Visa Trips, Part II

Things could get a little confusing in this post because of the similarities in the names of Novokuznetsk, where we live, and Novosibirsk, the name the city where the mission home is, so for this post I will call where we live by the nickname Kuz.

When the mission office started planning our visa trip, they had us traveling overnight 3 out of 5 nights--on night trains coming and going from Novosibirsk as well as the overnight flight from Moscow and gave us about 17 hours to kill in Novosibirsk. Dave didn't like that schedule, so he went online and found much better connections than what they had planned, and we got to fly all the way instead of taking a train from Kuz to Novosibirsk and back. The office wasn't able to get the exact flights we hoped for, but we thought three flights to get to Helsinki sounded much better than an overnight train trip and two flights. It's the first time anyone had tried this schedule and these airports, but we knew we could handle it and looked forward to having some time to do a little sightseeing in Saint Petersburg during our 7-hour layover there.

The day started out great. A sister in the branch who speaks English very well was willing to be our taxi driver, which was nice because we weren't looking forward to a 45-minute trip to the airport in silence. We made all our connections, one of them just barely. They seldom use Jetways on the flights we were on, so we were loaded on a bus, got taken to the plane and climbed the stairs. After landing we did the same in reverse. It takes a little while to get everyone loaded and unloaded. Then we had to go through security again--between each leg of our flights, even when we never went out of a secure area, we had to take off our shoes, belts and anything else that might set off the machine. What we expected to be a 50-minute stroll between gates was instead a rush. But we made it.

When we got to St. Petersburg we discovered there are two terminals there, at opposite ends of the runway. We think one terminal is used for international flights and one for domestic flights. A taxi was the only way we could get from one terminal to the other--there are no buses, shuttles or trains running between the two and it's several kilometers with no walking paths. Part of our assignment was to do some reconnaissance and find out what is involved so others traveling through Saint Petersburg in the future can know how to navigate through the hassles. By the time we finished doing that and got all the details worked out, we decided to stay put rather than take a chance on missing our flight. We ate at TGI Fridays and had a surprise--our waiter got all excited when he saw our name badges. He is LDS and said he wants to go on a mission, but he's too old. We told him to find a wife and wait a few (or several) years and then go as a senior couple!

Unfortunately, we've told Nosovsibirsk that we don't recommend going through Saint Petersburg in the future because of the hassles with the airport. Too bad--we were looking forward to seeing that beautiful city on another visa trip, and we were excited about finally finding those elusive English speakers. Almost everyone we talked to had some English skills!

Helsinki was just as wonderful the second time there. It's beautiful, clean, lots of English, both spoken and written. And we get to spend time in the temple. We feel like we're in such a different world that we've forgotten what a treat the temple is. We met up with the Michies again, some neighbors from our stake who have been serving a mission at the Helsinki Temple, and went to a late lunch together after they finished their shift. They are a gold mine of information about the city and know a lot about the history of the Church in Helsinki and parts of eastern Russia. He speaks Finnish because he served a mission there years ago. They were very gracious hosts and showed us all around, ending at a huge department store called Stockman's where we could shop to our heart's content. It was a delightful afternoon. We're sorry they're finishing up their mission next week and won't be there for our future visa trips. Elder Michie sent us this picture of obedient geese using the crosswalk right by where we had lunch.

The Holiday Inn where we stayed is in a great location, right next to the train station. The FinnAir bus from the airport dropped us off at the plaza in front of the hotel, and the next day we took a train to the mall where we caught a city bus that went right by the temple. There are several malls and big stores within walking distance of the hotel. It was so easy to get around. That's typical of a lot of places in Europe.

Breakfast was included at the hotel. They put out a wonderful spread--it rivaled a breakfast buffet on a cruise ship. The hotel is downtown and although it's right next to the train station and in front of a very nice bus plaza, it's not noisy at all. Early one morning Arline watched for over an hour (maybe the German Omas rubbed off on her). There were usually 7-9 buses and sometimes as many as 16 in constant motion. We also could see trolleys and other buses going down the street a block away. It was fun to watch crowds of people leaving a train and hurrying to a bus or wherever they were going. Street sweepers were also out in force and got things clean to start the day.

We're not here on a mission for visa trips to Helsinki, so we won't say much more about it (but it sure is a wonderful bonus!)

