Tuesday, June 7

Tues., June 7, 2005
I am back and will try to catch up on things. If I let much time elapse, it is easy to forget some significant events.

The family I am staying with are treated me as a king; they are attentive to my evey need and very gracious, always keeping fresh fruit, water, and fruit juices in my room. Nena evens irons my underwear – what a deal! Okay, let the cyber-jokes begin about my ironed underwear.

Backing up a bit in the sequence of things: On Saturday, the bishop of Tartarstan and Nikolai (MTI director) and I went to the airport (a different one than I normally use) at 8 am to catch my flight which left at 9:05. The bishop was to catch a flight one hour after me, but his flight was delayed, so I and a student (who met me at the airport in Kazan) waited until 12:35 pm for his flight to arrive. I tried to catch a little sleep on the hard benches at the airport and succeeded somewhat – amazing where one can sleep when the need is great! From Tues. night until Sat. Night I only got 7 hr.s sleep. Anyway, I flew into Kazan, which is 250 Km from Naberezhnye Chilny, which was a surprise to find out that I was going to have a 3 hr. car ride to N.Chilny. Surprises are always fun, at least over here. So when the bishop did arrive in Kazan, he drove us into Kazan and the student who met me at the airport was dropped off with my passport – uffda! I am always a little nervous when I see my passport leaving my possession. It has happened my times before, nevertheless, it still is cause for a little concern. I can loose everything except my passport and airplane ticket and wallet, which I always keep with me. So saying goodbye to my passport, we took off for the ride to N. Chilny. I was so sleepy that I slept most of the way on the bumpy road. We stopped at a roadside fish market, actually there were about 15 little fish shops all huddled together selling all kinds of fish from smoked to fully cooked to raw. The bishop, Visilly asked me if I was hungry, and enough if I were hungry I would have declined. Some of those fish were pretty strange looking. I took a picture for you all to see. Sam, I need you to show me how to send pictures by e-mail when I get home.

This part of Russia is very beautiful, green, and lush –rolling hills and forests – very similar to driving down Hwy 69 to Joplin, MO only prettier, because there are lots of evergreen forests. The weather is perfect – about 75 degrees during the day with no humidity and cool in the evenings. My translator did say that it gets up to 95 – 100 in the hottest part of the summer. But they have no a/c.

About the family I am staying with. The chronology of this blog leaves something to be desired, because I am trying to type quickly as things come to mind. I am in couple’s bedroom, so I am trying to hurry. I am staying with a family of 5, Father – Alexi, Mother – Nena, daughter 26 – Olga, dauther 18 – Nadya, daughter 7 (who looks a lot like Laura at that age) – Luda. They live in a recently remodeled flat in a typical Russian highrise with three bedrooms, a living room a small kitchen a bathroom with sink and tub and washing machine, a separte toilet room, an entry way, and hallway – quite nice acually by Russian standards. They have a Lada stationwagon in good shape (my translator told me that 10 to 50 percent of Russians have cars, a wide range but it was her guess).

More later.