Arrival in Tomsk

We boarded the plane in Moscow and then sat on the runway for three hours waiting for the weather to clear.  We finally took off about 3:00 a.m. Moscow time and arrived in Tomsk about 7:00 a.m. local time.

Valentina, head of the Russian Peace Foundation in Tomsk, met us at the airport with her two granddaughters, Masha and Susha, who were translators for us during our stay.

It was interesting to see a new Kia on display in the lobby of the airport!

We got our first taste of Siberian snow as we headed out to the bus in the parking lot and headed out to Orphanage #15.

Airports

For the most part, the airport/airline experience stunk.  I had the middle seat on most of our flights and had to crawl over people every time I went to the bathroom.  I appreciate the security measures, but it got real old taking my boots off every time you turned around, let alone the full body scans and pat-downs.  However, that is part of air travel in these times and if you want to go overseas you've got to deal with it.  There were several weather delays and waits for security teams to arrive.  For most of the flights we had to board a bus and be driven out to the plane where we climbed a metal staircase up to the plane.  That didn't help my back and knees any!

It was good on the flight from London to Moscow that the plane was only about half full and we all had room to spread out.  The food was OK but not great.  British food isn't any better than their airline management.  We had an eight hour layover before we boarded Russia's S7 Airline to fly to Tomsk, so we found something to eat at Sbarros inside Demodedovo Airport and waited till 11:40 to depart from a very snowy Moscow.

Dulles Airport

On Monday, December 28 we had a Team meeting at 10:00 where we got our red Team sweatshirts and t-shirts, passports and ID tags.  Rev. Tom Clark talked to us about what to expect on the trip and all of us who had been to Russia before shared some of our experiences.  Then we loaded up on the hotel shuttle and headed off to Dulles.  There was a long line to check in but getting through security wasn't too bad.  We taxied down the runway at 6:30 and were off to London.

First Day Out

My neighbor Lee drove me to Christ Church at 3:00 in the afternoon to meet the van.  Rev. Chris Arveson from the Bluefield area drove the Spring Heights 15 passenger van with a baggage trailer hooked to the back all the way to D.C., picking up passengers along the way.  We stayed at the Cumberland Suites hotel near Dulles Airport.  My roommate for the trip was my friend Jan Blount.  I think all of us spent the evening rearranging items in our luggage to conform with the new rules due to the terrorist attack earlier in the week.  We took the opportunity to get a shower and a good night's rest before we started out the next day.

I'm Home!

I made it home to my own bath and bed yesterday morning (Sunday) at about 4:30 a.m.  I had a wonderful time and hope to go back next year, but right now I'm trying to get my body back on Eastern Standard Time!  Russia and the children were all I expected but the airline experience was not good.  Because of the terrorist threats there were many extra security checks including full body scans and pat-downs and weather caused a lot of delays.  British Airways has our luggage somewhere between Moscow, London and D.C.  Even so, I wouldn't have missed this trip for anything.  I'm getting ready to upload hundreds of pictures and I'll be working on posting throughout the coming week.  Stay tuned!

Off We Go!

I'm all packed and ready to go out the door.  My neighbor Lee is going to take me up to Christ Church to meet Chris Arveson and the van.  We have to be prepared for a lot of security measures but we're doing God's work and He will make sure we get there OK.  I'll post to the blog whenever I can get to a computer - the next entry will probably be from the hotel in Tomsk.

Keep us in your prayers!  Do Svedanya!

Getting Ready

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.  Mine was a little quieter than I planned; I caught a cold the first of the week and had to stay in and miss all the services and festivities.  I definitely didn't want to get on the plane Monday sniffling and sneezing.  As Michele Clark told me, if I'm sick, they won't let me in Russia!  We can't have that!  I've stayed home, taken my medicine and drunk lots of fluids and I'm almost all better.  The last thing I would want to do is take germs to the kids!

I'm taking lots of other stuff to the kids, though.  Thanks to the generosity of all my friends I have three big boxes of presents to take to the orphans.  Now I just have to get my stuff packed!

Grace Stows Away

Grace Churchmouse is the mascot at Canaan United Methodist Church.  Grace runs all over the church looking for people who are doing nice things for the love of God, not to get any credit.  Grace has decided she wants to stow away with me and see what it's like to go on a mission trip.  I think she'll be making some reports from Russia, too, if she can find an internet cafe!

