I know your husband!

Tonight after the Women's Conference a woman came up to me and said "I know your husband" then she whispered in my ear that she met him at an AA meeting. I cannot tell you how many times this used to happen to me in California. I used to tease Tom about this being my favorite question; "are you Tom Sharp's wife?". Tonight, however, when she said this to me I was choking back laughter. We moved 9000 miles away from where Tom is best known and it is still happening to me!

I paid 100 rubles to attend the conference. That is roughly a little over 3 dollars. We had tea. And here tea is not just tea. It is open faced sandwiches, cookies, little pies filled with potatoes, and so on. Then we had registration and I was given a notebook, pen and a program. Then we had worship and the speaker. After the speaker there was a time for questions and answers. After which we were fed dinner. Chicken spaghetti and some pickled veggies. We also had dessert. Tomorrow they will be feeding us four more times. I have never been to a conference where we were given so much food for so little money!

The pastor who spoke tonight talked about:
equality
differences
service

It was unbelievable to hear a Russian pastor speaking about the equality of men and women! Then he told about the differences like how men use 12, 000 words a day and women use 25,000. Men are more logical and women more emotional. And so on. He ended with talking about all the ways women MAY serve in the church. He listed everything except preaching. This was very PROGRESSIVE for a Russian pastor to think this way.

Tom was concerned about me attending for fear of how conservative the speakers might be. He noticed me getting ready to go and saw me change clothes three times before I settled on an outfit!

When we sat down to eat dinner many of the women wanted to know where I was from. And when I answered them in Russian they looked suprised... I think they were expecting Lena to translate for me. I told them I have only been here for 11 months and they were very gracious letting me speak and not laughing at my poor grammer. One woman said that she wished she could speak English as well as my Russian after only 11 months!

Lena said that she didn't want to correct in front of all the women. We talked about my mistakes as we were walking to the marshutka (a van that is like a taxi but not as expensive). But, first she told me how proud she was of me for giving my prayer request in Russian and then praying in Russian! She was just so proud of me for trying! She said that the womens faces lit up when I gave my prayer request in Russian. And they mouthed "malodets" to Lena... which means excellent!

Tom's products were on display and I don't know if anything sold but they got a lot of attention. There were also products from the big Christian bookstore in town. Lena didn't like where Tom's things were located so she complained about it and got them moved to a better location!

Women's Conference Part Two

Yesterday Lena Beliah (Lena White) called me on my cell to ask if Tom and I would be home at two. I told her yes and to come on over. She is helping with the Women's Conference and wanted to be able to sell some of Toms' jewelry to the ladies who are coming. She said she was thinking about ways to help us! She took some crosses, pendants that would be considered christian symbols (like doves, crosses and such) and she took several necklaces. We set her up with three black velvet necklace stands and showed her how to pin the pendants on them.

Lena was one of Tom's best customers before New Year's. She would take orders and came over about twice a week to make purchases and see what new things Tom had done.

How wonderful it is to have Russian friends!

Chicken is Back!

Our supermarket has not has chicken for the last three weeks. Yesterday it was back in the store.

If you could read the Russian on the label it is "faithfully" declaring this chicken to be Bird-Flu Free.

Of course we had to get a picture of it. And guess what?... it was the best tasting chicken we have had in a long time!

Women's Conference

Lena has invited me to a Women's Conference. Even though we both know that I won't understand everything she thinks the fellowship with Russian speakers and getting to know other believers in the city will be good for me.

I think networking is always good. I will get to meet Russian women who are leaders here in the city. It will be helpful with getting recovery support groups going if the women from various groups already know me.

I was at the meeting for the BLTC last night. I understood more than last month!


Zhenya had us do an icebreaker where she passed around a bag of M&M's and told us to take as much as we wanted. The bag went around twice. After we had taken our M&M's then we had to ask the person on our left questions for each M&M we took. I had 11! I was able to ask (in Russian) only seven questions... my person was Oksana. I found out her name, where she was born, how long she has lived in Krasnodar, where she went to school, her favorite food, her favorite tv show, how old she is and that she comes from a small family. And then I had to tell what was interesting about her to the group. Thankfully, I survived the ice-breaker.

Tom is diligently working to catch up to where his new class is. He is doing great. Right now he and Lena are in the living room working.

Spencer and Nathan are playing a video game. And for once they are playing nice!

Daylight Savings Time part two

Here in Russia we changed our clocks this weekend. In America you will not change your clocks until April 2nd. Don't worry if you thought you missed it... you still have time to get ready.

Some students were taking bets on who would be late for school. And of course those who were not able to make it to church yesterday were late for school today! One family who had their computer set on Russian time thought that something was wrong with their computer!

We had a new teacher observing in two of the classes today. She will be starting in April. Her name is also Tania. So there are two Tania's and one Tonia. Got it?

I am going to a meeting for the BLTC women today. I came home and watched a few episodes that Joyce loaned us of Law and Order. I think I am ready now for a two hour meeting in Russian.

