Lasīt tālāk
11.Oct
1836 - first day of eleventh expedition
24 Aug
- 2017 -
Author
Alfreds Paulausks
Ed wakes us with a coffee. Early in the morning, we have a meeting at Krāslavas Old Believers church. Vitaly awaits us. The ancient wooden temple burned down in 2002, luckily the valuable icons were saved. Today, a new brick church has been built. We get to know a lot about history and Old Believers life in Latgale. The number of Old Believers is reducing, but we still can find some that live by the old traditions.
Next, we go to a spot where three borders meet: Latvia, Lithuania and Belarus. The road goes close to the border and we road signs “Do not enter” all the time. We don’t break the law and look for other possibilities in forest and using small trails. We are stopped by a river in woods, we have to cross it. Remembering our previous experience with sketchy rivers, we explore this first. We measure the depth and bottom. Our caution pays off, as under the water we find a big log.
About one kilometer before the border crosspoint we are stopped by a border guard, he checks our documents and tells us directions to our destination. The place can reached only from Lithuania. We head there.
For our last stop in this expedition we choose Ēģipte (Egypt), it’s a village in Daugavpils district on the border of Lithuania. When we enter Egypt, we can’t see a village, no signs, nothing. But it’s marked on the map. It seems that the village, in the past named Vilkumiests, is disappeared. As an old testimony stand ruins of a church and an old graveyard. I find a tombstone of Oskars Svensons, teacher of Rainis.
We head back to Daugavpils and road leads us to Berķenele, we see a sign: Rainis house. Berķeneles halfmanor is Jānis Rainis childhood land. Rainis learned alphabet in Egypt. Later, his childhood memories he wrote in his poetry. Museum’s director Inese gifts us his poetry book “Dagdas piecu skiču burtnīcas” that is completely written about Berķenele.
