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.

Update on English club

English club has been going well since I got back. Tonight is the fifth lesson of the autumn. So far, we have had lessons centered on summer, occupations, and home. We also had one game/activity day. Class size typically ranges from two to ten people. There are five people who are regular attenders, four of whom do not attend the church. It's been a lot of fun getting to know the people in class and learning more about Russia. Did you know that seasons in Russia start on the first days of December, March, June, and September? I didn't. I've also been incorporating Bible passages into the lessons (Matt 20, Psalm 19, Psalm 32, Matt 7) and we've had some great discussions. Last week, I was very impressed that three of the advanced students were able to put into correct order the first half of Psalm 19 (the verses had been scrambled).

Holding an informal English club has also been a little challenging for me since, due to it's informal nature, I have no idea who is going to show up any given Saturday. It's been difficult trying to create lessons that won't totally bore the advanced students or totally mystify the beginners. Unfortunately, we haven't had large enough groups to break them out by skill level. Tonights lesson is a grammar lesson (present continuous), don't tell the students :) Sounds like most of the regular attenders are sick or working today, so who knows be coming tonight.

Furball in the Grapes

A shot of Furball, for all her adoring fans.

Still Building a House

Well, the wall I built hasn't fallen down yet. Good thing. I've gone back to help Sergei a couple times, now, and I think we're making good progress. This shot is from the middle of my day three at the job site. Sergei and Pasha are in the background. The day before, Sergei and I had worked well past dark. I wasn't quite sure why, but he really wanted to get that wall done for the next day. Something about putting a "belt" on the wall. It was fun laying blocks and concrete in the dark. Sergei used his cell phone display to light my work. The next day I found out about the "belt" and why the wall had to be completed. We're building some concrete forms at the tops of the walls. We'll lay down a ring a steel rods and then pour concrete over it, making a "belt' to hold the walls together.

Grapes

The weather has been beautiful since I got back. Most days are sunny and in the upper 60s/low 70s. The evenings are getting pretty cool, though. Fall is definately here. The Anapa area is famous for it's vineyards. There are grapes growing everywhere, including my back yard. One sunny afternoon I went out back and took pictures for a while. I was having fun with the sunlight shining through the grape leaves. Some of the grapes had split open and a bunch of bees were chowing down. I took a bunch of pics of the bees, here's one of them.

Building a House

My friend Sergei is building a house on the south side of Anapa. He and his wife Alicia are currently sharing an apartment with another couple from church and are looking to have their own place. I have plenty of free time and, not really knowing jack-squat about building houses, asked him if he wanted any help. He actually said yes, so I met him at the construction site Monday morning. I hadn't seen his place before I arrived. He's building a second story on top of an existing concrete garage with large steel doors. This seems to be a common arrangement in Russia. Pasha from church has been helping out, also, and they started a week before I did. After a 3 minute tutorial on building a cinder block wall I was put to work building a wall. It took me a minute to figure out which end of the trowel to hold, but it went well after that. 5 rows of blocks later things looked alright, but what do I know? I'm just a programmer and tech writer. Sergei and Pasha said the wall looked good, so I was happy. Mixing concrete by hand and hauling it around in buckets is hard work.

Back in Anapa

I know, it's been a while since I last blogged. I was busy in Seattle, what with wedding preparations and all. I was spending a lot of time with Marcia, too. Thanks to everyone who took me out for lunch or let me stay at their place, it sure is appreciated. I made it back to Russia OK. Long trip, I had to stay at Sheremetyevo for 18 hours. I didn't feel like going into the city with my 120 lbs of luggage and am too cheap to use short term storage at the airport. The second and last flight of the day to Anapa left 50 minutes after my arrival in Moscow, so I had a long wait until the next flight in the morning. I mostly stayed in the cafe lounge on the 4th floor of Sheremetyevo 2. The food at the cafe is fairly cheap and it's quiet and out of the way. Not a bad place, except for the cockroaches in the back corner.

When I checked in for the flight to Anapa I got into an argument with the Aeroflot lady about my luggage. If you're coming from America they're not supposed to charge you for the second bag, but she kept insisting that I had to pay the excess baggage fee. I had bought my Anapa tickets separate from the rest of my tickets, which may have been the problem. After 30 hours of travel I was in a bad mood and really didn't want to pay the ~$120 fee, so I decided to fight it out. The check-in line got all backed up, of course, because there was only one lady serving Anapa. The couple behind me started getting all huffy and then started yelling at me and the Aeroflot lady. The Aeroflot lady ignored them, I made the mistake of trying to explain the situation to them (in Russian). My explanation obviously didn't suit her and she started making fun of me for being an American. Then she turned around and told everyone else in line about the American boy who brought too much stuff and didn't want to pay the fee. Fun. My language skills must be improving, I managed carry on this argument in Russian with the Aeroflot people for almost 20 minutes (with 3 different people). It eventually became clear that they weren't going to let me onto the plane without paying and they had already taken my luggage, so I paid up. Yay. Welcome back to Russia, I guess. Luda picked me up from the airport and even brought me lunch (thanks, Luda!). After almost 40 hours of travel/waiting I was very happy to roll into bed at my place.

BTW, the picture shows what the cafe on the 4th floor of Sheremetyevo 2 looks like at 1 am.

Teaching in Novorossiysk

Marcia and I took the bus over to Novorossisyk again to teach at Anya's school. I think it's funny that there are more taxi drivers in line at the ticket window than bus passengers. It was another hot, sunny day. Fortunately, the bus had AC. Last nights lesson was based around travel. I'd done a travel lesson in Anapa a few weeks previous, so it didn't take a lot of effort to put the lesson together. There are two classes that we've been working with and it's been a lot of fun getting to know the people. The beginners group has only 5 people. Their English language skills are still pretty limited, but they work hard and want to learn. There are 12 people in the intermediate group. Their language skills are a lot better and they're a lot more talkative. We often ditch the lesson (so much for planning) in favor of talking. I'm more of a conversation facilitator than teacher in the intermediate group. After class we went back to the bus station, where the ticket lady told us she didn't know if the bus was coming or not. The driver hadn't called in, yet, and the ticket lady didn't know if he was going to finish his route or not. Fortunately, the bus did arrive and we headed back to Anapa a little after 9 pm. Riding the bus here is always interesting. Last week, the driver had offered a "special deal" to people if they boarded the bus a few blocks from the station and paid him directly. 20 or so people spent the hour long ride standing in the aisle of the coach bus. This week, the driver made a couple of stops along the way so he could get a soda. He just parked the bus in the middle of the road while he went to the store. This is normal here. We got back to Anapa around 10:30 pm. Many of the marshrutka stop running around 10-10:30, so I called a cab for Marcia. The marshrutka to Su-Pseh stop running around 10:30 pm, so I was planning to walk the last 4 km back to the house. Thankfully, there was one final bus back to Su-Pseh and I didn't have to walk back.

