On Our Way

Well, we made it to D.C.! There was heavy traffic almost all the way from Charleston to Falls Church but we made it safely to Missy's house. We took our time and let everybody else do silly things along the way. Leon and Missy's daughter and son-in-law came over for dinner as well as Charlie, the neighbor from across the street. After a wonderful dinner of Christmas leftovers (ham, turkey, dressing and all the fixings!) we went for a drive to see the Christmas lights on the Mall (including the National Christmas Tree), in Georgetown and in Old Town Alexandria. Beautiful! We get to sleep in a little in the morning and then Missy will drive us over to Dulles in time to meet the rest of the group at 2:00 p.m.

I hope I'll be blogging from Moscow after January 1!
Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday - I know I did. I can't believe I've procrastinated this long to get back to blogging, but here I am, packed and ready to leave for D.C. in the morning! My roomie, Jan Blount, and I will drive to my friend Missy's in Falls Church, Virginia tomorrow. Missy and her husband are taking us in tomorrow night and maybe giving us the grand tour of all the holiday lights around Washington. On Friday, they will get us to Dulles International Airport to meet up with the rest of the group around 2:00p.m. ; our flight leaves at 4:55. This year we are flying Air France direct from D.C. to Paris and then Paris to Moscow. I think it will be about 1:00 p.m. local time when we arrive in Moscow on Saturday. There is an eight hour time difference between Moscow and Eastern Standard Time.

I haven't been very good about telling you about my preparations this year but I hope to do better while I'm in Moscow and about sharing pictures when I get back. I bought four more gig of memory cards for my camera so I should be able to take plenty of pictures!

The Bishop Sings!

The Bishop of the Eurasion Conference of the United Methodist Church sang "Silent Night" in five different languages for us!

Church Music

The First United Methodist Church of Moscow has both a traditional choir and a Praise Band. The guitarist at the mic was a former soldier who had served in Chechnya and sang a song he wrote himself about the sadness of the war there.

After the church members sang for us we sang some songs for them in English. They knew the words to "Take Me Home, Country Roads" and sang along with us!

Pastor Ludmilla is the author of the Russian Methodist Hymnal.

Pastor Ludmilla

Pastor Ludmilla preached in Russian and Elena translated.

Altar

This is the altar with a picture of "Laughing Jesus". Cool!

Sanctuary

This is the sanctuary. It looks like it used to be a school auditorium.

First United Methodist Church of Moscow

On Orthodox Christmas Day we attended church at the First United Methodist Church of Moscow. The congregation rents part of this building for Sunday School classrooms and their sanctuary.
Of course they fed us! Tables were set up in the Sunday School room and we were served lunch before the service.

Traffic in Moscow

Can you read the sign under the traffic light? Yes, it says "STOP"! Russians drive on the right side of the road like we do and the rules of the road seem to be a lot like ours. You could tell what the traffic signs said even if you couldn't read Russian. Street names were something else. The guide books recommend that you hire a driver unless you are REALLY comfortable with the cyrillic lettering. It's a huge city with lots of lanes of traffic. The strangeness of the trip was due as much to the size of the city as it was to cultural differences.

Presents Still Needed

Wonderful people have been giving me presents all year for my upcoming trip but I still want more! Last year I read the instructions that said I needed to bring 25 of each of the items on the list of presents for the Russian orphans and thought that was all I could bring. I found out I was wrong! We spent the first evening in the orphanage at Sergei Posad putting together gift bags and I realized that we can use as many of each item that we can carry over there. I need to inventory all the great stuff I have but I'll still take anything that is on the list. (The list can be found in the last post dated May 2 - I'll repost it soon if you can't get to it.)

Volunteers in Mission also need cash donations to cover the cost of shipping the presents to Moscow. We take them with us when we fly ther in December. I think it costs between $50 and $100 to ship a 50 pound box. I've been asked if there aren't less expensive ways to ship the presents but I'm told that this is the best way. Packages sent by other carriers don't always make it to the children. 'Nuff said! Cash donations are also used to buy such items as washers and dryers for the orphanages while the Team is there. There is a link to VIM in the box to the right of the blog.

