longer offended to be the other guy for once.
Just a short note, my equipment started up and ran today. Tomorrow I will fine tune it. The batch plant is ready to run except for the replacement starter. Then we wait for the Russian operator so we can train him. He should be in camp in several days. We will stay to batch concrete then we are out of here. Maybe a week or a little longer, bad thing is only one flight per week out of here.
Love ya.