Russian Ingenuity

I've noticed that Russian people can be very creative in cobbling together contraptions in order to save money. Marcia and I found this basketball hoop and soccer net one day walking around town. At least, I think it's a basketball hoop.

Marcia's Visit

It's been wonderful having Marcia visit. It's been a lot of fun showing her around the Anapa area and she's had a chance to meet all the people I've been talking about for months. We've been having a lot of fun hiking and running, going to the beach, worshiping at church, meeting people, and spending time together. Too bad she has to leave in a week and a half :(

Sunday Lunch

Sunday afternoon Marcia and I decided to host a church lunch at my place. No particular reason, other than that I hadn't had a bunch of people over, yet. I think we had 14 people from church over, a good number. We cooked up some stir fry veggies and pasta and home-fried potatoes. The Russians seem amazed that I know of a way to cook potatoes that they don't know about. Everyone had a good time, I think, sitting around chatting. The chinese food was a big hit (they don't get chinese food here).

Summer Marshrutka

Summer has arrived in Anapa and so have the tourists. Anapa is one of the large resort cities on the Black Sea coast and has a long, sandy beach. 3 million of people (if you believe the locals) come to Anapa during the summer and they all ride the marshrutka. It is usually standing room only on the mini-bus. Standing up with your shoulders on the ceiling and your face buried in somebodies back can make for a some uncomfortable rides. People seem pretty good-natured about the crowded conditions and seated people will often offer a lap for small children or excess baggage. My personal record is 20 people, a baby, and a baby carriage stuffed into a 13 passenger mini-bus. The temperature is consistently in the 80s and 90s during the day, now, and some of the marshrutka don't have windows that open. I managed to grab this picture from my seat in the back of a marginally full bus (there was room for another 3 or 4 people, I think).

A Trip to McDonald's

Last week, John and Naomi were planning a trip to the mall in Krasnodar and invited Marcia and myself along. It can be very difficult finding western food or quality products outside of Moscow. The mall in Krasnodar has an Ikea, a large grocery store, several electronics stores, and a McDonald's. It's a 3 hour drive, so you'd better make a day of it. The Musgraves had some specific things at Ikea that they wanted, I just wanted a hamburger. It's been months since I had a real burger. Cabbage and potatoes are nice, but they're not burgers. The drive to and from Krasnodar went smoothly, we weren't stopped by the police. The mall was OK, it had a little air conditioning. I got a Big Tasty and McChicken burger for lunch. Yum. In the states, I hardly ever go to McDonald's, but it's great here. The menu is very similar to the American menu. It's kinda funny reading the menu items in Russian. I scored some tortilla chips at the grocery store and a lot of drinking water, also. I got some cheap movies, also. I got shafted on the Wolverine movie, though. The box clearly said it had English language, but the disc only had Russian language. It was fun watching Wolverine in Russian, but I missed most of the dialog. We stopped at a roadside market on the way back. Marcia had fun taking pictures. It was a good day.

Building a Tree House

John has been building a tree house over at the House of Grace. While he may be secretly indulging some sort of mid-life crisis, the stated reason for the tree house is to give the children of visiting pastors a place to play. I think it's a great idea. Some of the sunday school classes at Crossroads Bible Church raised the funds for the materials. I've helped out a little with the construction work, which has been fun. Fortunately, hammers and saws have a simple UI. The tree house is coming along very nicely, I want to play on it.

New Sign for Church

The church in Anapa just recently put a sign out above the front door. Previously, there was none. This is a big step for the church, they're taking more of a public stance.

Church Work Party

A young couple at church are expecting very soon and a friend of theirs offered them a house to live in rent free for the summer. The house is in a good spot, near the center of town and right off the main road. Trouble is, the house isn't completed yet: unfinished concrete walls and floors, no windows, and a lot of miscellaneous junk lying around. It's very common for people here to build a house over a period of years (as they get the money) and move in before it's complete. My neighbors down the street finally moved in a couple weeks ago, before the roof was put on. They were bumming when a thunderstorm dumped an inch of rain (the roof was completed two days later). Anyways, there was a lot of work to be done to make the house live-able and not much time until baby arrives so a group of people from church came to help. 8 of us spent 4 hours cleaning construction junk out of the first floor, moving stuff out of the way upstairs, sweeping out the dirt, burning scrap lumber (filled with nails), moving a Soviet era sofa, and shoveling rocks. Good fun. The house was much better off when we left. It was great to see the people from church helping each other out like this.

My Nemesis

This guy can usually be found lurking in the shrubs near my door. If I leave the door open for any length of time he runs in, eats all of my cat's food, pees on something, and runs back outside. He's done this a number of times. My patience is wearing thin. If I could just get him and the neighbor's rooster together, somehow, I might stage an "accident" of some sort...

Marcia's Coming to Visit

She arrives tomorrow, actually. If all is going according to plan, she's already arrived in Moscow and is looking forward to a nights stay at the lovely Sheremyetevo Terminal 2 (the hotels near the airport are very, very expensive). She'll catch the first flight to Anapa in the morning. I'm very excited to have her here, for 4 weeks. Taking the busy back and forth to the Musgrave's house, where she's staying, will take some time but that's OK. It's going to be a lot of fun showing her around, introducing her to people, and having her nearby.

Bass Guitar

Somehow, I got press-ganged into playing bass guitar in the worship band at church. It's pretty simple, really: Roman kept asking until I said "yes". I don't have a bass guitar, so we need to find a bass somewhere. Roman put a request out at church, I think one will turn up eventually. Once we secure the bass, I need to learn to play it. I played guitar a little in high school and have played the bass part in Rock Band, so hopefully I'll pick it up quick. Anybody know of any bass tutorials available online?

Baseball Club

Friday night we had our second meeting of baseball club at school #6 in Anapa. It was a warm and sunny evening, in the mid 80s (I think that's 230 degrees C). We had 8 players this time round and several supporters (family and children) who watched. We threw the ball around for a little while and then practiced batting. This time, we made sure to point the batters away from the parking lot :) After a quick review of the rules, we decided to play a short game. It was mayhem, but it was a lot of fun. With 4 people per team, the batting team had a definite advantage. A few bystanders were almost hit by fly balls (they don't know what the crack of the bat means, yet, but they'll learn). Various toddlers would also wander through the base paths or walk up to home plate while daddy was batting, stopping game play. All in all, things went pretty well. We made it through 3 innings.

Teaching in Novorossiysk

My friend Anya is an English teacher at a small private school in Novorossiysk. Anya invited me to come visit the school and drop in on two of her classes. "It will be good for the students to listen to an American speak.", she told me, and I agreed to come by. Novorossiysk is perhaps 50 km from Anapa. I don't own a car, here, so that means taking the bus. I haven't traveled by public bus between cities by myself and I prepared myself mentally for a mini-adventure.