Procrastination and Thanks

Well, I've just about waited too long to post anything to my blog!  There's been lots going on and I was always going to write on the blog tomorrow.  There have been Christmas parties and concerts LOTS of snow!

I do want to take a minute to thank everyone who has donated items and financial support for this year's trip.  A lot of children's hearts will be warmed by your generosity.  I especially want to thank the patrons of Jeannie Shew's Salon for the many gifts they provided.  Of course, my church family have provided much support and I can't forget my friends Missy and Mona for their financial support and prayers.

I'm in the midst of packing all my stuff to survive two weeks in Siberia.  The temperature there today was -30F.  It was around 30F here, so that's a difference of 60 degrees!  That's a lot of long underwear!

Borscht for Dinner

Would you like to find out what borscht (beet soup) tastes like?  Then come on down to Canaan UMC on Sunday evening, November 1 at 5:30 to have a taste.  Thanks to Frances and the Kitchen Crew at Canaan, we're going to serve up some Russian style food, including borscht, and I'll be hanging around with my photo albums to talk about my trip.  Any donations of items for the orphans or money toward the cost of the trip and shipping the items will be gratefully accepted.

New Picture

I just posted a new picture - how do you like it?  It is from our visit to the Psychological Orphanage at Sergei Posad in December 2007.  My friend in the picture is Viktor.

Time out for mission in Beckley

W.Va. Volunteers in Mission offers opportunities for local mission as well as in distant lands.  I spent a wonderful day today in Beckley, W.Va. at the Burlington Children's Home helping out with the Pumpkin Harvest Festival.  This is an annual event to raise funds for the Home.  There were craft tables, all kinds of tasty treats made from pumpkins, hay rides and games for big and little kids.  James Stull and I represented Canaan UMC and provided relief for the campus workers so they could take a break from monitoring the games.  We had a blast!

United Methodist Church in Russia

Because it had a presence in Russia in the days before the Russian Revolution, the Unted Methodist Church is allowed to have active churches in modern Russia.  I have celebrated Orthodox Christmas twice with the congregation of the First United Methodist Church of Moscow, and I look forward to worshipping at the Tomsk United Methodist Church this year.

A mission group from the Marvin United Methodist Church in Texas has traveled to Tomsk in recent years and have posted a wonderful web site describing their visit with the orphans.  I love looking at their photo gallery to get a taste of what I will experience on my visit to Tomsk.

Where in the World is Tomsk?

Most people have heard of Moscow and St. Petersburg in Russia, but where in the world is the city of Tomsk?  Well, if you look at a map of Asia, find the western edge of Mongolia and go north; that's where I'll be!  (Someone asked me if I were going to "Outer Mongolia" - not quite, but close!)

Wikipedia has a good general article about Tomsk, including history, climate, politics, industry and education.  Tomsk is a city of about 500,000 people and is known as the "Athens of Siberia" because of the number of colleges and universities found there.  It is also an industrial center; many factories were moved there during WWII to avoid capture by the Germans.  It has been described as "quaint" because of the many old wooden buildings with decorative carvings.  I'm really looking forward to visiting the city and learning more about how Russians live outside of the big cities.

Gifts for the Children

Here are the lists of items we need to bring to the orphans:

Infant and Toddler List:
Coloring book
Box of 8 Crayons
Tube of Chap Stick
Sheet of Stickers
Toothbrush/Toothpaste
Socks
Matchbox Car for Boys, Small Doll for Girls

Children and Youth List:
Make-up and Nail Polish for Girls/Cologne for Boys
Winter Gloves and Knitted Hat
Tube of Chap Stick, Tube of Hand Lotion
Toothbrush/Toothpaste
Pad of Writing Paper, Erasers
Pencils, Pens, Pencil Sharpener
Socks

For both age groups, a signed Christmas Card; please don't seal it or put anything extra in it but you can write a message (we'll get it translated) and 2-gallon Ziploc bags.  The 2-gallon bags are not as easy to find as the 1-gallon bags, but they do exist.  We can make do with the 1-gallon bags but it is a tight squeeze!  Also, as tempting as it is, please don't put the gift bags together yourself.  It is much easier to pack like items together, and when we get to the orphanage where we're staying we have a package stuffing party.

The first year I went I asked what the orphans would get for Christmas if we did not bring these presents with us.  The answer was "a box of candy".  Even more importantly, we bring smiles and love.  If you would like to be a part of the love, bring the presents to me at Canaan UMC (I'll make arrangements for collection boxes in the Worship Center and Sanctuary) or contact me by phone, e-mail or responding to this post and I'll make arrangements to pick up your contribution.  God bless you!