Nathan is in his room. Spencer is reading his comics and Tom is napping. Just a typical Monday here in our house.

daylight savings time

We thought we were going to be on time for church.

We were an hour late!

Lena and Alexei had just walked in and sat down about 5 minutes before us. Then Olya and Vova showed up... and then one of our teachers from school, Nellie, about 20 minutes later. It seemed as if today was the fastest church service we have ever had!

Tom had a lesson with Lena today. He is being moved into class with Spencer. So he has 11 lessons to catch up on! I will be moving into Nathan's class. And right now they are one lesson ahead of where Spencer and I are. I have already started working on it. Our class will get that lesson on Monday and we should be caught up by the time the change takes place.

So the new classes start the first week of April.
Tom and Spencer together.
Alida and Nathan together.

Thanks Dad for the special treat. We had a family meeting and we watched your video. The boys realised how much they missed you when they heard you singing!

A Day in Krasnodar

Here is a collage I made with scenes from around the city. Yesterday, Tom and I taught Spencer how to use powerpoint. Spencer has said that he might become a pastor so he will need that skill someday. He put together a collage of the city also with his photos and a quote from Lenin. Hopefully, he will post it on his blog for all to see.

Today Tom and Michelle went down into the sewers to see how the homeless people live. Michelle is interested in coming back here to work someday and she has a passion for the homeless.

When they came home Tom was covered in filth. Michelle was realitively clean. Tom was clearing the path for her and went first down into the sewers. He got to meet the cobwebs and crawl over the pipes to find the way down there.

I think Michelle was pretty brave to go down in there... it is not something I think I will be doing.

Welcome Rob & Donna

On Saturday Janet held a party to welcome Rob and Donna to Krasnodar. We ate, laughed and filled out surveys about life here. Janet was concerned with how Tom might fill out the survey.

Tom answered the questions pretty simply. When answering "what do you do with your language helper? ... he said "Mud Wrestling". Spencer filled his out using some cartoon and movie quotes. Our family just cannot follow directions!

Rob & Donna are here from Northern CA. Rob recently had to fly back to the states because of the death of his father. We pray for his family and look forward to him being back with us soon.

Tom and Alida Scrapbook Picture

Getting things figured out!

Aleksey and his mother
Lena in the kitchen
Nastia is serious.

These are from Aleksey's 40th birthday last year in May!

Beautiful Young Lady

Home Alone

Tom, Nathan and Spencer all went to school this morning. I needed the sleep I guess... noone woke me up. I went to bed with a bad headache last night so I think they were all being kind.

I was frustrated yesterday with trying to figure out Adobe Photoshop. Spencer says "let me try" so he has it all figured out now. I will have to have him show me how to use it when he gets home.


We got a package in the mail from Mom and Dad. I finally have the ingredients to make "The Walmart Cake".

Here is the recipe:
1 box Pineapple Supreme- Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Cake mix
1 can of Coconut Supreme Frosting- Duncan Hines Creamy Homestyle
mix cake mix according to package directions before baking mix can of frosting into batter. Bake in a bundt pan.

Looks simple so I think we will try it out later today!


We watched "Pink Panther" the other day. We already have it on video here! We had Mich come over and watch it with us yeserday. The funniest scene for all of us is the scene where he is working with an accent coach and he is trying to say "I want to buy a hamburger" with an American accent. It reminds us of sessions with our language helper. We have had to rewind it and watch it over because we enjoyed it so much.

The other movie we have enjoyed recently is "Everything is Illuminated".
There is only one native English speaker in the movie and the other characters are speaking Russian. It is translated in subtitles. We enjoyed it because the movie goes from America to Ukraine and we saw places that we have been. It was great to see the McDonald's in Ukraine that we actually ate at! There is a quick view of the Potomkin steps and the large train station too. Nathan likes the guy who plays the translater. If someone says something not so kind the translater says something Completely Different that is more polite! Too funny.

Tom went out with Olya last night to meet with the woman who owns one of the stores where his jewelry is being sold. She had sold six pieces so she took several more. Tom said that one of her workers was wearing a necklace he had made. He was excited to see that. He got paid for the pieces he sold and gave Olya her commission for helping him. She has all the business documentation needed for Tom to be in the stores here. She didn't want to accept her cut. She tried to give half of it back. Tom stuck it in her pocket. He doesn't usually take "no" for an answer!

powerpoint scrapbooking

I have played around with this late into the night and the best I could do was take a picture of the screen to get this posted. It is easy to put things together using powerpoint but hard to figure out how to publish. Or maybe it's just me.

I have several other collages that I have done and I printed them out to put into a scrapbook. But since I am low on ink this one cannot be printed tonight. Tom and I worked on this and I am getting pooped! 

Befania

Spencer and I went with Vova, Lena and Nastia to visit Befania Church today. It was a three hour service but we probably sang for half of that time! I really enjoyed it and thought it went by fast. Spencer is resting he thought it was a very long service.

