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.

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.

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.