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.

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.