Lots of Lip Gloss

I attended the West Side United Methodist Church Street Fair today and they were giving away lots of stuff for kids to get ready to go back to school. An Avon Lady had donated lots of tubes of lip gloss to them for give-aways and Pastor Rhodes gave me 25 packages for the Russian Orphans. That's one thing I can mark off my list. Spacibo! (Thanks!)

This and That

First of all, many thanks to my colleagues in Richmond this week who bought lots of circus tickets for the Russian orpans. I was over there for a staff meeting and "coerced" them into it. It didn't take a lot of arm twisting - they are all warm-hearted, generous people. I still have some tickets to sell and I can take donations ($10.00 per ticket) even after I run out of the souvenir tickets to give you in return.

I ordered a couple of "microfiber" towels to take with me. They are supposed to be super-absorbent but they are finely woven and don't weigh much. (Weight is very important in what I'm going to pack!) I also got some neon yellow name tags to put on my luggage. I don't think I'll miss them on the luggage rack at the airport. :-)

During the drive to and from Richmond I got to work on a couple more Russian lessons. I'm now learning how to order in restaurants and terms I will need in a hotel. I don't know that I'll need to use much of the language on my own since we'll have a translator with us at all times but it's fun to learn.

Visa Application

No, not the credit card! In addition to my passport I need a visa to enter Russia. The application, which was part of my information packet from Tom Clark, is from the Russian government. They want to know everything about you before they let you across their borders. Among the questions asked were my parents' full names and birth dates, every educational institution I have attended beyond high school, my current place of employment including address, phone number and supervisor's name and my last two places of employment with all the same information. They want to know if you have any relatives in Russia, any Russian relatives in the U.S., have you ever had a visa in Russia, have you ever overstayed your visa in Russia, have you ever been involved in any criminal activities (especially drugs), etc. I had to provide a lot more information for the Russian visa than I did for my U.S. passport!

Many thanks to those of you who have donated to my trip, either money, circus tickets or presents for the children. It is very much appreciated!

Presents for Children and Youth

Along with winter clothes, towels, washcloths and toilet paper, each of us will be taking along at least 25 gift packs for the children. Here's what goes in each pack for the children and youth:

Make Up and Nail Polish for Girls/Cologne for Boys
Winter Gloves and Knitted Winter Hat
1 Tube of Chap Stick, 1 Tube of Hand Lotion
1 Toothbrush, 1 Tube of Toothpaste
1 Pad of Writing Paper, Erasers
2 Pencils, 2 Pens, 1 Pencil Sharpener
Socks for Boys or Girls

All of this will go into 2-gallon zip lock bags and I will add a signed Christmas card to each package. (I already have a donation that will cover the cost of the zip-lock bags.) If you would like to help me provide these gifts for the orphans you may either send me a donation marked for that purpose or, if you wish, you may purchase the items themselves and bring or send them to me. (Please let me know if you buy the items themselves so I don't wind up with duplicates of one item and not enough of another.)

There is also a list for Infants and Toddlers that includes items such as crayons, coloring books, stickers and dolls but Rev. Clark tells us that it is unlikely that we will be visiting those orphanages. However, if you prefer to provide those items get in touch with me and I'll be glad to fix some packages with those items, too.

Thank you all for your interest and your contributions. Blessings!

My Passport's Here!

My passport came today in the mail! Now I can finish filling out the rest of the forms I need to send to Rev. Clark.

This new passport looks quite different from my old one. The 1974 passport was green and a little bigger than the new one and the new one is blue. There are a lot of new security measures, too, like holographic backgrounds. There's supposed to be an electronic chip in the cover, too. With all that's going on these days it's quite an honor and privilige to have a U.S. passport.

Speaking of what's going on these days, I'm glad to see the new security measures but it really makes you stop and think about what you really need to take on the plane with you. The only thing I'm really concerned about is my contact lens solution but by December they may be able to make some accommodation for such things.

Airlines and Hotels

We will be leaving Charleston by bus on December 27 and making our way to D.C., picking up team members on the way. After spending the night in Washington, we will fly out of D.C. at 12:05 p.m. on December 28 from Reagan National Airport on Delta flight #843 to Atlanta, arriving at 1:54. We will fly out of Atlanta at 3:50 p.m. on Delta flight #46 and arrive the next day (December 29) in Moscow at 10:30 a.m. (Moscow is 8 hours ahead of us.)

Our return trip will leave from Moscow on January 7 at 12:30 p.m. (Delta flight #47) and arrive in Atlanta at 4:15 p.m. We will leave Atlanta at 6:30 on Delta flight #776 and arrive in Washington at 8:24 p.m. The next morning we will climb back on the bus for the return home.

After we spend the first three nights in Moscow at one of the orphanages, we will probably stay in the Hotel Izmaylovo in Moscow. Here's the link http://www.hotelizmailovo.ru/eng/ .