We didn't buy any liquids like mustard or BBQ sauce this time, so we didn't have to check luggage on our way home. That meant hauling our suitcase up and down the stairs throughout the airports--very few working escalators and a few very small elevators at the airports--and going through security with one more thing, but we didn't have to worry that it wouldn't make the transition on the close flight.

As we disembarked in Saint Petersburg, we got off on the only Jetway used for any of our 7 flights. Then we ate dinner in the new Burger King. We noticed two tall round towers in the middle of the tarmac at either end of the terminal and tried to guess what they were for. We soon found out. After we went through security, we were directed down some non-working, escalators, got to a long People Mover that did work in one direction, climbed lots of stairs back up (the escalators at that end were permanently gated shut) and came up in the middle of one of those glass towers. They are additional gates! No Jetways, just gates. We watched an absolutely gorgeous sunset and then boarded the plane.

We weren't able to rearrange the overnight flight from Moscow to Kuz. "Overnight" means we boarded just before 11 pm and landed about 6 am. With the 3-hour time change, that meant we managed to get nearly 4 hours of sleep. Even the stewardess was tired. She spoke with a heavy accent and very quickly, so we couldn't understand much of what she said. We recognized when she said Novosibirsk in Russian and thought it was funny since we were landing in Kuz. Then she said Novosibirsk again when she spoke in English (that was about the only word we could understand). Overnight flights are hard on everyone. Even with that, we weren't prepared for what we saw as we pulled up to the terminal. We were very tired and our Russian isn't the best, but we can recognize the name of our city, and that wasn't what was on the side of the building. It said Novosibirsk, in both Russian and English. We got very nervous. Dave checked our tickets to make sure they said Kuz, and they did. Something had probably been said on the plane but we didn't understand it. We followed the crowd into the terminal and got a transit pass. We could tell it was a transit pass because it said "transit pass" in English on it. We were put in a holding area with many other passengers who apparently were diverted from various flights.

Sitting in the holding room we really struggled to stay awake--we'd only slept 3-4 hours on the plane, plus the room was SO warm. The heat radiated up through the floor and even melted a chocolate bar in one of our bags. However, the seats were the typical uncomfortable airport chairs, so sleep wasn't really a possibility. The batteries for Dave's hearing aids and the iPad ran out, which had most of our reading material and entertainment. We were so glad when they called our flight to Kuz.

Once in a while announcements were made when certain flights were ready to board and often repeated in English, but there was no translation whenever we heard them say Kuz, and there were no employees from the airlines to ask questions of. We were simply in a holding area. We sat and waited for 5 hours. We found out later that the airport in Kuz was fogged in. It finally cleared about 11 am. They took us back to the very same plane we'd flown in on--this time we didn't have to go through security again, had us sit in the same seats, and 35 minutes later we landed in Kuz. We got home about 23 hours after we checked out of our hotel in Helsinki.

The diversion meant that we missed an opportunity Saturday morning to talk with a high school group. The teacher has come to English Club and was very excited to have some American speakers talk to her English students. The topic was schools then (when we were young), now, and our expectations for the future. She knew we had our visa trip. On Thursday she had talked with the Elders to see if they could help her out if we didn't make it back. Apparently flight delays in Russia are more common than we realized. The missionaries covered for us and she was ok with that, although they couldn't give a first-hand account of what schools were like in the US 40-50 years ago. However, they said most of the students there were young teenage girls who absolutely LOVED the young Americanskis.


This week's Russianism:
We are learning every day how much we took for granted at home. We are learning every day, period. Patience is one of the things we're learning the most. We are amazed at how patient the Russians are and how they take all the hassles and delays in stride. They've come to accept things in their lives that we would never put up with at home. For example, when any vehicles get in an accident, big or small, they stop and wait for the police to come, even if it's a bus or trolley. They don't move the vehicles until after the police are through checking it out, a process that can last well over an hour. Traffic backs up, big time. When the police come, they park wherever is most convenient for them. Sometimes that means 3 lanes of traffic are blocked--two by the cars in the accident and one by the police. People just accept that. It drives Dave crazy!

It's surprising that there aren't more accidents because steering wheels can be on either side. Someone said they think that's because the cars with the steering wheel on the right are cheaper. We've decided there aren't more accidents because most people use public transportation so there aren't as many cars on the roads, plus we think drivers have learned to be more defensive in order to deal with the mix of right- and left-hand steering wheels.

