Snegiri

As you might have guessed, and as we should have known, the trip so far has been a whirlwind!  Our time seems to fly by, and each day we thought we would have plenty of time to pause, reflect, and write, always seems to be over before we know it.  Overall, we have been very well.  We are beginning to be able to read the words (some of them), pick sounds out of the spoken language (although not enough to do us any good yet!), and overall we have felt very welcomed and safe.  The Russian culture is definitely different: much more direct, no-nonsense, and possibly even impolite (from our American perspective). 

Our first walk to the grocery store

During our first visit to the grocery in the village where we stayed outside Moscow, a man actually took my shoulders and moved me to the side as we debated over what kind of milk (or rather, which bottle was actually milk) to buy!  He wasn’t rough or rude about it, but I think he just realized we were going to be a minute, and that I wouldn’t understand anyway if he had asked me to move.  

The market...not quite a Hy-Vee!

In and around Moscow, everyone is definitely in a hurry.  I don’t think you can get away from that in any culture when you put 15 million people together!  We definitely aren't used to that, being from South Dakota.  In fact, when we tell people here the size of our city, and that our whole state only has 800,000 people, it kind of blows their mind!  Even with all the hustle and bustle (we'll tell more about Moscow next post), we have been well taken care of every step of the way.  God is good.  We are so thankful for the Body of Christ…all over the world!

The "Boys' Dorm"

Top floor - "The Office"

The CCCPM dorm is pretty cool...it was actually built as a hotel in this little village outside Moscow, back when it was illegal to build a large house.  You can see that many of the houses in the village started out as very small, but have since been added to, many of them multiple times!  Like I said earlier, the people are very no-nonsense, and the buildings show it.  Whatever works is what they do.  

The village from the top floor of the dorm

Train station at Snegiri

There's an electric train that runs from the village every 45 minutes or so, that costs about $3.50 per person, but it will take you into the city pretty quickly compared to driving.  I guess the dorm is about a 20-minute walk from the train station (and the grocery store), and that is about as inconvenient as you can get around here.  Apparently many of the people in the village now are weekenders that want to get out of the city regularly, so most of them can afford cars.  Still, there always seem to be people walking on the roads, carrying groceries or walking dogs.  We have walked more in the few days here than we probably did in the last couple months back home!  It's been good though, and I think our bodies are taking it pretty well. Not too sore of feet, not too much pain, not too bad for lazy Americans!

Crystal cooking in the dorm kitchen

She made me a birthday cake from scratch!  It was great...

Village house on the way to the market

Car buried in snow...old water tower in the background

Arrival

Now that we finally have a moment to stop and think, we'll back up a few days and try to fill you in on the journey so far...starting with the beginning of course!

Domodedovo Airport, Moscow, Russia

The flights over were rather uneventful.  Arriving in Moscow proved to be quite interesting however.  We immediately felt lost as we were unable to read a single sign in the Moscow airport, Domodedovo (DME). 

More of DME

Due to a good tailwind, we arrived almost an hour early, which immediately caused us to wonder if our contact here would be there yet.  After following the crowds to the baggage claim and then through customs, which really went quite smoothly, we found ourselves standing among a crowd in Russia looking for a tall, young man named Anton.  Trouble was, everyone was tall, most of them were young men, and I suspect several of them were named Anton!  We just camped out off to the side of the crowds, pulled out the laptop and went to the CCCPM website, and looked for a picture of Anton (just to be sure we didn’t get in a vehicle with the wrong Anton!).  Almost as soon as we found his picture, he came walking right by us! 

Does this (x5) look like a $60 lunch?

After exchanging some money, spending almost $60 on lunch at the airport (yikes!), we, well actually Anton, found our taxi driver outside and began the almost two hour drive towards the village of Snegiri (which is named for the beautiful little birds that live there).  The DME airport is on the southeast edge of Moscow, and Snegiri is on the northwest outskirts, in case you were wondering about the two hour drive.

The drive was long, and we pretty much sat in the back of the "marshrutka" and tried to stay awake!  Anton isn't real confident with his English, and he and the driver appeared to be good friends. We've definitely noticed that not many people here speak English at all, and even many of those that do have some difficulty with it. 

Seems like they use tractors alot for snow removal, and drive them down the freeway!

Somewhere along the drive, we noticed it was snowing, and it seems to have snowed some just about every day since we have been here.  I'll close out for now with some more pictures of the scenery along the way...

A Tale of Three Cities

Please be in prayer specifically for these three cities as we journey across Russia for the first time (see the map below for a visual reference):

• Moscow - Capital and largest city (11.5 million people)
• Novosibirsk - Largest city in Siberia (1.5 million people)
• Irkutsk - Siberian city near Lake Baikal (600,000 people)

Pray the Lord would set up divine appointments...things only He can do, and that we would be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit (so as not to miss any of these appointments!).  Pray He would show us and teach us much about the people and this country.  Pray He would give us safe travel and favor with the government and officials in each place.  Here's the map showing our plane and train routes across this vast country:

We will attempt to keep you posted as we journey, and look forward to see what the Lord will do through your prayers.  Thank you all for praying.