Early Monday afternoon I went downtown and purchased a bus ticket at the station. I was swarmed by taxi drivers before I got the ticket window. "No, thanks, I don't want a taxi ride to Krasnodar..." Ticket booths (bus station, airport, movie theatre, where ever...) in Russia are built like armored pill boxes. The attendant lady sits securely behind a plate glass window, dispensing tickets and irritation through a tiny slot. Sometimes there are holes drilled in the plate glass for speaking (usually 4.5 feet high), sometimes not (and you speak through the money slot). Either way, it's almost impossible to understand the lady behind the glass. This particular ticket lady was relatively friendly and only smirked at me once when I gave her a 500 ruble note for a 66 ruble fare (they like exact change). $2.14 is a good price for traveling 50 km to another city.

The bus ride was pretty uneventful. I actually had an idea of where the bus station in Novorossiysk was, so I didn't feel too apprehensive about getting off at the wrong stop. The driver chain-smoked the entire ride. I was a little hoarse and irritable when I finally got off the bus, since I had been breathing second hand smoke and b.o. the whole time. Anya met me at the bus station and we went off to the school. The evening's lessons centered around clothing and appearance. The first class was beginner level. We spent a while on vocabulary and pronunciation. One of the other teachers at the school sat in on class to practice her pronunciation, also. The second group was intermediate level. We started off with the clothing and appearance lesson, but got side tracked on hobbies. We eventually ditched the lesson completely and the students asked me questions (in English, mostly). I did my best to answer in Russian, but had to fall back on English a number of times :) I mentioned that I had worked in the computer industry for 8 years before coming to Russia to visit friends and help out at the church in Anapa.

When class got out, the other teacher and two of the students stayed behind to talk with me more. They commented that leaving a career to come live in Russia was a big change and wanted to know more about why in the world I would do something like that. I think I managed to convince them that I was of reasonably sound mind and that I hadn't been fired from work. One student said she knew some church people who had done something similar because they were following God and asked me if I was doing the same. What a great lead :) We had a good conversation for about 30 minutes and I got to share with them what God had done in my life. They had some good questions, "Did I come to Russia because i wanted to or because I felt I had to? If you're following God, are you really free?" Anya helped out a lot with translation through all this, for which I was grateful (the level of discussion had moved a little above clothing and colors). We had to break off the conversation at 9pm, so Anya and I could run back to the bus station for the last bus back to Anapa. We made it with a few minutes to spare and I finally got back to Su-Pseh around 11 pm. Long day.

Loitering by the Corner Store

I went running one evening last week. Very few people around here go running, so I felt a little conspicuous as I jogged along the main road and out to the vineyards and back. Sure enough, two guys hanging out at the magazine (corner store) took note of my strange activity and stopped me to talk on the way back into town. They wanted to know how long I'd been running and where I'd gone to. Both seemed pretty impressed that I was actually running. Both guys were pretty friendly, they shared their sunflower seeds with me. One was Georgian and the other Armenian. We had a friendly chat for about 30 minutes. The Georgian guy (Artur) has family living in Los Angeles. He went to visit them, once, and wanted to talk with me about America. He wanted to see some photos of America, so I agreed to come back to the store the following evening and show him. This conversation was almost exclusively in Russian. I was able to follow about 80% of it, which made me pretty happy.

I returned to the store the following evening at 6 pm. Well, 6:10 pm, to be honest. I was preparing for English Club and was running a little behind. There was nobody else standing outside the store, so I stood and waited a little while. I had been waiting 10 minutes or so when an older fellow walked up to me and started talking to me. He looked familiar, I think i had been introduced to him the night before at the store. This guy was very friendly, really wanted to talk to me, and had exactly 0 teeth (I checked when he wasn't looking). He spoke in all vowels and I could hardly understand anything he said. Nice guy, though. He kept shaking my hand a lot. He offered me his hankie, since I'd been standing in the warm sun and was sweating a bit. He also went in the store and bought me a beer. Drinking in public seems to be legal in Russia, or at least completely un-enforced, but I felt a little strange strange standing on the sidewalk knocking back a beer. I drank a little and gave the rest back to my new friend, since I was going to be teaching in 30 minutes. We "talked" for about 20 minutes. Or rather, he kept talking, I kept saying "Sorry, I don't understand", and he kept shaking my hand. In our entire conversation, all I got was that he was Tatarstani, something about "women and children", and "America" and "good" were also mentioned in the same sentence. After 20 minutes I decided it was time to go. Artur was a no-show (or i'd missed him), the current conversation wasn't really going anywhere, and I had to get to English Club, anyways. Good times. Meeting new people is always fun, and sometimes you get free beer.

Knock-knock Jokes

Anybody know any good knock-knock jokes? I was trying to explain knock-knock jokes to Pastor Victor the other day, while we were walking one morning. I couldn't remember very many, it's been a while since I told any (5th grade, probably). So, anyone got any good ones?

English Club

English Club is up and running at the church and we will be meeting Saturday evenings. We've had 2 meetings so far, with our third this evening. We had 7 students the first night and 9 the second. We might get a few more people tonight, since many people from church were at a conference in Moscow last week. The first lesson was centered around fishing and used Luke 5 as the reading passage (fishing with Jesus). The second lesson centered around travel and used Genesis 45,46 for the reading (traveling with Jacob). Tonight, we will have a grammar lesson (don't tell my students :) ). So far, we have only had people from church. I hope that people from outside church will start to attend. I've invited a couple people, we'll see if they come. I'm really glad I got a TESL certificate last summer, that course has been very helpful. I feel like I actually have a clue what I'm doing :) So far so good, we'll see how many people show up tonight.

Russian Infomercial

Yeah.

One Year with Marcia

May 10 marked 1 year of dating Marcia, which is pretty cool. Time flies, hardly seems like it's been a year already. Marcia's currently in south Asia, checking out some projects with a missions organization, but we got to talk on the phone via Skype Sunday morning. Marcia's coming to visit me here in Russia in 1 month. Love you babe, can't wait to see you here. Mmmwwaaahhh!

English Club and Softball

This weekend I'm finally starting the English Club at the church. I'm excited and a little nervous. I'm not sure how many people are going to show up, but there has been a lot of interest at church. There will likely be people of all skill levels and a wide range in age, also. It will be a challenge to come up with activities that will be interesting and helpful to everyone. Roman and I will also be starting our softball club this Friday evening. Earlier this week we drove around the city and picked out a field at one of the elementary schools. The field is surrounded by several large apartment buildings and was pretty busy when we drove by earlier. Softball club should be a good way for the church to interact with people in the city. A big thanks to the people at Crossroads Bible Church who donated the balls and gloves. We'll see how things go, I'll keep you informed.