Visa Trips, Part I

We wrote this up after our first visa trip but decided to blog about our adventures in Moscow instead. We planned to use this after our next visa trip. However, we got transferred and so on our next visa trip we flew out of Novokuznetsk. You'll get visa trip info two blogs in a row, the oldest one first. Check back mid-week (probably on Wednesday) for the second one.

The airport in Barnaul was a new experience for us. When we arrived in Russia, we flew to Novosibirsk and took the train to Barnaul, so our visa trip was was our first time to use the airport in Barnaul.

Fortunately the day before we left for our visa trip, we had picked up a new elder at the airport. We arrived long before the plane did, so the missionary who was getting the new companion showed us what to expect. It made us feel much better about leaving on our own early the next morning.

In Barnaul there are two rather small buildings, one for arrivals and one for departures. When we first got to the airport we walked in the door and immediately went through security, showing our passports and putting our bags through the scanner. Then we went to the check-in counter. There are six counters. We found the ONE assigned to our flight. After checking in we walked through the terminal and waited by a door to go through another security check. There are two doors and you go to the one that has your flight number. No matter how long the line is, you have to go through the door assigned to your flight. When you get in the room, you can see the people coming through the other door--the scanners are separated by a small, low plexiglass wall. When everyone had checked in for a particular flight, the security people left, even though there was a line on the other side. After going through security we ended up in the same waiting room as the people who went through the other security door. They have little blue covers for your feet when you take off your shoes. However, you only take about 10 steps before you remove the coverings and put your shoes back on. You don't put shoes in with anything else; they have to be in a special shoe tub. Dave tried putting his shoes in with his belt and change, and they let him know he couldn't do that. The machines were very sensitive--Dave had to take ALL the coins out of his pockets, even the three small kopeks. We didn't have to take our computers out or pull out our liquids. The people in front of us had water bottles and the security guard had them each take a drink and let them keep their bottles. At some airports the scanner is just a formality because no matter what lights do or don't go off, they pat down everyone anyway.

The lady standing at the scanning screen was dressed to the hilt, even sporting 6" heels. When she saw something she didn't like, she stopped the belt and went over and checked it out, bringing the line to a dead stop.

We didn't hear an announcement for our flight, but when people started standing up and heading for the door, we joined them. There's no smoking in the terminal, but as soon as you step out on the Tarmac (that's right, no Jetways), people started lighting up. People board in whatever order they line up. It didn't seem any slower than when we do it by zones.

We were greeted on the plane by stewardesses with cute little hats and suits. They removed the hats while they worked around the cabin and put them on again when we landed. They did a manual count before we left. In a lot of ways it's like we stepped back 50-60 years, only in part because they feed you a meal! The drink options are limited to juices, coffee, tea and water. We enjoyed the classical music they played until takeoff. By the way, we found out later that airports are on the list of things we're not supposed to take pictures of.

We landed in Moscow and got the Tarmac treatment again (we think we had Jetways when we arrived in Russia). After a short layover we got to use the Jetway to the stairs where we climbed down and got on buses to ride to international flight area.

Check back on Wednesday for more travel adventures!

This week's Russianism:
When the plane landed in Moscow, the passengers clapped. We don't understand that--it isn't like the pilot could hear it. The passengers clapped on both of the flights home.

Goodbye and Hello

We still don't know why we were transferred, other than for Dave's leadership skills. We've been told all along that we were going to spend our whole mission in Barnaul. We joked that we must have ticked off someone in Barnaul--maybe the bus conductor when we paid the fare of 12 rubles in kopeks, kind of their equivalent of dollars to nickles and dimes. I've only heard of one other time a senior couple in our mission got transferred; they had different responsibilities (CES) than we do and ended up in Turkey.

Plans kept changing as we were getting ready for the move. At first there was talk of using the mission van and driver, but that ended up not working out. We talked about what to move--all the dishes and everything in the apartment owned by the mission (the furniture and a few other items are owned by the landlady), or only take our personal belongings and things we had bought. Because the store in Barnaul where we got a lot of our bulk items was a long way from our apartment and we didn't want to be lugging things like heavy bags of flour through the snow in -40 degree weather, we've been buying extra on every shopping trip: a case of peaches, lots of our favorite muesli cereal only available at that store, several "big" bags of powdered sugar (almost a pound each, vs. spice packet size available in other stores), so we had lots to move. We planned to rent a second sleeping compartment and move everything on the train. However, we found out we could travel on the train, but it's not allowed by Russian law to rent an extra compartment for moving household goods. The next plan was to get a moving van. We decided we'd ride in the cab with the driver and they canceled our train tickets. The zone leader had a hard time finding a van, but finally was able to arrange for one the day before we were supposed to leave. We started having second thoughts about being cramped in a small cab for 6+ hours, especially since most people in Russia smoke, but the train was sold out by then. We were given permission to take a taxi (about $180).

