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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.