May 9 is Victory Day

Each May 9 Russia celebrates the victory over Nazi Germany and remembers those who died in WWII. Flowers and wreaths are laid on wartime graves and the war memorials which are found in everywhere. There is a large military parade held on Red Square in Moscow, this year featuring squadrons of fighter jets and state-of-the-art missle systems. Victory Day is a really big deal here. An estimated 8 million Russian soldiers and 26-28 million civilians died during the war. Everybody lost somebody during the war. Novorossiysk, just 40 km from Anapa, is one of the 12 Hero Cities of the Soviet Union. The Nazis laid siege to the city for most of a year and 300,000 people died. Americans, I think, have a hard time relating to that kind of carnage. We haven't had a war on our own soil in 150 years and "only" 620,000 Americans died during our Civil War. God has certainly blessed America with peace at home.

Spring in Southern Russia

When I left Anapa at the end of March everything was brown and gray and bare and rainy. When I returned at the end of April everything had turned green and leafy and sunny. Spring has definately arrived. What a beautiful area. The apple trees are blossoming and there are a bazillion tulips everywhere. This is a shot of my backyard.

Getting Registered

In Russia, foreigners are required to register at a post office or police station within 3 days of moving to a city. I arrived in Russia last Saturday, which meant I had to register by Tuesday. Sunday morning my landlord Nikolai and I ran down to the post office to get me registered. The post office isn't usually open on Sunday, but Monday was a holiday and the post office was open Sunday morning. We filled out the appropriate forms but also needed to photocopy my passport and visa. The grouchy lady behind counter informed us that the xerox machine in the back room wasn't available to us. That section of the post office wasn't open that morning, I guess, and, no, the grouchy lady wasn't going to help us. Not her job, I suppose. We took off to find a shop in the city with a copy machine, Nikolai muttering under his breath. 40 minutes and 5 stops later, we finally found a shop that was open that had a copy machine. Sunday morning on a holiday isn't the best time to do business. We got back to the post office 20 minutes before closing, to find that the grouchy registration lady was now gone. The other lady didn't know where to, perhaps she was on break. We waited a little while, then left.

Turns out the post office was open Monday morning, despite the holiday. Nikolai offered to take care of the registration for me before he and Galina left for the day. Should only take a moment, he said. When they returned that evening, I found out that the lady at the post office had refused to register me. There was a problem with the dates on my immigration card. In a jet-lagged haze I had apparently written the wrong entry date on my immigration card. My bad. The woman at the post office refused to have anything to do with it, even though the customs stamp in my passport showed what day I had really arrived. She didn't feel like helping and that was that, I was out of luck. In Russia, the person holding the rubber stamp holds a great deal of power over you.

Tuesday morning, Nikolai and I went to another location to try to register. Nikolai asked me to bring my plane tickets with me to prove what day I had really arrived in country. Thank God I tend to use boarding passes as bookmarks, I hadn't thrown them out. We arrived at this other office, which was tucked away in an apartment building, at 8:40 am. A "line" had already formed outside the door. We put ourselves down on the waiting list which was circulating. The officials showed up at 9:15 am (late) to open up the office and the crowd moved from the steps outside to the cramped hallway inside. It was pretty packed and chaotic waiting in the hallway. Periodically someone new would push through the people and walk directly into one of the offices, only to be immediately ejected by the busy official. Someone in the hall would then berate the person for cutting in line and then they'd put their name on the list.

Around 9:45 am Nikolai and I finally made it into office #1, where the official promptly informed us that passport registration was taken care of in office #2. We'd been waiting in the wrong line. Fortunately, it was a short wait for office #2. Nikolai explained the mistake on the migration card to the official, who told us that was fine but we needed to start the registration paperwork again with blank paperwork. No, they didn't have blank copies of the paper work there, but there was another location a few blocks away that ought to have the paperwork. So, we walked over to the other office and got in line. This place looked like an army recruitment center, I'm not sure why they would have registration paperwork there. If I understood the lady behind the counter, she wasn't sure why they would have the registration paperwork, either. We returned to office #2, empty handed. This time, we walked directly into office #2 (Nikolai didn't feel like waiting in line anymore). The first guy we'd talked to was nowhere to be seen, so we had to start over with the new official. This guy was more easy-going and said we didn't need to start with blank paperwork. He had just started scribbling some changes on the registration paperwork when the power went out. After sitting in the dark for a minute we went out into the hallway, where some light from the door was shining through. The official finished scribbling on the paper work and then we waited. The power came back on after another 5 minutes, I got the blue stamp on the migration card, and I got my info entered into the computer. After 4 hours of work spread over 3 days, I was now legally registered in Anapa. Thank God for Nikolai, it would have been difficult for me to get this done.

Return to Russia

I flew out of Boston Thursday evening and got maybe 4 hours sleep on the way to Munich. I was feeling a little rugged when I arrived but decided to keep with my plan to not stay at the airport for the next 14 hours. I ditched my backpack at storage and then hopped on the S-bahn into the city, armed with a list of places in the old city. I arrived at the Marienplatz, site of the famed Glockenspiel, shortly before noon. The Marienplatz is beautiful. You walk up the steps out of the S-bahn into the middle of a stone plaza, surrounded by gothic buildings and clocktowers. The Glockenspiel is pretty cool. It's a big mechanical clock with a bunch of mideviel wooden figures that dance and march around, accompanied by bells and chimes. The show lasts almost 10 minutes.

After the Glockenspiel I caught lunch at a German restaurant. I had pork medallions and mashed potatoes with a really good German beer. Yum. It was a beautiful sunny day, so I grabbed a latte at Starbucks and walked around for a while. Near the Residenz (former home of the Wittleberg princes) is Englischer park, a gorgeous area. While walking around, I noticed several people sleeping on benches in the sun. I took the hint and claimed a bench for myself and slept for 30 min next to a fountain while a man was playing a cello nearby. It was nice. After my nap, I got another latte and walked around some more. I dropped into an Ancient Egypt exibit for a little while. Most of the plaques were in German, but it was still interesting. In the early evening I passed by a biergarten near a market and dropped in to investigate. I grabbed a whopper on the way out and made my way back to the airport.

When I checked in at the Aeroflot desk, I learned that when Luftansa transferred my baggage to Aeroflot they had written down the wrong flight number on the baggage tags. Fortunately, my bags ended up being loaded on the same flight as me to Moscow. That would have been a real mess to sort out in Moscow... God was looking out for me there. I think I got 3 hours sleep on the overnight flight to Moscow and was feeling even more rugged when I landed at 4:30 am. I made the transfer to Sheremetevo terminal 1 OK and caught the 9:05 am flight to Anapa. My friend Roman from church picked me up at the airport. ~36 hours later, I made it back to the house in Anapa and finally got some sleep.

Thanks, everyone!

I'm back in Russia, now. I had a great time visiting friends and family America. I kept busy: 2 weeks in Washington, 1 week driving through California, and 3 days in New Hampshire. Celebrating Easter at home was wonderful (Yay, Jesus!) and I got to see Marcia every day for 3 weeks. It was good to drop in on Mom and Dad, too. A big thanks to everyone who let me stay at their place, loaned me a vehicle, gave me a ride somewhere, bought me drinks, or took me out for breakfast/lunch/dinner. God has put some incredibly kind and generous people in my life, for which I am very grateful.