When the moving van arrived Friday morning we were relieved to see the cab was bigger than many of the vans running around Barnaul and decided to go in the van. After we loaded everything, we were told we weren't going to be able to ride in the van after all. The van drove off and the missionaries explained that apparently the van wasn't going directly to Novokuznetsk. Instead they would take our things to the central warehouse, put them on a bigger truck with other stuff going to Novokuznetsk, and it would be delivered, um, sometime. The two missionaries who had talked to the driver came back with different stories. One said they take the container our stuff was in and load the whole container on a bigger truck, and the one with more Russian said they reload our things on the bigger truck. We were immediately concerned because we had run out of suitcase space and put some of our things in garbage bags and left items like a desk chair and the ironing board loose, figuring we'd meet the truck several hours later. We had no idea how many bags we had put on the truck, so we didn't know if we'd end up getting everything. And we hadn't packed with that in mind, but figured we could wear our clothes a second day.

We got to travel in style. The taxi made it a 4 1/2 hour trip instead of a 6+ hour bus ride or overnight train trip (arriving at 4:30 am). As usual, we were running on faith. The zone leader ordered the taxi. When it came we snapped a few farewell pictures of the elders and climbed in. It was a VERY nice taxi with soft seats, lots of legroom and a non-smoking driver--a RARITY in Russia. It was established very quickly, even before we got down the driveway by our apartment, that there wouldn't be much conversation since we couldn't understand the driver and he couldn't understand us. We had no way of knowing if we were even going the right way and didn't see Novokuznetsk listed on road signs until we were about an hour away. We keep trusting 20-year-old kids to take care of things and it's worked so far. We had to have faith that all our things that we'd so confidently loaded into the moving van an hour earlier would eventually make it to Novokuznetsk. We had to have faith that the Lord knew what we needed and we would be able to get by.

We eventually did make it to Novokuznetsk, where the taxi driver promptly got lost trying to find the address where we were to meet up with the Elders. That extended our trip by about 45 minutes, at no extra charge. Fortunately he kept his good sense of humor as we drove down one-way streets away from where he knew we needed to be heading, and we finally got to our destination. The apartment is one the "traveling missionaries" use on short stays. Since the branch in Novokuznetsk is so small, they often have a senior couple or zone leaders visit. It was definitely compact--the bedroom was about 2 inches wider than the bed was long. One night there was enough to tell us we wanted something larger, just for our convenience. We're glad our new apartment is MUCH bigger.

Because we didn't know we wouldn't have our things for a couple of days, we got here without a comb, contacts, shampoo, deodorant, beauty aids, hair dryer, curling iron, towels, meds, razor, coats (it dropped into the high 30s at night that week). Because of allergies, personal preferences and language issues, it wasn't like we could replace some of them easily. Besides, we kept thinking our things would arrive any time. We had one change of wrinkled clothing for each of us that we'd worn the day before we left, an electric toothbrush that died our first night here, Arline's comfortable but leaky shoes--not a problem the day we were traveling, but it rained several times in the next few days.

Remember, we were meeting people for the first time and Dave was being introduced as their new branch president and we wanted to make a good first impression. And he did, even without a suit!

We really struggled in the first couple of days here, but once Dave was sustained as branch president, many of those misgivings and feelings of wanting to go home (we weren't sure if that was Barnaul or Salt Lake so we stayed put) eased or disappeared, even though some of the problems remained. With all the opposition we felt, we think we're going to be a part of some very important things here in Novokuznetsk. One day we were feeling especially sorry about our circumstances, but then realized that in a few years we'll be laughing about it and decided not to waste time now being miserable.

On Monday when we had a little time to ourselves we did discover a few useful things buried in the bottom of the suitcase: one contact and solution, a comb, the picture album--everyone in Russia loves to show off and see pictures.

Except for a few minutes in a restaurant with wi-fi (we happened to have the iPad with us), we didn't have internet access for several days. You know you're taking too much for granted when you get frustrated at not being able to communicate with the family for a week.

