Bits and Pieces

We've had a busy few weeks...here's some "bits and pieces" of what we've be doing.  

We traveled with our boss to Ulyanovsk, Kazan, Izhevsk and Samara - about 1500 kilometers and five days of travel.  The highway system in many places is not conducive to fast travel so it is common to go under 100 kph (about 58 mph) and even much slower.  The highways in Tartarstan Oblast are much better...that's where Kazan is.  On the last day of this trip we hit an object in the road and punctured our gas tank.  We pulled into a nearby auto repair - which was a blessing because most of our travel was through very rural country - and three guys came out smoking cigarettes to check out the damage.  We survived that experience and went into a kafe for some lunch.  Our boss talked to a couple of guys eating there who turned out to be mechanics in a truck repair shop next door.  They had him pull in the car and they put some goo on the holes and it patched them.  The holes were about 3/8 inch in diameter and the gas just poured out of them.  After a three hour delay while all this happened we were headed on down the road.  Sweet.  Got home exhausted but happy.

Kazan is a beautiful city...we've included a picture of a building there.  Wikipedia gives an explanation...The origin of the name Kazan is uncertain. The most accepted legends derive it from the Bulgar (and also modern Tatar) word qazan, which means 'boiler' or 'cauldron'. One legend claims that the city was named after the river Kazanka, which was named after the son of a Bulgar governor dropped a copper cauldron into it. Other local legends claim that the city was named for the resemblance of the hill on which it sits to an upturned cauldron. 

The attached picture plays on the cauldron theme...the building is a wedding registration palace...in Russia to get married you just go register with the government.  Any wedding ceremony is after the fact.  

The next weekend we headed back to Samara for teacher training...what we call inservice in America.  Lena and Tanya, the wife and daughter of our boss, came with us.  It was wonderful to get to know them better and travel together.  Sherry and Lena went shopping at the mall while we went to teacher training on Saturday.  The mall has Ikea and a bunch of other stores. We went to church Sunday and headed home.  

When a new coordinator is hired by CES a more experienced coordinator is assigned as his mentor.  Zhenya mentor flew into Samara for the teacher training and we got to meet him. 

It is so fantastic to have a boss with a church-owned vehicle who can take us grocery shopping!  We don't have to ride a bus for hours or take a taxi.  It's paradise.  We went to the Happy Mall where we shopped at a new-to-us store for groceries and then bought some better ping pong paddles because our boss was not satisfied with the less expensive ones we had previously purchased!  Everyone at institute is a way better ping pong player than we are.  We also went to Castorama which is the Russian version of Home Depot.  Very cool to walk around.  Castorama is a French home improvement retailer.

Zhenya also took me shopping for games for Game Night which we are starting up next week at the Activity Center...we'll be open Friday from 18:00 to 21:00 for students to drop in and play games or hang out.  We bought Ticket to Ride and Connect Four and Rummikub to add to our collection.  Sherry also put up a puzzle and we're putting that together.  Zhenya bought a projector for institute at a place called ULMART...it's a store you walk into and all that is there are computers.  You sit down at one, find what you want, print out a ticket and take it to the cashier and pay for it.  Then you sit and wait for your name to be called and go up to a counter and they bring out what you bought...pretty cool.  Then you take it to a final counter and they take it out of the box and make sure it works.

Last night we attended a circus in Saratov.  They have a building here that is just for circuses...and it's the oldest circus building in Russia.  The circus was cool...the clowns were the best!  A few months ago we had mentioned to the Markelovs that we'd love to go to the circus sometime...so they told us when the performance was and we got the tickets. They didn't allow pictures during the performance but here are some outside and before. Afterwards they took us to a shashlik kafe for chicken and pork...pretty good night.

This week we have FHE, Youth and YSA Fireside tomorrow with taco soup and homemade tortilla chips...and Tabasco sauce and jalapenos!  That ought to get their attention...Russians that we know don't really do "spicy"., institute Wednesday with potato soup and toasted bread, Sherry puts butter with spices it in on the bread and toasts it in the oven...sorta like really big croutons.  The students love it!. Thursday is district council and Friday our first game night.  Next Sunday I get to teach my first lesson as Elders Quorum President.  That ought to be fun!  

We've found some very cool games to play for FHE.  There is a cool website for youth ministers with some great games...www.thesource4ym.com/games/.  We played a new one for FHE this week...we had twenty-three in attendance and they ate two fresh apple cakes Sherry made.