How You Can Help

When people find out about this mission trip, they want to help! There are several things you can do. First, PRAY! It's a long, hard trip (but well worth it!) and all of us on the trip will need all the prayer support we can get.

Second, you can make a contribution to W.Va. Volunteers in Mission (see the link to the right of the blog) or towards my expenses by sending a check to Canaan United Methodist Church with "Margie - Russia" in the memo line. The trip itself costs $2400 and there will be shipping fees for the presents we will be taking to the orphans (see below).

Third, you can help me gather presents for the orphans. I will be posting a list of the items that I will need to take with me to help make up the packages that we will give to the kids. (Thanks to Mona Meyer and Connie Crouch and the Canaan Kitchen crew for the items I've already received!) I've been asked why we can't ship the presents instead of paying airline fees for extra baggage, but when items are shipped to Russia, they don't always make it to their destination. If we take them with us, we are more sure that they will get there with us.

Any help you can give will be greatly appreciated!

Russia/Siberia Trip Details

This will be the 10th year that the W.Va. Volunteers in Mission has taken Christmas to Russian orphans. I was blessed to be able to participate in the 2006-7 and 2007-8 trips. We spent the first three nights in an orphanage and then visited many, many other orphanages in the Moscow region. This year will be a little different. We had the choice of visiting St. Petersburg or Tomsk in Siberia. As much as I would like to see the sights of St. Petersburg, it is possible to visit there via commercial tours if you really want to. It is not so easy to visit deep in Siberia! My roommate on the trip, Jan Blount, and I decided that we wanted to be part of the team that will make the trip to Tomsk. We will fly from D.C. to Moscow and then take another flight on to Tomsk. Moscow is 8 hours east of D.C. and Tomsk is 5 hours east of Moscow, so I will be 13 time zone away from home. We will leave on December 28, 2009 and return on January 8, 2010.

I'm BACK!

It's been way too long since my last post, but I've got some VERY good excuses! On February 1, 2008, I had arthroscopic surgery on my right knee. That went well, but the EKG didn't make anyone happy, so, to make a long story a little shorter, I wound up having a double coronary bypass on February 22. God is good (all the time!) and I had a fantastic recovery.

Also, on July 1 last year four United Methodist churches here on the West Side of Charleston came together to form Canaan United Methodist Church . I play keyboards in the praise band, sing in the choir and chair the Council. It's been quite a ride but I wouldn't have missed a minute of it. Well, almost all of it!

Anyhow, updating the blog kind of fell between the cracks. I wasn't able to go to Russia on the 2008-9 trip because I used ALL my leave time with my medical adventures (and had to take advantage of the leave-sharing program at work - grateful for it, too!). This year though, everything is working out for me to go. Look for the next post for details!

Elektrostal Public Library

After the party on the 30th we went on an excursion into town to see the local public library. You can imagine what a treat that was for me! Actually, I wasn't going to go because of my knee - they were going to walk a couple of miles through snowy woods to get there. As beautiful as it was going to be, I was afraid I wouldn't make it hobbling along on my cane and would hold them back. Director Nina wouldn't hear of me staying behind and ordered me a taxi! The rest of the group never let me live it down! Irene, our translator, rode with me and we sat in the lobby talking to the librarian till till the others got there. That's Robyn in the picture sitting in the main reading room beside the librarian.

Party Time!

Most of the children at our orphanage were at "Winter Camp" while we were staying at Elektrostal but we still had plenty of kids when it came time to have a party! The children had prepared a marvelous program for us and we had seats of honor at the front of the gym. The program was a traditional story of the Snow Maiden getting in trouble with the evil characters and Grandfather Frost coming to her rescue. Grandfather Frost came riding in on a sleigh and circled the room to deafening cheers and shouts of joy! Afterwards, we presented our puppet show and gave out presents.

We Interrupt This Blog...

Sorry, another non-Russia post, but I want to let everyone know I'm home from my outpatient surgery on my knee and all is well. I'm sitting here with a brace and ice packs on my leg and Frances is taking good care of me. I have a walker to get around with and good pain medicine if I need it. They called me to come in early today because another patient didn't show up so I was home by 5:00. I'm going to get to bed in a little bit and get my rest - I go back to the doctor on Wednesday. Thanks for all the prayers - they worked!

Eating Again!

