Men's Club

Every few weeks the men at church get together for some fun. The ladies get together, also, but I don't know what they do. Probably drink tea and chat. The guys usually consume ridiculous amounts of meat and pray and watch movies. Last Friday evening we got together at Victor's house in a town outside Anapa. There was a lot of food already prepared when me and some of the guys rolled in. The shashlik (grilled pork) was just getting started so we had a seat in the living room. A few other guys came in later, which brought us up to 7. We all hung out in the living room while the shashlik was cooking and talked about... stuff. I couldn't follow a lot of it (conversations between multiple people are still tough for me), but there was some talk about cell phones, computers, and movies. After a little while the shashlik was ready and we sat down to eat. This was a relief to me. Last time, we did prayer first and didn't start eating until 10 pm. I guess Russians don't like to be rushed through prayer time, even if the hamburgers are ready. We had a ton of food. Shashlik, fried potato patties, broiled potatoes, onions, dill, parsley, green onions, tomatoes, salad, and bread. We also had some fresh squeezed grape juice, which Victor had made by stomping on the grapes. Hope he washed his feet... After dinner we retired to the living room for prayer time (praying for each other). It took us over 2 hours to get through prayer requests for 7 guys. They were in no hurry and Pasha was playing around with a souvenir dagger from Holland, which distracted the others. We finally finished things up at about 11:30 pm. I thought we were going to ditch the movie and go home, but Pasha and Kolya started setting up the laptop and TV. By 11:40 pm the equipment was prepared and we started up Transformers 2. I don't think anyone looked at the clock when we started the movie and I know that no one asked "How long's the movie?" I missed Transformers 2 this past summer, so it was fun to watch (in Russian). I even understood what was happening (pictures help). Around 1:30 am someone finally checked the time and asked "how much longer?" We finished up at 2:20 am, grabbed some cold shashlik, and rolled out. I got to bed at 3 am. Good times.

I Won't Miss the Dogs

The three-way intersection near my house has recently become infested with small dogs. Of all the dogs in Su-Pseh, I think I dislike the small dogs the most. They tend to be more aggressive and devious, often hiding under cars and rushing you from behind when you've walked past. Anyways, this particular intersection has now become the haunt of three nasty, little dogs. I was walking home the other day and all three came out of their hiding spots to hassle me. One of the three started pulling on my pant leg some, so I gave him a little kick. The owner and his wife were raking leaves nearby and started yelling either at me or the dog, I wasn't sure. The dog started barking even louder and dancing around me and nipping me on the heel. So, I kicked the dog again. At this point the owner walked over to me with his rake, shouting. I wasn't sure what he was going to do at first and I thought we were about to have an incident. He started clubbing his dog with the rake handle, though, and not me. Good thing, that would have been an akward way to meet some of the neighbors. I managed to sneak away while the dog was distracted by the rake.

Whatever the Garbageman Is Paid, It Isn't Enough

I recently found this photo while cleaning out my cell phone. I grabbed this shot while waiting at the bus stop one afternoon this summer. It must have been 90 degrees plus that day, as many summer days are here. One guy drives the truck, another guy walks along the truck and tosses garbage up. The third guy rides in the back of the truck with the garbage and packs down the garbage. Yuck.

A Трактор For Myles

A little while back my friend Myles put in a request for a picture of a tractor. He grew up on a farm and was interested in seeing a Russian tractor. There are a lot of tractors in town, I grabbed this picture while walking along the main street. Here you go, bud. Any other picture requests?

Fishing Lesson

Another Saturday afternoon and another English club at church. We had 8 people this week, which is a good sized group. Many more people than that and you lose the free conversations that make things so much fun. This past week's lesson was on fishing. The astute reader will recall that I did a lesson on fishing a while back. It was my very first English lesson here, in fact. I wasn't feeling so hot Saturday morning and decided to bring out an old lesson instead of creating a new one. Most of the regular attenders now would've missed that lesson and I thought it would be new to them. Of course, two people who have only attended the very first lesson decided to come last Saturday... I hope it was a good review for them. We all had a lively discussion about fishing (the bobber was an interesting subject) and also the Bible passage (Luke 5). Jesus was one heck of a fisherman, among other things.

Halloween in Southern Russia

Halloween in Southern Russia was... pretty much a non-event. I did see one or two Russian TV shows that alluded to Halloween and heard an ad on the radio for a haunted house in Novorossiysk, but that was it. I wasn't really expecting hordes of Trick-or-Treaters, but perhaps they were dissuaded by the unlit, unpaved streets swarming with ferocious dogs. It was raining, too, but that never stopped the kids in Seattle. The Turner Classic Movie channel did play Poltergeist, which I appreciated, but my pay-as-you-go cable service ran out at mid-night on the 31st and I missed the last half. Oh well.

Stone Age Technology

Sergei and I were working on the house Wednesday afternoon when Pasha came by with something he wanted to show me. It was an old, removable hard disk. Very old, made in the 70s, maybe. Maybe it holds some cold-war secrets. It was made in Buglaria, has 12 sectors, and stores 700 kb I was told. The plastic flip handle was a nice feature. Pasha took the thing apart later, he says he's going to use the disk to make a TV antenna. I'm not sure how that's going to work, but Russians are nothing if not resourceful.