On Tuesday we found out our things had arrived but they didn't have a truck to deliver them to us. We were given the choice of renting a local truck and picking them up ourselves or waiting until morning. Since we were just leaving to go to English Club at the time, we opted to wait until morning.

On Wednesday they didn't call and we couldn't call them. In the afternoon someone finally got in touch with them and found out they didn't have any delivery vans again. We arranged for a van to meet us and headed to the warehouse. After wandering around in the general area for a while we finally found the office, where they proceeded to charge us more than double the quoted price. Then they sent us to another place to get our things. They had very carefully packed all of our stuff in two large "build-a-crates." They take 4 boards approximately 8" high and hinge them to form the sides of a box. They can either be set out to be square or flattened for storage. In Barnaul they had put a set of those boards on top of a pallet, loaded the mini box they'd formed with our things and then added additional layers of the boards until everything was below the level of the top layer and put a "lid" on it--a sheet of plywood cut to fit, and wrapped it in plastic. One of our crates was 6 layers high and the other one 9. As near as we can tell, everything made it! We're in our new apartment and getting settled. Pictures to come in a future blog.

This week's "it happened in Russia":

There were a few people we especially wanted to say goodbye to before we left Barnaul. One of those was a lady named Olga. She was one of the "angels" we talked about when Hadley was born. She came to our apartment once and listened to a discussion, but said she wasn't interested in any more lessons. We became good friends through English Club. However, she wasn't there the night we announced that we were leaving. We'd made her a loaf of zucchini bread as a thank you for all of the goodies she had constantly brought to us, so we left it with the Elders along with a note telling her thank you and goodbye. When they gave it to her, she started crying. She said her daughter had been denied a visa and she was really discouraged that night. She told them we had returned the gift of being an angel. After the many tender mercies that have been shown to us in Russia, it was a joy to find we'd unknowingly given one in return. That made up for all the hassles of moving!

Transfers

Sorry for the delayed post this week. I guess delayed isn't the right word. Skipped is more like it. We lost internet access, and it's kind of hard to post without it! I kept thinking we'd be able to get a post done--tomorrow. They kept saying the same thing about our internet--tomorrow. Oh well. Since this is so long you can just think of it as two weeks of posts wrapped into one.

Transfers happen regularly--every 6 weeks, to be exact. Sometimes things get a little crazy around transfer time. Since we arrived four transfers ago, 10 missionaries have left Barnaul (out of 3 sets of elders). A few transfers ago we lost 4 elders. One left on Monday because he was going home; two left on Tuesday/Wednesday; a brand new missionary (we've been asked not to call them greenies anymore) and his trainer arrived on Thursday, another arrived sometime in there, and one elder stayed a couple of extra days since his new companion was on a visa trip--he would have gotten to his new city and not had a companion and we were short an elder, so he stayed; and a new elder who had been delayed because of a minor health issue arrived the next week. All the missionaries and some of the people from the branch go see the departing missionary(s) off. Of course, as many missionaries as possible greet the incoming ones. It seemed like we were at the bus station every day all week for that transfer, either seeing missionaries off or greeting the new ones. Oh, that must be because we almost were! We also have a farewell dinner before they leave and try to make sure the new ones have food in their apartment so they've got something to eat until they can get to the store (often they arrive at bedtime). Not only is it time consuming and the cost adds up to make all those trips, and a hassle because departures are often early in the morning, it's very disruptive to missionary work, but it's fun to meet new missionaries.

Whenever we've gone to the bus station to see the missionaries off, we've felt sorry for them having to pack everything up and have secretly been gleeful that we won't have to do that until we head home. Shh--don't tell them. They think it's an adventure!

We find out about transfers on the Friday night before they actually take place. Usually they leave on Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on where they're going. With the distance the missionaries have to travel, sometimes it takes a couple of days to get from a city on one side of the mission to a city on the other side. Now that the two easternmost cities have been moved to the Vladivostok mission, transfers will be a little easier.

There was a bit of an usual twist to this round of transfers, and we found out about part of it earlier than the Friday before. We've decided that one thing the Lord must be trying to teach us is that comfort zones are for wimps. Just as we were starting to feel a little bit acclimated and that we were able to get around in Barnaul (the clerks in our neighborhood stores recognize us and don't expect us to answer them in Russian, we've made friends with many of the bus conductors, and we just found a great hardware store and mall on the other side of town and know how to get there now), we got transferred, something VERY rare for senior couples. A few weeks ago President Gibbons called and asked us if we would consider a "slight" change of assignment. He wants Dave to be the branch president in Novokuznetsk. Since the town is several hours away from Barnaul, that means a transfer, something we weren't expecting to have on our mission. Oh well, at least we weren't asked to change companions! We will still be doing the same things as a senior couple that we did in Barnaul, but Dave will have the added responsibilities of running the branch and he has the option of having Arline fill in with another leadership role as needed.