I wanted to use this picture because it shows all the lovely juice boxes that were on the table at every meal. I especially liked the strawberry juice (and managed to spill it all over the white table cloth!). The orphanages apparently go through juice by the caseload - it's a convenient way of getting lots of vitamins into the kids.

Me and My Puppet

I started out with two puppets to work with. This is the Host - he hired the musician to play for his party and got to dance to the music. To make a puppet dance you have to dance, too! I really liked the Host but we had another lady join the troup after we came together in Moscow. My other puppet was the Sea Captain - I've got a picture of him later on.

Recognize these guys?

These Russian versions of Minnie and Mickey Mouse were painted on the wall of the play room where we practiced our puppet show.

Where's Waldo...er, Margie?

Delphine wanted to know where in the world I was on my trip so here's a map showing the Moscow Region. Last year I stayed at Sergiev Posad, northeast of Moscow, and this year I was at Elektrostal, almost directly east. After we moved into the hotel in Moscow we took day trips to several other orphanages, including Almozovo. (Double click on the map if you want to enlarge it.)

Puppets!

This is Chris Arveson, our puppet master. Each year, Chris finds a folk story, has it translated to Russian, and reads all the parts (in Russian!) onto a CD. Then he makes puppets for each of the characters and backdrops that he can transport by air. When we settled in at the orphanage he pulled it all out and started to train us to be puppeteers. This year's story was about a musician who played for the Sea King and fell in love with his daughter, but had to decide whether to stay with her or go back to his beloved city. He chose the city but sat on the bank of the river and played and thought he saw a beautiful face in the water. Chris always puts a Christian message at the end of the story and we wound up singing "Silent Night" in Russian. There will be more pictures of the puppets later on.

Sad News

This has nothing to do with my trip to Russia but I want to share this sad news with you and ask for your prayers for the family. My friend Frances called me about 7:30 this morning to tell me that her best friend, Lanora, passed away from a heart attack at 5:30 this morning. Lanora's daughter Carly was with her when she had the attack and called 911 but there was nothing they could do. Of course, it's too soon to know about arrangements. Carly will be with loving friends but it will be hard for her to deal with all this; please keep her in your prayers.

My Knee

Thanks to everyone on the trip who put up with me poking along on my cane. You'll be happy to know (I hope!) that I have arthroscopic surgery scheduled for February 1 to fix it. I have a bone spur on my knee that is pressing against a tendon and it's making my whole leg hurt. The surgery should be straightforward and I should be back in (limited) action in a couple of weeks but I do covet your prayers. At least I should have plenty of time at home to blog and publish my pictures!

Bring on the Food!

The kitchen ladies always placed lovely cloth napkins on the back of our chairs before the meals were served. I like Russian food - even borscht! There are cold cuts and cheese on little rounds of bread, pickles, tomatoes and cucumbers among the appetizers. The main dish is usually pork or chicken and always some kind of potato on the side. The best desert is ice cream but there is always lots of chocolate candy to eat while you drink your cup of tea after the meal. Oh, and who could forget the chocolate covered marshmallows? Yum!

Don't Waste Bread!

On the wall above the kitchen serving window is this mural that reminds everyone of the importance of bread to life and that it should not be wasted. Apparently, it was a concept left over from Soviet days.

Dining Hall at Elektrostal

We ate all our meals at the orphanage in the dining hall that the kids use when they are in residence. One wall is covered with these beautiful murals of scenes from Russian fairy tales.

The Orphanage at Elektrostal

We arrived at the orphanage in the town of Elektrostal in mid-afternoon. The van pulled up to a back door close to the stairs where we had to carry our luggage up to the third floor where we were going to stay for the next three days. Unfortunately they hadn't cleared the ice off the steps and I took one step and slithered right on down! (My knee has been giving me some problems and I used a cane for a lot of the time in Russia - canes don't help on ice!) The orphanage director, Nina, grabbed me and walked me around to the front door where the steps were cleaned off. (You don't say "no" to Russian orphanage directors!) That was the beginning of a beautiful relationship. Nina "adopted" me as her "American daughter" and she is now my "Russian mama". She made sure that I had taxis into town when we went on excursions to see the library and attend church on New Year's Eve; John Wratchford teased me and said "Some people will do anything to get special treatment!" ;-)

When we got all the baggage upstairs we took a breather in our room with the pretty lace curtains. My bed was better than last year - last year I may as well have had a hammock but this year the bed was very firm. The bathroom was across the hall; the toilets aren't like ours here in the states but they serve the purpose! The sinks were in the next room where there was also a free-standing shower stall. It was a decent shower but you had to make sure you gave the water a chance to warm up!

