"getting into the swing of things"

Haruka, Miroslava, Maxim, Ella, Gabriel, Sara, Olivia, Louise, Stephen, Alitheia, Anita, Katie, Anna

Russians, Americans, Japanese, Koreans, Bulgarians, Swedes

    This is the class of kindergarteners and first graders that I have been helping this last week.  They speak English at school, learn Russian in class, and converse in their native language with family at home (if different).  It absolutely amazes me to watch a 5 year old Korean girl read her Bible with crazy Korean symbols during Russian class until the teacher tells her in English to pay attention to class.  My first day, when I asked where they were from, many were unable to give me a sure answer.  It is so fun to work with such cultured kids, and sometimes I feel I can start talking calculus with them and they'll understand!  But... they still are kindergarteners :) They still have the same minds as the young folks back at Pettisville, and they still like to cause as much trouble!  

     I started unexpectedly last Monday, due to an absent teacher (it turns out she'll be gone for awhile).  Deb woke me up at 8 saying, "are you ready for an adventure?"  I was ready for another day of touring and getting to know the city (I had only been here for two weeks, you know).  Instead, we took a tram to the school at which Kurt is a senior, and I helped Deb sub in the K-1 class.  That day I taught Bible class, and led a group during reading.  I had such a good day.

     Tuesday, I helped John with PE, keeping kids in line and admiring John's energy with the kids.  We took buses to transport the kids to and from the gym, which was in a different part of the city.   Mr. and Mrs. Siegel sure know what they're doing!  After we were done using the gym with 3 older classes, I sat in the lobby, waiting for the next group of kids to come.  Soon, there was a nice line of K-1 children by the front door!  I was excited to reunite with them, and they all remembered me, but they had forgotten my name.  One tiny Japanese doll looked up at me and said, "Is it Mr. Carrot?"  The kids roared with laughter, and now more than half the class still calls me Mr. Carrot instead of Mr. Caleb.  

    I waited with them for Mr. Siegel, or another teacher, but then Ms. Katya asked me to take them to the playground, and lead their PE class!  So, I took them out, and did the warm- up drills I had seen Mr. Siegel do, and they listened well!  However, when I tried to organize a game for them to play, all they seemed to want is to run around.  So, I drew a line in the dirt, and told them to run from the line to me, and then back.  When I said GO, they formed two lines, and instead of running at me all at once, they did a relay! Wow. I should've thought of that...

    Then I had recess duty.  The Mr. Carrot girl wanted to swing, so I gave her a ride.  Apparently it looked like a lot of fun, because soon there was a line of kids wanting a ride, too.  Gradually, the swing turned into a space ship, and when they close their eyes they'd fly into space.  One girl told me, and I quote, "this is special!" That swing was the highlight of the week no doubt.

    Wednesday, I led chapel music all day.  From now on I am in charge of selecting music, and getting kids to help lead their mates.  

    Thursdays I will help the choirs, 

    and Fridays... I suppose I'll end up back with the K-1's. 

    Every day after school, I play basketball with the team, and am getting to know some friends through that.

    Saturday, I spent the day with Camp Babachka (the handicapped camp), pushing wheelchairs in an intense match of wheelchair soccer!  Next Saturday I'll go to a Champions League match, St. Petersburg Zenit versus its rival Moscow Spartak.  That has potential to be as intense as the wheelchair game, but it will be close.  

    Sunday, we went to church, shopped at a mall, played soccer in the rain, and relaxed.

   

 I feel like I'm getting into a groove.  A good groove.

But the beautiful, warm days are over.  Leaves are falling like flies and the rain is too, from ever-greying skies.  Gentle breezes are now bone-chilling gusts.  The temperature dipped below 50F for good, and days grow short.                                 Winter is coming... and I'm ready.

People Count

       The other day, as I rode up the metro escalator the same way I had many times before, I witnessed something I won't likely forget.  As I rose from the depths of the underground tunnels, I saw what looked like a man laying on the floor of the metro.  I figured he must have had a heart-attack or had fainted.  As I walked past him I looked down at his figure, and immediately my head started reeling.  I looked away instinctively, and in a daze moved on.  But the glance was enough.  The memory was stamped in my mind like a picture frame on a wall.  The young man lay sprawled on the hard floor, limbs unmoving.  I saw his exposed belly first, with blood running from a hole in his chest to his navel.  My mind's eye moved up to his face, where his eyes stared unseeing at the ceiling, and his mouth hung open.  The picture throbbed behind my eyes the whole way home. It was as if I was looking through it to see the moving world around me.

       I couldn't get the picture out of my mind, so I decided to let it there.  I was struck by the fact that there were very few people staying by the man's side at the scene of the crime, and no police or emergency vehicles anywhere close.  People, like me, just glanced at it and walked by.  There were a couple of women standing nearby looking at him, but the rest of the station moved on with business as usual.  The more I reflected on it, the more disturbed I became.  I went to our balcony, opened the windows, and played guitar - playing and praying for the young victim, his family, and the killer.  I felt much better after twenty minutes of music and God, and was able to move on with the day. 

       Later that evening, John took me shopping, and we discussed what I had seen.  He wasn't surprised by the fact that the dead stranger was unattended, and asked me my thoughts on why no one seemed to care.  John had asked a taxi driver a similar question years ago, after he had been forced to walk over a dead body laying on the side walk of a main street one afternoon.  The taxi driver said a peculiar thing.  "Russia doesn't count people."  You can choose two ways to interpret this statement, but I think it's obvious that he meant that in Russia, people don't count.