Got My Visa

W00t!

American Buses

American buses are nice. They're big and spacious, well kept, fast, you can stand up inside, and they have big seats for big American bottoms. The routes are well marked and route information is easily found online. The drivers are polite, answer questions, and don't try to run you over when you cross the street. Riding the bus in Seattle has been fun.

Waiting on my visa application...

I finally got my visa application submitted Monday afternoon. In order to get a Russian visa you need an official Letter of Invitation (LOI) from a company or organization registered with the Russian government. Previously, I'd obtained LOIs from a travel agency (for a hefty fee). This time around, I was able to get a LOI from a missions agency in Russia for a much better price. Unfortunately, it took a lot longer than I'd anticipated for the LOI to be ready. I got a scanned image of the LOI in my email Monday morning, so I filled out the application and took it down to the Russian consulate downtown. Fortunately, they accepted the printout of the LOI and didn't require the original LOI (which would have to be mailed from Russia). I was starting to get nervous about the LOI, if it had arrived a day later I might have had to reschedule my flights back to Russia. Tomorrow at 2 pm I return to the consulate and find out whether I have a visa or whether the application was rejected.

Back in the USA

I made it back to the USA safely. Things went well, except for one minor oversight that turned out to be costly. Somehow, I overlooked that my flight to Frankfurt left from Domodedevo airport and not Sheremetevo airport. I flew into Sheremetevo from Anapa and made the transfer to the international terminal. I was expecting to hunker down at the international terminal for the next 12 hours when I noticed that Lufthansa ticket booth had been closed down. After checking my ticket confirmation and talking to the lady at the airport info desk, I found out that my flight the next morning left from Domodedevo airport and not Sheremetevo airport. Domodedevo is 60 miles from Sheremetevo, on the opposite side of Moscow. I ended up taking a taxi to the other airport, I didn't feel like trying to find my way on the metro and bus during rush our with 60 lbs of luggage. The two hour taxi ride (traffic was good) was pretty expensive. Grrr... Other than that, travel went well. It took about 40 hours, total. Fortunately I got a little sleep at the airport and on the flights in between. The lovely Marcia picked me up in Seattle. After three months apart, it was very good to see her. We got dinner at an Indian/Nepali restaurant in Seattle. I went to bed shortly after dinner and slept for 12 hours. I thought it would feel pretty strange being back in the US (the reverse culture shock thing), but so far so good. The only strange things so far are that people on the street smile and say hello and that drivers don't try to run me over while crossing the street. My brain is still confused as to which time zone it's supposed to be in. I think I'll take a nap, hopefully that will help.

Slinging Concrete with the Musgraves

The Musgraves had a load of concrete delivered to their house on Monday and asked me to help move it to the backyard. They're building a patio in the back yard and needed to pour concrete for the posts. The Russian guy operating the concrete truck wanted to dump the concrete in the yard and leave (which provoked some vigorous discussion with John), then he wanted to charge us more for making him wait while we wheelbarrowed the concrete out back (which provoked some more discussion). He really didn't want to wait around. It took us 23 minutes to pour concrete into the 8 or 10 post holes. There was extra concrete left over, so the Russian guy dumped it across the street and took off. The Musgrave's neighbor wanted some of the extra concrete, so we moved some of it to her disintegrating patio. We took the remaining concrete and filled 5 of the 300 potholes in the street. Every little bit helps. Naomi cooked up some hamburgers afterwards. Yum.

Sunday Afternoon with Igor and Vladimir

I was riding the marshrutka to church Sunday morning when I got a call from Igor. Igor, if you recall, helped me shop for modems a while back (see Internet Access in Russia). It had been a couple weeks since I'd talked to him, he's been busy. Turns out he and a friend of his were going to be at church that morning, also. I think Igor was there to talk to the Musgraves about Skylink interaccess (Igor is a salesman) and Vladimir decided to tag along. Igor had mentioned Vladimir in the past, saying that he'd be interested in meeting me and practicing his English. As it happens, I had randomly bumped into Vladimir in town a few weeks before. He overheard me trying to buy a phone card and helped out. Funny.

The weather was actually nice (it's been raining for weeks), so the three of us decided to wander down to the waterfront. We also planned to see if one of the museums was open. The museum plans were cut short, though, when I slipped on the muddy slope by the old German bunker and fell on my butt. I got cleaned up in the bathroom in a nearby hotel lobby, but Vladimir and Igor decided that walking around with a soggy bottom would be the death of me. They were very empahatic, so we headed back to Igors house. Igor washed my pants (which was very kind of him) and also cooked up some lunch. We hung out at Igor's house until evening. This morning was the first time that either of them had attended an evangelical service before, so they had some questions about protestant churches and churches in America. The both said they enjoyed the service, especially that they were allowed to sing and pray. In Orthodox services, the priests perform the service and the people are mostly spectators. Being able to participate in the service was very different for them. While Igor was cooking lunch, Vladimir asked me how I came to find God so I briefly shared my testimony with him. We had a good talk while lunch was cooking. Vladimir also came to the Bible study Wednesday night and seems interested in growing closer to God. I had a great time with both of the guys. I was pretty annoyed about the soggy bottom at first, but it ended up providing a good opportunity to hang out with Igor and Vladimir. Funny how these things work out.

Russian Spiders

Russia usually isn't the first country that comes to mind when you here the word "bugs". Peru, perhaps, or maybe Texas but not Russia (it's cold in Russia, and there are bears). Throughout the past week, though, I have found a lot of spiders in the house. They congregate in my bathroom for some reason. I've found small spiders that make small webs in the corner. I've found big hairy spiders that hang out on the wall. "No big deal," I told myself, "they eat the bugs." When I was in Ecuador, we had a tarantula the size of my hand living outside the door to my hotel room. Even that one didn't worry me too much, until one day he'd moved and we couldn't find him anymore. A couple days ago I found this guy (see picture) on the handle of the shower nozzle. I'm no arachnid expert, but the black, bulbous body and hourglass-shaped markings make me think it's a widow spider of some sort. That wouldn't be good. I took some pictures and then squashed him with the shower nozzle just to be safe. Anyone know what kind of spider this is? I scoured the internets for 30 minutes and gave up. I found two types of venomous spiders that live in Russia, but couldn't identify this one.

March 8 Is My Birthday... and Women's Day

I'm not dead, yet. What a great way to start a blog post :) Last Sunday marked 32 years completed for me. 32 doesn't feel so bad, but then I haven't had much time get used to it. Sunday morning it was pouring rain, I got completely soaked on my 5 minute walk to the bus stop. Pastor Victor was the first to see me when I walked into church. He yelled "Happy Birthday!" in English and then gave me a huge bear hug. I tried to wave him off, but to no avail, and he was soon almost as wet as me. Victor had a small birthday present for me: a stick of deoderant. He was quick to explain that such gifts are common in Russia, I really didn't stink that much. Elena also gave me a card, which was nice, and someone had put a small birthday poster on the bulletin board for me.