Apologies

Dear Friends,
Let me apologize for taking so long to get back to this blog! I got busy with another project (more on that later) and time slipped away. All of a sudden it's October and I'm getting ready to go to Russia for the 2007-8 Orphans Christmas! Several of you have asked when I was going to get back to the blog and I kept saying, "Soon, soon!" Well, "soon" is finally here. I'll be finishing up the pictures from last year's trip and letting you know what's coming up. I will also re-post the list of items I need to take with me as presents for the kids
The project I mentioned above was being on the Ministry Action Planning Team that is working to unite my church, Central United Methodist, with five other churches in the Downtown and West Side areas of Charleston. It is a monumental task, as you can imagine, full of emotions ranging from grief and despair to joy and hope. I've been given the task of being the "scribe" for the MAP Team and all my writing skills (such as they are!) have been poured into keeping up with minutes and published summaries of our activities. The situation has calmed down a little bit for the moment so I hope to be able to spend a little time blogging and catching up on some other areas of my life.
Thanks for your interest and patience!

Off to Another Orphanage

After we finished shopping at Ismailovo we got on the bus to visit another orphanage. I honestly can't tell you where we went. By this time we were all so tired that we just headed off where we were pointed! Even the teenagers were dragging by this time. Of course we had a wonderful lunch laid in front of us that helped revive us before we toured the facility. I think that VIM was being asked to come stay at this orphanage during the summer to help work on the building but I'm not sure. After experiencing the conditions at Sergei Posad Psychological this place looked like it was in pretty good shape!

Dima

Dima was our #1 bus driver. He knew all the short cuts around traffic tie-ups and could squeeze that bus down the narrowest of alleys. Daddy would have been proud of him! By the way, that's not his hair, it's a hat.

Ismailovo Market

On Saturday morning (January 6) we had a couple of hours to go shopping at the Ismailovo Market next to our hotel. This is THE place to buy souvenirs in Moscow. It is an open air market where you barter for nesting dolls, linens, amber jewelry, Soviet-era military items, imitation Faberge eggs, fur hats and more. I'm no good at bargaining so I trailed along behind John and Susan who were very good at it and I came away with lots of nice things, including a real fox fur hat.

Tretyakov Art Gallery

About a block away from the Cathedral is the Tretyakov Art Gallery (again, I'm going to have to check the spelling on that). The artist Tretyakov is still living and is considered one of if not the greatest Russian artist of modern times. He is so respected that the government built this gallery just for his art. He is known for huge murals that depict Russia's place in history and the world today, especially what he considers the negative aspects of Western influence on Russia's culture (McDonald's, for example). I'm certainly no art critic, but I think one of our group's comments sum up Tretyakov's art very well: he is just mad at the world!

Christ the Savior Cathedral

Our next stop was Christ the Savior Cathedral. If you've been watching the news lately you saw this church as the site of Boris Yeltsin's funeral. The Cathedral was originally built by Tsar Alexander I to celebrate the defeat of Napoleon. The communists destroyed it when they came to power and planned to build a "palace of the people" on the site. Years dragged by and the "palace" was never built. One story goes that Stalin himself delayed the project because it was supposed to have a 20 foot tall statue of Lenin at the top. Because of his jealousy of Lenin, Stalin didn't want him honored in such a way so he prevented the building from going up. When Nikita Kruschev came to power he had a large public swimming pool complex built on the site. When communism fell and the Russian Orthodox Church regained its power as the state religion the Cathedral was reconstructed with the same plans as the original.
Icons are an important part of Orthodox worship. When blessed by a priest these images of saints are supposed to have special power to work miracles and help prayers reach God's ears. There is a famous icon of Christ in the lower part of the Cathedral that is the only religious object to have survived the destruction of the original building. It is a hauntingly beautiful head of Christ; when we were there many people were stopping to light candles and pray in front of it. I was able to buy a small copy of that icon and one of Saint Sergei at the souvenir counter.
Because of preparations for Orthodox Christmas Eve in the main sanctuary we didn't get to see that part of the building but the lower chapel was awe-inspiring. We had the opportunity to stay downtown and attend the Christmas Eve services at the Cathedral but we would have had to take the subway back to the hotel later that night. About half of us opted to go back to the hotel on the bus and watch the services on TV. We probably got a better view of the service and didn't get stuck in a corner where we got our feet stepped on and couldn't see or hear anything!