My Information Packet is Here!

Good news! I received my envelope full of information about my trip today from Tom Clark. I now know my payment schedule, what I need to pack, how we're getting to the plane in DC (by bus) and what we'll be doing with the orphans in Moscow. There are LOTS of forms to fill out including my visa application and health insurance .

I also have tickets to sell for the Moscow circus - $10.00 each! Unfortunately we won't be able to go to the circus with the children because they're going the day we leave Charleston but we still want to pay for as many tickets as possible. If you want to participate in this you can send $10.00 per ticket to me or directly to WV-VIM.

We'll also be taking nice West Virginia souvenirs as gifts for our hosts. I plan on getting some nice calendars, prints and postcards to take with me. I can't take anything too heavy; Tom reminded us that we have to carry everything we pack!

He also reminded us to travel in the spirit of humility and with a genuine desire to learn more about the Russian people. This is a mission trip and we are going to share God's love and to build cultural bridges with the Russian people.

More details tomorrow!

Comments and Advice

If any of you have tried to add a comment to this blog and been told you have to be a member that's not true any more. I changed the settings so that anyone can comment. You need to know that if you add a comment it will be published on the blog unless I delete it. If you want your comment to be private send it to my e-mail address. All nice comments are welcome!

My advice came last night from Rev. Barry Moll who just returned from the summer WV-VIM trip to the Russian orphanages. We had an absolutely wonderful parish dinner and program at Central UMC last night and I pestered Barry while he was trying to eat to tell me all about his trip. He told me about seeing "Pirates of the Caribbean II" in Russian with two little girls clinging to him during the scary parts, of all the good food we will be served at the Christmas parties we attend (at least two parties a day), about the care packages we will be assembling to take with us (more about that later - you get to help me!), shopping and wearing long underwear with lots of layers on top!

This has nothing to do with Russia, but the program last night was provided by the Martin Luther King Jr. Male Chorus and they are FANTASTIC. The Chorus is made up of African-American men of many different denominations who sing black gospel style music - they really brought the house down. If you ever get the chance to see them, do. They will be singing Sunday afternoon at the Capitol as part of Charleston Multi-Fest.

Scrappin' My Trip

You may know that my favorite hobby right now is scrapbooking. Of course I plan to take lots of pictures while I'm in Russia but to make a great memory book of my trip I'm starting now to collect things that will tell the story. One of my buddies at my scrapbooking workshop last week told me about an online store called www.ScrapYourTrip.com - it's great! They have specialty papers, die cuts and stickers for just about any country you can think of and I was able to order several items relating to Russia. My order just came today and it's really nice stuff. I wish I had known about this site when I was working on my scrapbook about my 1974 trip to Portugal and Spain!

Books about Russia

While I'm waiting to get my information packet from Tom Clark of VIM and waiting for my passport to come in, I started reviewing some of the books I've read about Russia.

Of course, my interest in all things Russian was first hooked by the story of Anastasia and I read "Anastasia, the Lost Princess" by James Blair Lovell in 1992. (I love the movie with Yul Brynner and Ingrid Bergman but it has very little to do with the real story of the end of the Romanov dynasty. The Disney animated movie doesn't even have that much reality about it.) From there I moved on to Robert K. Massie's "Nicholas and Alexandra", the inspiration for the movie of the same name. Although somewhat romanticized and written before much archival information was released after the fall of Communism, it gives a fairly accurate picture of the last years of Nicholas II and his immediate family. Anna Anderson Manahan wrote her own story "I Am Anastasia" (with the help of Peter Kurth, I think) claiming to be the long-lost surviving Grand Duchess.

I left the royal family behind for a while to read ice skater Ekaterina Gordeeva's poignant story of her life and love with her husband in "My Sergei" who died during a skating practice session.

Anastasia wasn't the only royal child supposed to have escaped the slaughter in Ekaterinburg; Vadim Petrov wrote about "The Escape of Alexei". In "The Flight of the Romanovs" John Curtis Perry and Constantine Pleshakov wrote about what happened to the Romanov survivors who made their way out of Russia before and during the Revolution. Back to individual biography, I read about Nicholas' wife in "Alexandra: the Last Tsarina" by Carolly Erickson.

In the realm of fictionalized history, Robert Alexander wrote about "The Kitchen Boy". The real kitchen boy was sent away from the Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg but Alexander turns the story into an escape plot for another Grand Duchess, Maria. He also wrote a novel based on the life of "Rasputin's Daughter".

I have a lot more books to write about but I'll save those for later. Stay cool!

Important Phrases

Hooray! I finally learned the most important phrase of all: Gde tualet? (Where is the restroom?) "Hello", "goodbye", "please" and "thank you" are certainly valuable words to know but you can go a long way if you know where the restrooms are!