March 8 is also Women's Day in Russia, a big holiday. It's a celebration for women, obviously, and not only mothers (like in America). After the service, 8 guys (including myself) got up front to read poetry to the ladies. The poems were in Russian, of course, and I spent most of the service practicing my piece. I notice that I was given the shortest piece to read:

Вы прелестны, словно розы,
Только разница одна:
Розы вянут от мороза,
Прелесть женщин- никогда!

The poetry was a big hit with the ladies in church. After the service, we had ice cream sundays for everyone. Yummy. Kolya and Oksana gave me a ride back to Su-Pseh so I wouldn't have to walk in the rain (very kind of them). We stopped by the flower market on the way home and I picked up some daffadils for my neighbors. Galina and Tanya have been very helpful to me here, so I thought I would do the Russian thing on Women's Day and buy them some flowers for Women's Day. 5 flowers, each. I'm told you're supposed to give ladies an odd number of flowers, you only use an even numbered bunch for funerals. I don't know why, that's just the way it is. I had shashlik again with Nikolai, Galina, Tanyan, and Kolya. Nikolai thought it was great that I had brought flowers for Women's Day and said that I'm now a Russian citizen. I wish getting a work permit was as easy as obtaining citizenship :) We had a good time together over some great food. We also had some of Nikolai's home made wine, made from the grapes they grow in the yard. All in all, a good birthday/Women's Day.

Weekend Church Retreat

This past weekend was a short retreat for the church. 17 people, including kids, made their way to the Mountain Spring camp at Novorossiysk Saturday morning. Victor and Luda had prepared a bunch of marinated chicken for the BBQ. Generally speaking, Russian ladies prepare the meals. BBQ, or shashlik, is the exception. The ladies went off to prepare the other aspects of the meal while the men-folk went to play with fire. In this case, the grill was a big steal box with legs that had been welded together. Ventilation holes had been cut in the bottom. One of the guys then poured an entire bag of charcoal into the grill and then went searching for matches. I was a little skeptical about how well the huge pile of charcoal would burn until Viktor poured in two bottles of lighter fluid. It burned just fine. After fanning the charcoal for 15 minutes, we had a good bed of coals. The shashlik inferno was a good opportunity for me to get to know the guys at church a little better. I've spent little time with some of the guys and we had a chance to talk for a little while. The guys seemed pleased to hear that I'm part Czech, and thus part Slavic. Almost as good as being Russian, I suppose. The chicken was amazing.
After lunch a bunch of us wandered down to the beach. It looked like it might rain, so I left the big camera in my room. The ladies gabbed, the men stood and looked out over the sea, the boys threw rocks into the water. Some of the big boys, too. Later in the afternoon we all got together for a sermon by Viktor. I'm afraid I didn't get much out the sermon. I can pick up a few words here and there, but it's usually not enough to follow the theme. I'm sure it was an excellant sermon. Afterwards we had prayer time, which was good.
Later in the evening we went to The Banya. The ladies went first, the men didn't get in until 10 pm. I've done the banya several times here in Russia. I like the banya, for the most part. It's a good chance to hang out with the guys. I thought I had the banya figured out, but the guys from church added a new twist the third time round: wool hats in the steam room. Why in the world would you wear a wool hat in a steam room, where it's 110+ degrees C? Good question, one that I asked. Apparently, you put the wool hat on if you're getting too hot. It's supposed to insulate your head from the hot air and keep it a little cooler than your body. I thought it was a joke at first (haha, let's get the American to wear a wool hat in the banya!), but they were serious. They produced three wool hats from somewhere and were wearing the hats right along side me, happily baking their brains out. After the banya, we hit the sack. I learned something that evening getting ready for bed: only Americans bring PJs and a change of clothes for a 2 day retreat.
Sunday morning we ate breakfast and listened to another sermon. Again, I had trouble following along. Later, Viktor was kind enough to give me a recap on the drive back to Anapa. After lunch, we piled back into the vehicles and went home. Even though I have trouble communicating, I was glad to have gone on this trip. The people in the church are wonderful and I'm glad I got the opportunity to get to know them better. The other people had a good time, as well.

The Banya

The banya is truly a unique, Russian experience. The people here love it, many people have a banya at their home. The banya typically consists of a steam room, a cold pool or shower, and a sitting room. There are three phases to the banya. Phase 1: you sit in the steam room, wrapped in a white sheet, for as long as you can stand it. 15 minutes, typically. The steam room is hot, usually around 110 degrees celcius. If oak or birch branches are available, you dip them in the bucket of water and flog each other until your skin turns a nice rosy pink. Sitting in a broiling hot room while getting switched with steaming hot tree branches feels like you've been set on fire. This is supposed to be healthy. Phase 2: when you can't take the steam room or flogging anymore, you run and jump into a pool of cold water. The sudden change in temperature and blood pressure hits you like a mule kick and leaves your head spinning. This is supposed to be healthy. Phase 3: you sit around a table drinking tea and talking until you cool down. You repeat this sequence another two times, the overall process takes about two hours. As I said, Russian people love the banya. It's almost a past time for them. If you give them a chance, they will explain at length the benefits to your health and how it will improve your life. I'm not sure why the Russian ladies love it so much. I can see why Russian men love it. The intense heat, the cold water, the tree branches... it all has the aspects of a hazing/bonding ritual. Guys like that kind of stuff. I don't see why this would appeal to the ladies, but they love it, too. The banya is strictly segregated by sex, though, so maybe the women have a different routine. Perhaps they flog each other delicately, I don't know. I should investigate.

Happy Birthday, Russian Guy!

I was walking into Anapa to visit my favorite English speaking ATM when I spotted this billboard. The caption says Happy Birthday, in Russian. Obviously, somebodies friends are helping him celebrate his special day by taking out a 15'x20' (I think that's 80m by 150m) billboard ad. I think it's funny. I wonder if his friends told him, first? Probably not, I wouldn't. Happy birthday, Russian Guy!
As I've mentioned before, the road between Anapa and Su-Pseh is never boring. I got chased a little ways by two German shepherds from a car lot not too long ago. Weddings are pretty common events on the weekend. The friends and family of the bride and groom will often decorate their own cars with ribbons and flags and follow the couples car, forming a carvavan on the road. I was walking home from the ATM when I saw one such caravan. The bride and groom were in a heavily decorated stretch limo accompanied by 5 other decorated cars, one of which was flying a huge Russian flag. All the cars were flashing their lights and honking their horns. As they passed me, the limo was flanked by two other cars. On a two lane road, they had formed a line 3 cars abreast. The two outer cars were half driving on the dirt shoulder and they were all moving fast. A little ways on, the car in the left lane hit the brakes and pulled behind the limo to let oncoming traffic by. He didn't leave much room for error. Never a dull moment on this road. I should memorize a few emergency related phrases in Russian. I spend a lot of time on this road and see some crazy stuff. Some day I may have to call for an ambulance. I usually pray for the drivers as I walk into town.