Novokuznetsk is a little colder and wetter and a higher elevation (1300 ft. vs. 400 ft.) than Barnaul. The city is about 1/2 the size and the branch is about 1/3 as big. There are two sets of young missionaries. At this point, that's about all we know. One nice thing about having a 2-week notice was that we had a chance to be able to learn how to say Новокузнецк before we got there, so we won't make fools of ourselves by stumbling over trying to pronounce it. We do that enough with other Russian words. It's said No-vuh-kooz-nyetsk, almost like it looks, but it's a little difficult for our old Amerikanski tongues to pronounce without a little stuttering over the strange sounds.

One big problem we faced was that we couldn't talk about it to anyone for a week. We had SO many questions, but President Gibbons left for a conference in Lithuania right after he talked with us, so we spent the next week and a half worrying. However, the zone leader in Novokuznetsk found us a nice apartment and everything worked out. We're here and getting settled and have internet again! So we've moved, but our addresses stay the same since everything goes through the mission office.

Now we have a much better understanding of why they keep transfer information so secret until the weekend before. After President Gibbons talked to us about the change, we struggled to keep our focus on Barnaul up until the last minute, rather than to try to wrap things up early and start thinking about what was ahead in Novokuznetsk. In addition, in some ways we felt a little like lame ducks once it was announced in church.

Last Sunday was an emotional day when we said goodbye at church. We were surprised by how close we'd gotten in such a short time to people we mostly couldn't understand. They were so friendly and jabbered away whether or not we could figure out what they were saying to us. We're grateful we didn't know we were going to leave after such a short time--we would have been more reluctant to put down roots and we would have missed out on some wonderful friendships.

They wanted to throw a farewell party for us on Monday night for FHE. These pictures are all from that night, but we're having problems with the captions. Lots of people showed up. There was the usual short spiritual thought as part of FHE, we had a chance to bear our testimonies, and then the festivities began. We played a group game (picture #1), they sang several songs, sometimes to us (performing) and sometimes specifically for us (about friends saying goodbye--picture #2: Vera, Tatiana, Larisa, Oksana, Anya and Liliya). A couple who has done some exhibition dancing performed for us (picture #3) and then they had everyone get up and dance. One older sister kept trying to get the missionaries to dance with her instead of with each other. It was so funny to watch because she didn't want to take no for an answer, but they were all so good about sticking to missionary rules. The Russians just wanted everyone to dance, and male/female couples weren't a requirement (picture #4, Liliya and Anya). The beat of their music was different, kind of between a waltz and a polka. They dance to it just fine--a waltz step with a quick hop in the middle--but it wasn't what we're

used to and we didn't last too long on the dance floor. At the end they gave us a book they had all signed. It is about this general area, with lots of pictures of the Altai mountains. Fortunately, it's in both Russian and English. Lots of fun and hugs and tears. We will miss the people here.

There are people and things that are hard for us to leave behind. Liliya (last picture) has been a long-time investigator and was baptized the day after we left. There were two more baptisms scheduled for this month and two more in October, and of course we got quite attached to the members we've talked about in past blogs. We have seen so much growth in the branch recently. The last two weeks have been a balancing act to keep nurturing while gently pulling up the roots we had just put down. Before Anya's baptism we told her we'd be here for more than a year from now--she was a particularly hard one to say goodbye to. A few people were clearly disappointed--more than once we heard the comment, "but you said you'd be here for a year and a half" from people at church and in English Club.

We had a few ideas "stockpiled" for future blogs, so if you continue to see things about Barnaul, don't get confused. We really will be in Novokuznetsk, but from time to time we may use pictures and stories that happened before we moved, especially in the middle of winter when we don't plan to venture out any more than absolutely necessary. It will also be interesting for us to see if some of the things we've seen are unique to Barnaul or are true in other places in Russia as well.