Reading Ahead

I'm going on this wonderful trip with some very experienced people who know the ropes and can get us through customs and all other officialdom with the least amount of trouble but I can't help myself - I had to get a guide book and start reading. The two biggest names in foreign travel guides are Fodor's and Frommer's. I got the Frommer's "Moscow & St. Petersburg" guide because it had the better reviews on Amazon.com. It's so neat to read about the sights we will see in Moscow and its neighborhoods. I would love to see St. Petersburg too but maybe next time. (Did you catch that? NEXT time already!)

Of course, the highlight of the trip is agoing to be something the guide books don't talk about - the children. Our Mission Committee Chairlady presented my trip to the congretation yesterday and talked about sledding and snowball fights with the orphans. I can't wait! Yes, I know it's going to be cold in Russia in December and January, but we haven't had a really good snow here in West Virginia for several years and I need to get involved in a good snowball fight.

Do svedanya!

Language and Donations

I was a language major in college - I thought I was going to be a Spanish teacher! It's a long story, but I wound up in libraries instead (and very happy that I did). I understand a smattering of other romance languages but Russian is something else. The Cyrillic alphabet is based on the Greek alphabet and it looks really strange at first. Actually it's not that bad - each letter in the alphabet has it's own sound so once you get those in your head you can pronounce any Russian word you see. Then once you pronouce them a lot of them sound close enough to English that you know what they are. For example, "taxi" sounds like "taxi". I've got a set of Russian language tapes I'm working through and so far I can say "I don't understand Russian very well." I need to keep working on it!

It would be really nice if the airlines, hotels and restaurant people thought this trip was such a wonderful idea that they would donate their services, but unfortunately that's not the way it works. The cost of the trip per person is around $2000. I'm blessed that my church (Central United Methodist) has decided to make my travel one of their mission projects and I have resources of my own. However, part of the purpose of the trip is to buy Christmas presents for the orphans and you can take part in that if you wish. There is a link on the right hand side of this web page to the West Virginia Volunteers in Mission where you will find information about how to donate and a form. If you have problems finding it let me know. Also, I understand that I will be selling tickets to take Russian orphans to the circus for $10.00 each. Let me know how many you want! Blessings!

Passports, Shots and Fish Bread

I have to get a new passport! My first passport expired in 1979 but I still had it. I had applied for it to go to Spain in 1974. It's not even the same color on the outside as the new passports and it certainly doesn't have the "intelligent chip" technology contained in new passports. It's supposed to make it easier to get your new passport if you have your old one though so I'm one step in the right direction.

I had my passport picture taken at J.C. Penny's. The retail price was $14.00 but I found an online coupon that took it down to $10.00. Maybe if I had paid the full price they would look better (you can't smile for a passport photo) but I'll console myself by thinking that only customs and immigration people are going to be looking at it. The bad thing is that your passport is good for ten years so I'll be stuck with it for that long.

My old birth certificate is somewhere in my house and I'm sure it will show up after I get my new passport but I can't find it now for love nor money! That was another $5.00 to get a new one but if I had waited till after July 1 it would have been $10.00. When I turned in my application at the Post Office I had to show my driver's license (photo ID), my old passport and my birth certificate. If I had to have my birth certificate to get my license and my old passport then why did I have to give them another copy of my birth certificate? How could I have gotten the first two without it? Oh, well. Bureaucracy at it's best!

I hadn't had a tetanus shot since I went to Spain in 1974 so it was definitely time for one of those. The only other shot I needed was for Hepatitis A. It's a two-part shot so I'll have to get the second dose just before I go in December. My doctor's daughter went on the summer mission trip to Russia a couple of years ago and he said she had a great time. Her biggest complaint was that they kept serving them "fish bread" to eat. Fish bread? Sounds like a good way to go on a diet!

Decision

I've been thinking about going to Russia with the United Methodist Volunteers in Mission for the last couple of years. I've been interested in Russian history and culture for some time and have read quite a bit about the Romanov Dynasty and current conditions in the Russian Federation. When I attended the West Virginia Annual Conference and walked through the Ministry Fair I would see the display for the Volunteers in Mission and stop to talk with Tom Clark and buy another set of nesting dolls (matrioshka?). I've joked that this was my kind of mission trip - shopping, decorating for a party and playing with kids. The serious side is that these are children who desperately need to be loved. I know that we have many needy children in this country but I believe that we have the resources here to care for them if we will. The same can't necessarily be said of conditions today in Russia.

Anyhow, as much as I felt the call it just didn't seem like the right time till this year. Something clicked at this year's Conference and after much thought and especially much prayer I decided to go for it. I've talked about it with my pastor and with the Missions chairperson at my church and they have been very supportive. I'm very excited and have started the process for getting my passport and learning what I will need to do to get ready to go in December. I decided to publish this blog to keep my friends up to date on my progress and to share the joy and excitement of this adventure in mission to serve God and to expand my horizons. More to come!