The American Grill

After we left the Kremlin we went to eat at the American Grill. The menu includes Russia's version of American food - you can get hamburgers if you let them know ahead of time. We had the pork chops and potatoes with all the extras and it was really good. See the Coke sign in the left picture? We always had "Coke Light" or "Pepsi Light" on the table wherever we ate. They have also learned that Americans don't like the fizzy bottled water so they make sure they have the "plain" bottled water for us.

Last Shot of the Kremlin

We finished the Kremlin tour in the late afternoon. As we waited for our tour bus to drive around an pick us up I had this wonderful view of a 19th century palace where Tsar Nicholas II and his family lived when they were in Moscow leading down to one of the Kremlin towers with the Soviet star still on top. I thought it was a wonderful contrast of history as well as of light and shadows. As far as photographic quality goes this is my favorite picture of the whole trip; I have it set as my wallpaper on my computer at work.

Presents Needed!

First, pardon my delay in posting! Time got away from me over Easter - when you're a church musician you're very busy during this time of year. Also, my church is involved in plans for a possible merger of five congregations and I'm on the committee that is working on that. Let's see if I can't get on the ball and give you some information!

I'm already getting donations of presents for the from the wonderful folks at church and from some of the groups to whom I've given talks. Other friends have asked me for the list of items needed so here goes:

Infant and Toddler List

Coloring Books

Box of 8 Crayons

Tube of Chapstick

Sheet of Stickers

Toothbrush and Toothpaste

Infant and Toddler Socks

Matchbox Car for Boys

Small Doll for Girls

Signed Christmas Card

Children and Youth List

Make Up and Nail Polish for Girls

Cologne for Boys

Winter Gloves and Knitted Winter Hat

Tube of Chapstick

Tube of Hand Lotion

Toothbrush and Toothpaste

Pad of Writing Paper, Erasers

Pencils, Pens, Pencil Sharpener

Socks for Boys or Girls

Signed Christmas Card

All the items will be sorted and distributed in two-gallon Zip-Lock bags. Don't worry about sorting them yourself; it is easier to pack like items together. The team will have a packing party the first night we are there to put the bags together by age and gender.

If you live in the Charleston, West Virginia area I will gladly come and pick up the items. If you live elsewhere and need to ship the items contact me through the blog and we will make arrangements. Please keep in mind that it costs money to ship these items to Russia (at least $50 per 50 pound box) and cash donations to Volunteers In Mission for this expense are greatly appreciated. We will take as much as we can in our luggage allowance and pay for the extra weight of the additional boxes. It's no more expensive to do it this way than by a shipping company and if the boxes are with us they have a better chance of actually reaching their destination. Contact me if you have any questions about any of this.

The Tsar Bell

The largest bell in the world is also in the Kremlin. The bell was ordered cast by the Empress Elizabeth (Peter the Great's daughter) when she came to the throne but it fractured during the casting process and was never rung. It would have been too heavy to raise to the top of the bell tower with contemporary tools anyway, but that didn't stop Elizabeth from wanting it to be the biggest!

Tsar Cannon

The largest cannon in the world, the Tsar Cannon has never been fired. It was ordered by Peter the Great but could not be used because the amount of powder it would take to fire a cannon ball from it would blow up the cannon itself. You can't see it in this picture but the sides of the cannon are beautifully carved and decorated. Cannon balls of the size that would have been fired are on the ground in front of it.

Cathedrals

I believe that there are four cathedrals within the Kremlin walls (I'll have to check the guide book!). I lost track of which was which, but one of these is the Cathedral of the Assumption where most of the Tsars were crowned over the centuries and I think where Nicholas II and Alexandra were married. I'll look that up and edit this post later. We couldn't take pictures inside but it was awesome to stand where the tsars and their families had worshipped for centuries. It's wonderful that these amazing buildings survived the Communist regime intact. I'm sure there was neglect and outright damage to them but if there was they have all been restored to a state of splendor.