       Then John asked me why the taxi driver's words were as true as they were.  I couldn't for the life of me think of why people wouldn't count, so John explained.  It comes down to the underlying beliefs of the country.  The reformation of Christianity basically was kept from Russia, so the Russian Orthodox church has reigned since the year 325.  The basic Anabaptist principals are lost to the majority of Russians.  The idea that humans are made in the very image of God and God loves every one of us equally is nearly nonexistent.  Inequality is engrained in their culture.  John told me it is understandable that "normal" people could feel un-important in God's eyes.  They are constantly confessing their sins to the priests, bishops, and deacons who dress in fancy robes and light scented candles in the otherwise off-limits Holy of Holies.  This is a logical reason for the general sense of uncaring the "higher-ups" show towards the normal folk.

       This experience has strengthened my Anabaptist beliefs, and I realize again how thankful I am that God loves me even if no one else does, and I will always be worth something with Christ. 

"Classic Russian Experience"

I have not begun to work with the Butterfly Camp (the handicapped camp) yet, so this week was spent leisurely touring the city and learning how to get around it.  On Thursday, I went to visit the Wycliffe office that Deb works at, where we had a prayer meeting with Bible translators from all over the world.  There were so many cool accents!  After that, I went to the Hermitage (Thursdays are free).  I saw some Michelangelo (The Crouching Boy), Leonardo da Vinci (Madonna and Child), Rembrandt (The Prodigal Son), and some mummies.

     Yesterday (Friday, Sept. 6th), was a day I'll remember for a long time.  I woke up at 9am, played guitar and wrote in my journal until 11. Then I took a nap to combat jet-lag.  Nice morning.  Then Deb took me to a Georgian restaurant, where we had a 2 hour meal of eggplant, tomatoes, grilled cheesy naan bread, spinach and nuts, and shish-kabobs. It was delicious!  On the way home, I was taking the metro home when I got taken aside by the police and told to step into a little glass room.  They checked me for weapons and let me go.  I guess I look like a southern criminal.  Must be my nose...  

     When I got home I left with John to go to a local gym to play basketball with Kurt and his team. That was fun, but exhausting as I have done no physical activity since my high-school's alumni soccer game.  

     At 9:45pm, Kurt and I went to meet with Lewis and Petyr (a Russian midget from the Butterfly Camp) to go to a banya.  We were supposed to meet at the metro at 9:30, but Lewis didn't show up until 10:30.  We then walked in a random direction for a half hour. We had to walk slowly due to Petyr's short legs.  He really likes to try and speak English! But he's super hard to understand.  After walking and walking, Lewis finally decided to tell us that he didn't get the reservation he wanted, and that we didn't get the banya (which was private) until 12:30!  Soooo we walked down to the Bay of Finland to see the giant port and huge cruise ships, and then headed back to the banya.  We saw dozens and dozens of big G20 buses in a row, and tons of Mercedes.  At one point, there were no cars on a street but black Mercedes!  That was the most evidence I've seen of the G20.

     Since we didn't know exactly where the banya was, we walked miles and miles to find it. Remember I was already super duper sore from basketball….  We finally did find it, though, and I was very much looking forward to it by that point.

     We stayed there for 2 hours, sitting in a steaming sauna, jumping into a freezing pool, taking a cold and hot shower simultaneously, relaxing in a hot tub, standing in a place where water shoots at you from all directions, dumping buckets of ice water on our heads, whipping our backs, legs, and chests with birch branches, playing pool, and singing karaoke.  

     So the 2 hours actually went fast, and then we walked back to the metro in the cold night at 2:45 in the morning.  We stopped at a 24 hour shaverma shop and ate one each (they are kind of like gyros), and then all went back and slept in our apartment.  I was soooo tired.  

    Today we bought a soccer ball, cuz there is a little field about 4 minutes away that is always open.  So yeah that's about it.  It's like France except the air is sea-fresh!  It's beautiful to breathe here.  

God Bless!  

First Day

I've been here for a full 24 hours!  Today was absolutely glorious in St. Pete.  It must have gotten up to seventy degrees, because I was comfortably walking around in a v-neck.  But I was about the only one in the city in short sleeves, so that will change tomorrow:).  Everyone here is very stylish, and dresses up for everything.
   It is especially windy on our island, due to the Bay of Finland that's a few blocks away.  Right now the windows of our all-weather balconies are wide open, letting the cool breeze bring the noise of the city flowing through the apartment.  I forgot my camera today, so I don't have pictures of the city to add, but I do have some of the apartment.  It is amazing!  I was prepared to live in tight spaces, but I'll be spoiled instead.
   The metro stations are like churches here, with majestic marble pillars and ornate tile walls, all under ground.  So far under ground, in fact, that it takes 5 minutes to get down to the tracks by escalator!  We took the metro and trolleys a lot today, and Kurt and his friends from school took me to a huge mall, where I ate an Italian crepe (pronounced "bleenee").  Actually Kurt had to buy it for me, since the money-changer rejected my money thanks to a few wrinkles... that and setting off the metro alarm were the only stumbling blocks so far!  I know I'm going to like it here.

Das Vidanya (that's what it sounds like at least)

From Germany

And just like that, I'm across the Atlantic!  Two movies, a nice nap, and plenty of delicious airplane food made for a quick flight to Frankfurt.  Now I'm sitting in the airport in Germany for a short layover.  We will reach St. Petersburg at 10am Ohio time, 6pm local time.

I left Ohio last night with no little amount of sadness.  But after a much needed "bawling session" with my family, I am feeling great and ready to take on whatever God sets in front of me.  (But first I'd like a good sleep in a bed... but I suppose that's for later:).

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Now I will pull out my 3/4 sized guitar and play some Mumford & Sons with Kurt on the accordion.

Auf Wiedersehen

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