Unfortunately, most of the kids were at "Winter Camp" for the holidays and we didn't get to play with them but they came back to give a program for us and let us do our puppet show for them. More on that soon!

All Squeezed In

I think that was Wendy's hand poking up from behind the suitcase. Robin, Jenn, Kelly and Janie had to hold back the bags behind them every time the driver made a sudden stop!

We made it to Sherametevo Airport

We finally arrived in Moscow at Sherametevo International Airport, made it through customs and security and met up with our hosts for the next few days. The group I was with was headed for the orphanage at Elektrostal with Director Nina and our interpreter, Irene. We loaded our luggage and boxes of presents onto luggage carts and rolled down the sidewalk to find the van that was transporting us to the orphanage. I don't think they planned for us to have as much luggage as we did because we barely managed to stuff ourselves in for the hour and a half ride.

Dulles International Airport

On December 28, Leon dropped us off at Dulles where we met old friends and new as we gathered to wait for our flight on Air France to Paris and connecting to Moscow. Tom Clark had our passports and electronic tickets and after running the gauntlet of check-in, baggage check and identification, off we went!

Grand Central Station

The featured display at Grand Central was a winter scene from Norway, complete with gnomes!

Off We GO!

On December 27, 2007, Jan Blount and I drove from Charleston to Falls Church, Va. to spend the night with my friends Missy and Leon. We had plenty of time that night to drive around and see the Christmas lights in Washington and stop in Grand Central Station to see the displays there.

Feeling International

What a week this has been! As I'm getting ready to go back to work tomorrow I've been thinking back over where I've been and what I've done this week. On Tuesday morning at 3:00 a.m. Moscow time I was in the lobby of the Hotel Ismailovo Delta waiting for the bus to take us to Sheremetavo II Airport. Later that day I was sitting in Charles De Gaulle Airport outside of Paris eating a sandwich and Coke Lite that cost me $10.00. I finally made it to American soil about 7:00 that night (about 24 hours after we left Moscow) and was so happy to see Missy and Leon there waiting for me and Jan. We spent the night with them and drove home to Charleston on Wednesday. I have rubles, euros and American coins in my pocket!

This afternoon I attended a wonderful Community Music concert presented by Her Majesty's Cold Stream Guards and Royal Scots Dragoon Guards. It was fantastic regimental band music and highland flings from the British Isles. I'm feeling very international!

I'm going to start posting pictures of the trip with the next blog entry. I'll try to move along a little faster than I did last year! I'm also planning to put all my pictures up on Shutterfly and will send invitations to view them to all my friends and my buddies from the trip.

I'm Home!

I actually walked into my house last night about 7:00 p.m.! It was so nice to climb into my warm bubble bath and my big, clean bed! I had a wonderful trip and want to go again, but right now the comforts of home are very welcome.

We arrived at Dulles in D.C. sometime after 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday evening; Missy and Leon were right there to pick us up after our trek through passport control, customs and luggage retrieval. Jan and I are really grateful for their hospitality. We slept in on Wednesday morning and left Falls Church about 11:30 for the drive home. I dropped Jan off at her house a little after 6:00 p.m. and then stopped by Kroger's before I came on home. (I knew that I didn't want to go back off the hill once I got home and I had pretty well cleaned out the fridge before I left.) I hit the bed about 11:00 and was out like a light!

I stayed home from work today but I may try to go tomorrow - we'll see! I have tons of pictures and video to post and talk about. I'll try to get started on that this weekend. More info soon!

Merry Christmas (Again!)

We're back in the hotel tonight after a day of VERY COLD shopping at the Ismailovo Market (-20 Celsius, about -4 Farenheit). Yes, I was COLD. Write it down! For those of you who wanted scarves, I managed to buy those before my hands froze but I'm going to do the rest of my shopping in the hotel shops even if it does cost a little more. I don't think I've ever been this cold in my life! Last year was one of the warmest winters they've had in a long time and this is the coldest they've had in five years. There's some snow on the ground but not a lot in town because it's too cold to snow. Part of the group is going to ride the metro back into town tonight for Christmas services at Christ out Saviour Cathedral but all of us old women are staying in and staying warm. We're supposed to go into the Kremlin tomorrow to see the cathedrals and the Armoury but it's supposed to be this cold again and Jan and I are debating whether or not to go. We'll see.