February 23 is Army Day

Army Day is one of the big holidays here in Russia, right up there with New Years. The Soviets started Army Day some years ago, I'm not quite sure when. Probably after the Great Patriotic War. As the name suggests, it honors the veterans that have served in the wars. The Russian Federation still celebrates Army Day. Kids get the day off from school, most people have the day off from work, and people get together with friends and family for the day. Army Day is also extended towards fathers and all men in general, not just veterans. So I guess it's Men's Day, which I appreciate because I got to partake of the 20 something different types of potato and cabbage salad that the ladies at church made for us men-folk. I spent most of Army Day with my neighbors Nikolai and Galina and Tanya (their daughter) and Kolya (Tanya's son). We cooked shashlik (similar to shish kabobs) outside as it was snowing lightly. We ate inside, of course, and had a lot of food and a little "Hammer and Sickle" brand vodka. Russians love making food for holidays. It was a good day.

On the Bus

The following is a partial transcript of a (Russian) conversation on the bus:

Sunday, 22 Feb 2009

10:51 am
(Chelovek enters the marshrutka and takes the seat behind Americanetz. Chelovek taps Americanetz on the shoulder and hands him a 50 ruble note.)
Chelovek: One person.
Americanetz: (Nods, passes the 50 ruble note to the next person, who passes the note to the next person, who passes the note to the next person, who passes the note to the bus driver.)

10:54 am
Chelovek (to Americanetz): Where ---- money ---- ----?
Americanetz: I don't know.
Chelovek: You ---- ---- ask ---- money ----?
Americanetz: I'm sorry, I don't speak Russian. I'm learning to speak Russian, but I don't speak well.
Chelovek: ----?
Chelovek (to driver): ---- ---- money -- -------!
Driver: --- ------ -- ----! (Fishes out several notes and coins from the dashboard, passes the money back to Americanetz, who passes the money to Chelovek.)

10:56 am
Chelovek (to Americanetz): You not Russian fellow? You German fellow?
Americanetz: No, I'm not Russian. I'm American.
Chelovek: ----- German -----. You ----- German -----. ---- ----- -- ----.
Americanetz: I'm sorry, I don't understand.
Chelovek: You German?
Americanetz: No, I'm not German. I'm American.
Chelovek: American? Ah! ----! Boosh ---- ---- Abama ---- president. ---- Boosh president ---- ---! Abama.
Americanetz: Yes, Obama is president, now.
Chelovek: Abama ---- -- -----.
Americanetz: Yes, I hope Obama will be a good president.
Chelovek: ----- Abama ----- --- -- ----- president ---- --- ...
Americanetz: I'm sorry, I don't understand.

11:01 am
Chelovek: --- -- ------ --- --------?
Americanetz: I'm sorry, I don't understand.
Chelovek: What you --- -- ------ doing in Anapa?
Americanetz: What am I doing?
Chelovek: Yes, why you here?
Americanetz: I'm a teacher. I will be teaching English in Anapa.
Chelovek: You're an English teacher? In Anapa?
Americanetz: Yes, an English teacher. (Looking out the window). This is my stop. Good bye.
Chelovek: Good bye.

I'm calling this exchange a draw, since I couldn't pass on his request to the driver. I also missed most of his rant/rave/whatever about presidents Bush and Obama, but then he didn't seem to be looking for a response. Current score: Ryan-2, Inquisitive Russian People-3.

LAN Party!

Pastor Victor asked me to organize a "Cyber Club" (that's LAN party, to you gringos) at church. So I did, last Saturday night. I made the announcement in church the previous Sunday and Victor translated for the congregation. During the week I gathered some games (Counter Strike and Battlefield 1942) and made arrangements to borrow Victors wireless hub. Come Saturday, Victor and I went to the store and bought some sausage, bread, and cookies. Victor made me order the sausage from the deli, in Russian. Victor says he can tell I'm not Russian because I always say "please" and "thank you." Cyber Club was a big success and a lot of fun. We had 12 people show up, including 4 grrlz from church. They weren't really gamers, but it looked like they had fun, also. We wrapped things up a little after 10 pm, cleaned up the church, and went home. Good times. Next time Anton, Pasha, and Evgeny don't get to be on the same team.

A Trip to the Coast

A week and a half ago Nikolai and Galina, my neighbors, were kind enough to take me down the coast on a Sunday afternoon. It was a beautiful, sunny day and we left after I got back from church. Our first stop was a "holy" spring in a small town, Varvaravka, just up and over the hill from Su-Pseh. The spring had been blessed by the Orthodox church and the waters are supposed to have some healing properties. There is a small shrine set up next to the spring with some flowers and icons. Nikolai filled up some water jugs while Galina and I took a quick walk up to the new church that is being build above the spring. I took some pictures of the church, the cow, and the spring.

Our next stop was a viewpoint looking out over the sea, near a war memorial. The memorial is for a captain Kalinin who successfully repelled the fascist invaders (presumably with some help) during the Great Patriotic War. The Nazi's did lay siege to Novorossiysk down the coast for most of a year (300,000 people died), so the locals here were understandably pleased with the good captain. Traveling through Russia you will find war memorials in every hamlet, village, and city and along each road in between. They're everywhere. They're well kept and always adorned with flowers. Everybody here lost somebody in the Great Patriotic War, it must have been horrific. America is very blessed in that we haven't had a war on our own soil (excepting Attu and Kiska) in 150 years.

After the memorial, we piled into the growly Lada and went to Bolshoi Utrish on coast. It's a beautiful little spot. Nikolai and Galina come here fairly often and come to swim here during the summer to get away from the tourists in Anapa. We walked along some trails for a little while. There is a huge cliff here that is said to have been the cliff that Prometheus was chained to in the ancient Greek myth. It was also incredibly windy, I'd guess a sustained 40 mph (I think that's 2000 km/h). There were many windsurfers playing on the waves. We walked around the point for a little while, near the Delpinarium (the dolphin circus, as Nikolai calls it), and out to the lighthouse and chapel. A beautiful Sunday afternoon, if a tad bit windy, and it was a lot of fun hanging out with Nikolai and Galina. They're wonderful people, I'm very blessed to have them as landlords. They're coming over to my place for dinner tomorrow night, I'm making hamburgers. I hope that they'll attend church with me sometime.

My Bible Doesn't Have a Book of Jacob... Part 2

The lovely Marcia comes to the rescue: the Greek New Testament has the book of Jacobus, not James. The English translators must have chosen James over Jacob for some reason. The first half of this article, http://www.tentmaker.org/Dew/Dew7/D7-TheBookOfJacob.html, talks about how the switch from Jacobus to James may have occurred. Interesting. The Russian translation of the Bible sticks with the original Greek name, Jacob. I don't hold to the second half of the article. I'm not familiar with the Tentmakers, but a quick perusal suggests they're a universalist group of some sort.