This week's Russianism:

They don't put notices in our mailboxes, except for bills. Instead they tape notices to the door of the building. That is fine for those who easily read Russian without needing a dictionary to translate. If the missionaries are around, we ask them to translate it. If not, we'll laboriously write down the letters and then go to the apartment and do our best to figure out what it says. Usually the notices are posted the day the water/electricity gets shut off. One afternoon we saw such a note. We recognized the word water and assumed it meant the hot water was turned off, since we hadn't had any hot water that day. The missionaries in our sector later told us they didn't have hot water either, and it was turned off for another 8 days. No one knows why. A few days after that there was no cold water. No notice. Arline realized it in the shower after she'd used up the cool water in the pipes. The morning we left Barnaul Dave saw a notice that we figured out said that the electricity would be turned off, so we hurried and moved all the heavy items down before the elevator stopped working. However, it was still running when we left 4 hours later.

We've been told that Novokuznetsk is a smaller city and things are cheaper there. Not only are they cheaper, they don't have as many amenities, including people to service hot water tanks, so no tanks are available. That means we'll have to deal with having the hot water turned off the same way the Elders do. I guess we'll get a better idea of what life in Russia is really like!

Another Delay

Two weeks in a row of delayed posts. Sorry about that. We're having problems with internet access, but we'll get our post up as soon as possible.

Out and About in Barnaul

There is a small amusement park (a dozen or so rides/activities for kids) just down the street from us. We walk through it often on our way to the zone leader's apartment. It's tucked into a small area on the corner of two fairly busy streets and has apartments and condominiums all around it. We've had fun watching kids enjoy the simple rides. парк (on the sign) is pronounced park.
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One of our favorites things to watch there is a new attraction. It starts with a large water-filled pool. To that they add a huge plastic ball with a zipper, and a child. The kids love it, even though it looks like it would be frustrating because it's so hard to walk in it. We also think it would get awfully hot inside the ball, but it doesn't seem to bother the kids.

We wondered how the ball kept its shape when they unzipped it, so we watched. After a child has been in it for a while, the worker pulls on a cord attached to the ball and slowly draws it back to the pad, unzips and lets the child climb out. The ball starts deflating. Then another child climbs in and the zipper is zipped almost closed. We thought it was strange that the boy immediately covered his ears. Then we saw this:

They stick the nozzle of a leaf blower in and blow it up again, finish zipping and push it out into the pool.

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The little kids don't have trikes like the ones in the U.S. They have these. The tall handle on the back is to make it easy on the parents. Usually the parents are pushing; we've seldom seen kids pedaling themselves. This is a row of them for sale, not a kiddie parking lot.
One P-day a member took us on a walking tour around Barnaul. The have a beautiful fountain in a park in the middle of . . . nothing much. Kind of a business/industrial/junky area.

Barnaul Elders at the time (l-r) Elder Ortner, Elder Bowler, Elder Hansen, Elder Prokoptsev, Elder Liljenquist, Elder Fitzgerald

In the center of town is a BIG war memorial. This is a very small part of it.
















Barnaul seems to enjoy statues of all shapes and sizes. Of course there are the requisite ones of Stalin (on the left) and Pushkin (poet, below), but there are some of lesser known characters as well. We haven't gotten pictures of all of them either because we didn't have the camera with us at the time or because we've seen them as we were zipping by on a bus, but we see lots ALL over town!

Your guess is as good as mine what this is about

The middle of a sidewalk is a perfectly logical spot for a wooly mammothSome of the many matroyshka dolls around, but I don't think these stack

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We've seen lots of pretty flower beds around town.











They love to paint things. All we can figure is that they want color. Some things they've painted that seem a little strange to us are cement fences, even the fancy molded ones; used tires in the gardens as sculptures; curbs (the one by our apartment has alternating red, green and yellow in some places and plain white in others); swing sets and sand piles--they don't bother to clean the sand off the sides first, so the paint doesn't stay on long, and besides, we think it's water-based paint.

Tire swan sculpture and other painted tire accessories

Caught in the act--painting the swings and sand pile

Russianism:

On P-day we went hat shopping at a Reenick (outdoor market). All eight of us in the zone found winter hats. We bought them in August, because they get more expensive the colder it gets. Then when it's really cold and you can't do without a hat any longer, they're no longer available.

Our zone presently consists of Elder Peterson, Elder Hansen, Elder Bowler, Elder Liljenquist, Sister Holbrook, Elder Fitzgerald (way in the back), Elder Holbrook and Elder Ortner