Ivan the Great Bell Tower

Here's Lyndsey in front of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower.

The Armory

This beautiful 18th(?) century building was originally built to store the weapons for Tsar's military. Now it is a museum where the crown jewels are kept. We didn't get to go inside. :-(

Ugly Building

Unfortunately, the first building we saw when we entered the grounds was the stark Congress Hall built by the Communists in the 1950's. It is now used as a theater and there were holiday performances for children going on the day we were there. To my eye it is very much out of place with all the older, beautiful structures of the Kremlin, but it is as much a part of the history of the place as the churches and palaces.

Inside the Kremlin

On Friday, January 5 we had another day of touring Moscow. Our first stop was the Kremlin again. This time we were on the opposite side from Red Square and entered the main gate to tour inside the wall. Elena, the main guide for our group (on the left in the fur hood) left us in the capable hands of Sasha (her real name was Alexandra; she said if the monarchy was ever restored to Russia she should be Tsarina!) who took us into the Kremlin and told us all about it. Not all of our group did the Kremlin tour this day; some of the folks who had been there before preferred to use the time to go to the market at Ismailovo and do more shopping. I wouldn't have missed the tour for the world!

When we left the Blind and Deaf Orphanage and headed back to Moscow we passed the Monastery of St. Sergei, the patron saint of Russia. Beautiful! One of the early tsars asked Sergei to pray for victory over the Mongols who were attacking Moscow. When the victory was won, Sergei was given the credit . We begged the driver to stop for a photo opportunity and he did, even though we were running late. It's a good thing we did; one of the ladies got sick to her stomach and had to find a bathroom (there wasn't one on the bus). Our team leader and the translator went with her up to the Monastery and found an entrance and a public restroom on the other side of the complex. She was OK later but what a nightmare!

The Party Continues!

Just like we did at the other orphanages we moved into the gym where Grandfather Frost and the Snow Maiden led us in dances and games around the tree. The gym was brightly decorated and the kids were so excited. They each received a box of candy and would receive other presents later. It was such fun!

Folk Dances and Songs

The staff and children sang and danced for us in magnificent costumes they had made themselves. It was touching to see the teachers guiding the children around the stage as they participated in the program.

Blind and Deaf Orphanage at Sergei Posad

That afternoon we returned to the town of Sergei Posad to visit the Orphanage for the Deaf and Blind. Volunteers in Mission has been working at this orphanage since they started going to Russia seven years ago and many improvements have been made. The lobby is bright and welcoming - the sign in the first picture says "Happy New Year!" I don't know if you can make it out in the second picture but there is a fish tank with live fish under the middle picture on the wall.

Beautiful Children

The children gave us a beautiful music program and then we put on the puppet show for them. There were not very many children staying at this orphanage over the holidays; some of the children in Russian orphanages are not "true" orphans with no parents but they may come from families who for financial or other reasons simply cannot support them. Some go home for the holidays to older siblings or to aunts and uncles but live at the orphanage the rest of the year. In the United States these kids would probably be in foster care, a system which has its own set of pluses and minuses.

Another Day, Another Orphanage

On the 4th we climbed back on the buses for another day visiting orphanages. I honestly don't remember which town this orphanage was in - maybe some of my fellow travelers who are reading the blog can remember and will help me out. We still had lots of presents to deliver and some of the boys in the orphanage helped us carry them in.

Orphanage at Klin

We left the Senior Citizen's Home and drove to the Orphanage at Klim. Of course the first thing they did was to serve us lunch! Then we danced around the Christmas tree with Grandfather Frost and the Snow Maiden and played games. The children presented some wonderful entertainment for us including holiday songs and oriental dances. One of the games we played was the "newspaper game". Unfolded newspapers were placed on the floor and couples danced on the square of paper. When someone stepped off the paper they were out. The remaining couples had to fold their papers in half and dance again. This kept going until the papers were folded down to about a six inch square just big enough for one shoe. A couple of the teenage orphans won the game - he had to pick her up and balance on one foot to win!