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?

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.

Furball in the Grapes

A shot of Furball, for all her adoring fans.

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.

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).

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...

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.

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.

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.

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).