Well, it felt like whiplash anyways—we travelled several thousand kilometres in just over three weeks! Crazy!
Before we left Bangkok, we had been looking forward to Russia for more than one reason—the obvious being that we'd get to see old and new friends and join a mission trip! The less important ones—but the ones more on our minds when we arrived, perhaps—were food and weather. :)
Okay, that might sound weird, but let me explain! We both love Thai and other Asian food—but there's a lot to be said for variety. Thai food is often regarded as healthy, but you'd be surprised how few vegetables there are and how much of it is deep fried. It tastes great, but it does get old after six months. Also, we'd been in Asia since September and the basis for all Asian food is rice. Before we left for Russia, we'd been eating rice—sometimes for three meals a day—for almost nine months! We love rice, but, as friends from the UK coined it, we were beginning to suffer from ARS—Anti-rice syndrome. So...it was so marvelous to eat Russian food: cheese, chocolate, borscht, cheese, soup, chocolate, rye bread, cheese, cabbage, potatoes, chocolate, cheese... :) Yum! (And the best thing is that now, after a three week break, we are happy to be back to Thai food.)
And, the weather? Well I'm sure many of you will not sympathize, but it was getting a bit hot here in Bangkok. :) So hot that it was hard to sleep at nights—so we were really looking forward to cooler temperatures in Russia. And it was wonderful! We went from high 30's and a 100% humidity to gorgeous early 20 temperatures and low humidity—marvelous! It even got down to the early teens in Kingisepp and St. Petersburg! (And to be honest we were wondering right about then why we had been looking forward to Russian weather!)
So much for food and weather and on to other things.
We were travelling with Greg Greve in Russia—something we always enjoy. It was strange to see him without his camera for much of the trip though...it got dropped and broken the first day we met. Those of you who know Greg can just imagine what it's like to see Greg without a camera—it's almost like he's lost an arm or a leg. He rallied, though, and used our cameras. He blamed his broken camera on the fact that he "joined the dark side" by finally buying a digital camera! :)
Greg is an amazing "people person," and that comes in very handy for a missionary. Every time we were on a train or a bus or walking in the street or even stopping to buy gas, Greg would be talking to people, finding out their stories, sharing his own history, handing out Bibles, and spreading the gospel of Christ! God really has given him a gift of love for others, and people call him the "train missionary" for a reason.
We saw lots of other old friends as well as Greg. Amanda travelled to Russia seven years ago and I was there three years ago—so there were definitely lots of people who we were happy to see again. Meeting old friends, and making new ones, is one of the main reason that wherever I travel I want to stay! It was no different in Russia. I would love to move there for a month, a year, or a few years! It's too bad cloning isn't perfected yet 'cause I'd like to stay here in Thailand too—as well as continuing to travel. :)
It's summer now in Russia, so the days are long—very long! Often we were up past midnight and several times we were holding services at that time too. Usually this happened in the villages where people had to finish chores so the only time they could meet is in the late evening. One such service was a bit funny. We were rushed out of town to the village because we were told we couldn't be late for the 7:00 pm service. We arrived just after 6:00 pm...and the service started at 10:30! :) While we waited for people we sang songs, played checkers with the kids, walked out to the river—and made frogs (and raced them) with the adults!
I enjoyed our village visits a lot on my last trip, and that didn't change on this trip. There's something special about being out in the country at a small country church meeting with people who want to gather--even if it is past midnight and they have to be up at 4:00. On my last trip my all time favourite memory was a soccer game we played in one of the villages. On this trip one of my favourite memories was helping with the milking! :) Now that's something I haven't done for over twenty years...it brought back memories.
Well, as I'm sitting here trying to think about what I should write next, I smile. I smile to think how confused Sasha was when we insisted on naming his car (her name is Greta) and then that reminds me of how amused Maxim was to find out that one of our USB drives was called Max...and that the rest of the USB drives are called "Max's friends." (Maxim kindly obliged us by giving names to his friends! *g*) I also think of umbrella-sword fighting with Aleona, telling jokes with Igor, teaching English to Ludmilla's class, practising Russian with Anya, and learning Russian folk songs from Nina! Good memories...
We're back in Thailand now, and we'll probably be here all summer. We're already in the middle of finalizing details for several summer children's programs that we are running, so that should keep us busy until we hit the road again in a few months. Cheers! :)