My Bible Doesn't Have a Book of Jacob...

I went to a bible study at church, tonight. We talked for a little while before the study began and had tea and treats. Pasha talked some about his recent trip to America. When things got under way, everyone opened their Russian bibles to the book of Yakov. At first, I didn't recognize the name. Yakov? Some of the Russian names of the books of the Bible are a little different than the English names, but I can usually figure it out after a few moments. Yakov? That sounds a lot like Jacob. I asked the lady sitting next to me and she confirmed that it was, indeed, the book of Jacob. My bible doesn't have a book of Jacob. My first thought was maybe this was one of the apocrypha, but I've got the apocrypha at home and there is no book of Jacob. Pastor Victor, ever vigilant, noticed my confusion and also stated (in English) that tonight were were studying the book of Jacob. The book appeared to be near the end of the Bible, so I asked if he really meant the book of Jude. "No, the book of Jacob", Victor responded. "Um, my Bible doesn't have a book of Jacob. What are we studying?", I said. I think somebody repeated what I had said in Russian, the other 10 Russian people had stopped talking and were now watching me. At this point I was wondering where this new book of the Bible had come from and the Russians were probably wondering why I had bought such an obviously defective Bible. "The book of Jacob, it comes after Hebrews", persisted Victor. "After Hebrews... You mean James?", I asked. It took a few moments, but we got it sorted out. The book of James in the English bible is the book of Jacob in the Russian bible. Who knew? Perhaps Jacob is the closest equivilant to the English name James and the translators used Jacob, instead. We all had a good laugh. This isn't the first time I've completely stopped conversation in a room here in Russia, it probably won't be the last. Fun times. Some days, the learning curve feels pretty steep.

Ryan in Russia

I'm on a blogging rampage, today... Marcia asked for a picture of me in Russia, so here's a picture. Mom probably wants a picture, too, so here's a picture. Yup, alive and well. Don't worry, Mom, I'm not eating SPAM anymore. A friend took this shot of me when we were down by the Black Sea, feeding the swans.

Ask the American, he knows...

While walking around several people have stopped me to ask questions. I must stick out somehow (probably the running shoes). Several weeks ago a driver pulled off the road onto the sidewalk (almost hitting me) to ask me directions to somewhere. I think he was asking directions, I couldn't understand a word he said. I wasn't much help. Judging by the look on his face, he seemed both annoyed and amused that of the hundreds of people walking around he had picked the ignorant American to ask directions of. I had another biker looking guy (I didn't know Russia had bikers) ask me for a cigarette or a light or something smoking related. Again, this guy seemed to think it funny that he had found an American. Just two days ago another man stopped me to ask the time. This time I both understood the question and was able to answer in Russian. The fellow went on his way none the wiser. Less the wiser, perhaps, since I gave him a very inexact time. I rounded up 17 minutes to the next hour because 3 pm is easier to say than 2:43 pm (don't tell my Russian teacher). No biggie, both of us walked away happy. Ryan-1, Inquisitive Russian People-2.

The Road to Anapa

My house is 4 or 5 kilometers (how far is that in miles?) from the church in Anapa. I don't have a car, so I often end up wallking or taking the marshutka (small buses). It's a 50 minute walk, depending on snow and dogs. It's a good walk, I enjoy it. Between Anapa and Su-Pseh there is a 2km section of flat, straight road that runs across a grassy field and past some vineyards. This stretch of road is pretty dangerous. I see people speeding all the time and passing 2 sometimes 3 cars at a time (the tractors and old military trucks can cause a real backup) and zipping back into their lane just in the nick of time. Sadly, not every driver is as skillful as they would like to believe. There are several memorials along the way. The sidewalk isn't completely safe, either, though is separated from the road. I almost got pegged by a guy riding a motorcyle on the sidewalk one day. I can appreciate his not wanting to drive on the road, but he could have slowed down a little... In these pictures, Su-Pseh is the town with the radar domes on the hill and Anapa is the city with the red/white smokestack.

Completed Reading the Bible

I recently completed reading the Bible (cover to cover) for the first time, which I think is pretty cool. It took me a year and a half, I was taking my time. I'd read most of the Bible at various times in the past, but never all the way through in a continous fashion. I began my journey on my last visit to Russia, actually, and took a somewhat roundabout route. I started with Ezekiel and went through Malachi, then doubled back to Genesis and went through Lamentations. Then I tackled the New Testament. What an awesome book. Sex, murder, mystery, epic battles, poetry, prophesy, divine visitations, creation, salvation, ... No wonder it's been a best seller for 2,000 years.

A Visit to the Technical College

I got to visit the local technical college, today. My landlord, Nikolai, is a professor of economics there. The college has an English program and Nikolai arranged for me to come in and speak to 2 different classes. It was a lot of fun. The teacher seemed pretty happy to have me there. I don't think she's had an opportunity to bring in a native English speaker, before. The students were all in the management program, training to work in the hotel and tourism industry in Anapa. Anapa is a resort city that receives many visitors from Europe and the management program has a foreign language requirement (English or German). It was a question/answer session for both classes, I didn't present a lesson or anything. Apparantly, I'm the first American person that the students had ever met. The students had prepared questions in advance: where was I born, what did I study in school, what do I like about Russia, what's the average salary of a manager in America, am I married, why live in Russia, why live in Su-Pseh, etc. It was a fun time. I got to ask the students some questions, also, and they wanted to hear me speak in Russian, also. It was also a good opportunity to tell the students about why I moved to Russia and to share a little about the church in Anapa. Perhaps I might be able to get a job at the technical college. I don't know, I'd have to ask Nikolai about it. Nikolai seemed pretty happy that I was able to come and speak at his school and I was happy to oblige. Nikolai, and his wife Galina, have been incredibly helpful to me and are wonderful people. I hope to coninue developing my relationship with them.

Where I Live

I live in a small village called Su-Pseh, about 2 km south of the city of Anapa. Su-Pseh has a population of ~10,000 people, 20,000 dogs, and 3000 roosters. There are some geese, goats, and cows, too. I've noticed that all the dogs (yes, all 20,000) bark at once between 8 am and 8:10 am. The dogs all live outside in the yard and I think they bark at kids walking to school in the morning. They're pretty noisy, I call them my "doggy alarm clock." Most of the streets in Su-Pseh are unpaved and there are no sidewalks, so you need to pay attention while walking around on the streets. I've dropped in to several of the small stores (called magazines) and have found the people to be pretty helpful and friendly. Houses in Russia are usually built of concrete or brick, which is different than the US (we use wood a lot). Another big difference is that they run the gas lines above ground and you see the yellow pipes running all over the place. A lot of people still burn wood or cow dung for heat, so there is usually smoke in the air. I've seen people burning garbage or yard waste in their yards, too. I've seen a number of covered wells with buckets around town, I'm guessing Su-Pseh didn't get running water until fairly recently. The two pictures show my back yard and my street (my house is on the left with the green fence).