It
was early in the morning in winter 1990. I was a teacher and a coordinator
of a school that only had one teacher beside me. I had to deliver some student documents
to an office center in the city to get students' benefit. It was one of my
responsibilities and I wanted our students to have all benefits on time. The
most important thing was about something telling me that I can do it. My friend
and I worked as teachers instead of mandatory soldiers in villages that are so
far from the city because the government could not send teachers there. I
remember I taught first and second grade at the same time and my friend taught
three grades in the same class, some weeks in the morning and some weeks in the
afternoon. Three of the village members and I woke up so early that day; they
helped me pass the river in the coldest time of the year; so that they can
protect me if wolves would attack. Both sides of the river were hardly frozen
in a negative 30 degrees (of Celsius) temperature.
I took off my
clothes and went into the freezing water so that I can pass it because there
was no bridge. The water came up to my stomach fast and hard, so I put the documents
on top of my head while the student village members were so worried about me. One
of them once told me that he could not talk at all while I was doing that
because he was so shocked. We were in a wild valley when I took off my clothes.
The ground was covered with snow three feet deep, so I told the students to go
back. I had to hike a way that was very hard to even drive on; even tough and
big cars could not pass through that way easily. After almost 30 minutes, I
arrived and looked around to see some vehicle by any chance. It seemed that I
was lucky because I saw a car that came from the city, but it came so slowly
because of the snow. When it arrived, it was almost 8:30 AM; there were people
from my organization who wanted to interview some of the village members. They
told me to stay there or go slowly, and they will be back after almost one hour.
I was carrying a tree branch for self-defense as well, but after I got to know
those people, I threw it away. Meanwhile everywhere was full of snow, so I
followed the car tire prints; I did not have a watch, but I was pretty sure
that I was walking for more than an hour. Sunlight reflected from the snow to
my eyes, and I could not see anything but whiteness for more than three hours.
Adrift, I began to look around for a while; they
promised me to come after an hour and a half but I spent waiting for more than
two hours, however, I never stopped and kept walking while waiting. They never
came, but it did not matter anymore because I could finally see the walls of
cottages from a far distance away after I arrived in the next half of the way.
After that, whenever I explained the story to other people who knew that area,
I was told that I was crazy and lucky because walking that way, in that season,
for that while, with no wolf appearing is impossible. These illustrated I am in
the right way. After spending all those hard times, I am fearless of a lot of
things. I feel confident and courageous now and also I feel like a very
experienced person who has a lot of stories to share with others. Hardships in
life make us the kind of people we are right now.
