Busy...again

Well hello again.



It seems like forever that I have blogged, and I do have a list of excuses that I might as well rattle off:

1) Our phone line was out for over a week, thus providing a week-long absence from the internet or telephone at our place. It was pretty crazy, too, what the problem was. We still haven't exactly figured out who did it (as both Julie and I don't remember doing it), but by our front door, right on the door jam, is an old security system, that has an intercom system attached to it. Well, some how that button was pressed (perhaps our nanny did it?), and in so doing, our phone line was somehow blocked or disconnected.

SO, for 9 days, we called the phone company a few time, which assured us that our phone was indeed properly hooked up (which was incidentally right, but at the time seemed to be not true, as our phone didn't stop working until after they had been doing some phone line repairs to our building). Then we had to wait for the promised service repairman to come, which took 3 days. Finally, when he did come, it took him all of 10 minutes to assertain the problem. On a side note, our phone repair guy looked an awful lot like Legolas from Lord of the Rings, without the elf ears, the wardrobe or excessories). I must say that it was pretty frustrating to find out that problem was so simple, so right-in-front-of-our-face easy, and yet beyond our scope of recognition.

2) In the past 8 days, I have twice been out of Moscow, once last Wed. through Fri. when I was in Nihzny Novgorod, visiting one of the churches that we do a lot of work with, and participating in a conference put on by the Ingrian church (on the right is me in front of their church/education center/living quarters for the pastor and his family). Unfortunately, the conference didn't really materialize, as the regional pastors failed to show up (I am still not sure why, though Lent is a very busy time for pastors, and fatigue might well be a reason--or perhaps it is a cultural thing, that is, they say "yes," never meaning to really do it, but just trying to be polite and not say no). Well, whatever the reason, it was good for me to experience this, in that my boss Brent told me what things he does when putting on a conference in order to guarantee that people will show up. But more than that, it was also a great chance to talk with the pastor there, meet some of the members of the congregation, and to see another one of our partners in the Gospel.

The other trip was this past Monday-Tuesday up to St. Petersburg for a mission meeting with all of the various mission organizations active in the Ingrian church. Besides LCMS, there is also a number of Finnish groups and one Norwegian mission society active in Ingria--that is besides Ingria's own mission committee. It was a very informative meeting, a chance to see what others are doing with Ingria, to get a broader picture of the overall work being done, and of course network with people in the church here. In the above picture, worthy of noting is the bishop of the Ingrian church, Rev. Kugappi (in the purple clerical), surrounded by leaders of Finnish mission societies.

3) Besides the travel, I have still been taking language lessons and working in the office as well. Yesterday, however, marked the end of my language lessons at the RACU, Russian-American Christian University, the place where I had been studying since arriving in Moscow. I will, for the next month or so, be exclusively working, a change which will be fine--as it will allow me to both 1) take a break from studying, and allow my find to "settle" for a while 2) let me focus on the work that is in front of me. Of course, there will be no shortage of the latter, and as we (Brent and I) will be traveling to 3 additional places in the next month or so, there will still be PLENTY to do.

4) Now comes the time of honest confession. In Tver, we were TV-less, but here in Moscow we do have a TV, which a Russian sports station included. I have to say that on a few occasions in the evenings--times in Tver during which I might well have blogged--I sometimes find myself watching a bit of TV, mostly sports, but occasionally other programs. Now, I would hardly say that we are TV-aholics (mostly because the programs are in Russian and thus not so easy to follow, and so they quickly become boring), and compared to the amounts of TV we watched in the US (1-3) hours/day on average, we watch MUCH less now. But, still, there are times were vegging out seems better than typing. Sorry.

Worth noting, however, is one rather strange program. It is kind of like the U.S. show Wheel of Fortune, though with some rather weird spins. Usually the contestants are from anywhere but Moscow (from all parts of Russia, in fact), some dress up in local traditional garb, some sing or play music, some showcase the "talents" of their nervous children and grandchildren (i.e. singing, reciting poetry, etc.), and ALL bring local gifts--food (often local specialties), alcohol, hand made crafts, carved objects, artwork, and the like--a lot of the stuff is kind of weird. The gifts are placed on the wheel that they spin (the wheel is at chest height, approximately) and usually the wheel is filled up by the three contestants. Then, they take turns guessing letters about the word on the board. This, however, seems to be secondary to the presentation of gifts and demonstrations of talents and greeting of friends and family back in the village they come from. Then, after the word is guessed, all three of the contestants leave with a gift (and perhaps the winner also gets money equivalent to the amount they had racked up in their spinning--though this is only a guess on my part) and another 3 contestants come on. The show is very odd, and kind of cheesy. I asked my language teacher about it, and she was very dismissive of it as a rather low brow form of entertainment. Basically, she said that the contestants are almost always from a village and are usually awed by the fact that they are going to Moscow, and futhermore are on TV. Nevertheless, she did admit that it is pretty popular here in Russia, and that her elderly mother enjoys the show very much--much to my teacher's dismay!

So, there you have it. A list of my excuses. Hopefully, I will be a bit more consistant about blogging now...HOPEFULLY!!