Yesterday we visited two orphanages. One was at Almozovo and is a boys' orphanage. They put on a wonderful program for us and of course fed us way too much food for lunch. In the afternoon we went to a different orphanage that VIM has not seen before. These children were developmentally disabled but the teachers are training them in dance and culture and they put on one of the best programs we've seen. The facility was impeccably clean - we were all really impressed. I have tons of pictures and video that I'll share when I get back.

I didn't get online last night because thousands of kids from the provinces are in Moscow this week for special Christmas programs and I think most of them are staying in our hotel. They swarm the lobby and the internet cafe to play computer games and you can't get close to the machines. I beat them to it this evening!

Tomorrow after lunch we will shop on Arbot Street, have our farewell dinner and come back to the hotel to pack. We have to leave for the airport at 3:00 a.m. the next morning so I probably won't blog again till I get back to Missy and Leon's in Virginia.

Love to all!
Margie

A Day at the Orphanage at Sergei Posad

Remember the orphanage I stayed at last year? It was Sergei Posad Psychological. That's where we went today. It is about an hour and a half north east of Moscow by bus and all 31 of us went. There has been a little confusion about our schedule because of some disagreements within the Russian Department of Education but Director Valentina at Sergei Posad welcomed us with open arms. We unloaded all the presents and candy from the bus and then met with a large group of the kids in the gym. There are over 300 kids at S.P.P. but many of them are severely handicapped and could not come down to see us. (They will get presents, though.) We put on our puppet show for them and then sang some American Christmas songs. Mike Richards is the music person on the trip but he has generously allowed me to help so I led a couple of the songs while he played by ear (Jingle Bells, The 12 Days of Christmas, etc.) and then I played some numbers from the hymnal while he led the singing. The Russian Peace Foundation provided a keyboard for us to use while we are here. The kids loved the puppet show and wanted to hug and kiss all the puppets when we were done.

We all had pieces of candy and small toys in our pockets to give out and we were swamped! The older kids also wanted to take pictures with our cameras and we let them. Some of the shots turned out pretty good! They are all fascinated with cameras and want to see their faces on the digital screens when we take their pictures. The best part of the afternoon for me was our visit to the second floor where the more severely disabled children live. I know we still didn't see the kids in the worst condition, but I got to see my Pasha from last year. I think he recognized me (but maybe he was just happy for anyone to pay attention to him!) and I got to hug and kiss him a little bit. They were all down for their afternoon naps but they knew we were coming and nobody was asleep!

There have been many, many improvements made in the physical facilities since our visit last year and the staff was very proud to show them off. I've got to figure out a way to come back next year!

Tomorrow we will go to another orphanage - I don't remember the name but I'll make sure to write it down tomorrow - and we go to the ballet tomorrow night. I have tons of wonderful pictures but I'm not sure how to download them to a computer in a Russian Internet cafe so you'll have to wait till I get home to see them.

Blessings!
Do Svedanya!
Margie

Snovum Godum!

Happy New Year! I'm here in Moscow!

I'm fine and having a wonderful time. My team stayed at the orphanage at Elektrostal this year and had a good experience even though the kids were at "winter camp" and we only saw them the day they came back to give their program for us and watch us do the puppet show. We had a great party and gave out lots of gifts. For all of you who gave me presents for the kids, believe me, they are greatly appreciated! Lyndsey, I gave your gift to Nina for all the kids and she and Irene and Helen were very happy to get it. They remember you well! The director, Nina, adopted me as her American daughter and she is now my Russian mama. (More about that later!) We attended a church service at the Orthodox Church on New Year's Eve and the day before toured the town library. I have a picture of me with the librarian.

We came back into Moscow yesterday to the same hotel as last year - Jan Blount and I are roommates again and have a very nice room on the 21st floor. (We stayed on the 3rd floor in the orphanage with no elevator - the hotel has lots of elevators!)

Today we toured Moscow including Red Square and had lunch at Patio Pizza. This evening we went to the Moscow Circus Christmas program (I bought a program for my collection!) and came back for a late supper. Tomorrow we should be going to Sergei Posad Psychological (the orphanage I stayed at last year) and maybe one other. The night after that we have tickets to the Nutcracker Ballet at the Tchaikovsky Theater. We're all tired and my knee hurts but it's all wonderful. I'll try to blog again tomorrow or the next day but lots of kids will be in the hotel for holiday activities this week and I may have a hard time getting to the computer.

Love to all,
Margie

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.