Tom went to our church KBC. He sent me a text message that Valodya spoke in Russian, using a German map and was speaking about Italy. Tom said he had jet-lag when the service ended!

Nathan has a slight cold so he stayed home today.

As we were coming home in the car Lena told me that Slavic had to go to Ukraine to help out their mother. He had to kill the cow and then sell the meat. The cow had just given birth a few weeks ago and she had been sick ever since the birth. So they decided to put her out of her misery and then make some money.

It seems funny to know someone who had to leave the country to go kill a cow!

The Amazing Race!

Yesterday we drove to Ukraine and back! This photo is from when we were there in September. But if you notice the ramp in the photo that is what I wanted to talk about. As the ferry reached the port people came down and filled up this area to be the first ones off the ferry. People were running so fast they were tripping, dropping things and leaving family members behind. All in an effort to be the first one in line at Passport control. There is barely a comprehension of forming a line here. So even the late comers found ways to go under the barries and push to the front. It was amazing to watch.

The water was filled with ice floes. Not clear and clean like in this photo. We were not sure where the ice came from. Tom thought that was where they dumped the ice and snow that they cleared of the city streets and trucked out of town.

Spencer looked at me before we disembarked on the Russian side to return home and said "we are gonna have to run soon!" I said "nope, Vova is going to wait for us no matter how long it takes, I'm not running!".

Sure enough Vova was there with a great big smile eager to know how the crossing went and if we thought Ukraine was beautiful. He is from Ukraine!

When Spencer was being looked at by the Passport control ladies on our return to Russia they were giggling over his passport photo. They told him how cute he was when that photo was taken. He has lost 40 pounds since we have been here and in his original photo he has chubby little cheeks. That baby fat is all gone now.

Nathan and Spencer both did a great job of filling out their own paperwork this time. So now they each know how to do it for when they have to travel without us. They can read the forms now so that helps! That seemed to me to be a benefit of traveling with teenagers. I didn't worry about where they were or what was going on when they were out of our sight. I knew they knew the routine and they did great. Nathan told me he was asked to take his hat off and look at the woman straight on. They were able to answer whatever questions they were asked and move on to the next station. The guy in front of me was yelled at for filling out his paperwork incorrectly so she was very sweet with us since ours were perfect!

We did see one of the guys who was keeping watch over the lines being very rude to an Asian woman. I have heard about how poorly they treat Asian women here but had never witnessed it before. He yelled at her and she didn't seem to understand what he wanted her to do. She was just standing in the line like everyone else. I am very grateful to have no incidences of prejudice to recount.

We had to pay a "FEE" for Vova's car having tinted windows. The policeman who stopped us wanted to see everyone's face and match it up to their passport. Tom was out of the car with Vova and the rest of us just sat in the backseat. Tom was telling the guy "this is my wife" and the guy's response was "customs does not care that brought your wife". Nathan heard him say it. So when he started laughing I asked him what the guy said. He told us and that became our favorite phrase of the day! We were expecting to have to pay for whatever they thought was wrong but this was 1000 rubles. (about 35$). Usually they will ask for 200 rubles or so. On the return trip that same policeman just smiled and waved us through. Vova called him a "bandit". The police here only make 4500 rubles a month so they look for ways to boost their income.

My biggest trauma of the day was over the bathrooms just as I thought it would be. Instead of the normal cost of 5 rubles for using the bathroom it was 10. The bathrooms were squatty potties. Just holes in the ground. There were stalls there, thank goodness, and the floor was tiled around the holes so this was a NICE public bathroom. My fear when I was in there was holding up my purse so it didn't touch the floor and not getting my shoes wet while I was using the facilities. Needless to say the balancing act was not fun and I apologise if my little tale grosses you out.

Wichita St. KOs Seton Hall in NCAA Opener

Okay, so I cannot sleep and I was reading the news. I know that there are Wichitans and former Wichitans that read my blog so this one is for you all!

We leave in a few short hours for Ukraine. Crimea to be exact. This is a short trip... there and back in the same day. We are paying Vova to drive us to the ferry and then cross the Black Sea and then get our passports stamped and get back on the ferry to cross the Black Sea and drive us back home.

It will be a long day, Vova told me to bring plenty of music for the car and FOOD to eat on the road.

The only thing I am not excited about will be the bathrooms between here and there. OY!

Name Changes

We are learning genitive case now and it is interesting that some names change and some names don't.

Here are the names of our family in genitive case:
Алиды= Alid-i
Натана= Nathan-a
Спенсера= Spencer-a
Тома= Tom-a

Janet is a foreign name that does not change. And neither does Michelle. Bill was Bil-la.

First Time as a Translater

Last night I introduced Olya to the new students. Donna needed a language helper and Olya wanted the job. So I got them together. I did well until I started to get tired. We talked for an hour and half. Towards the end I was speaking to Donna in Russian and Olya in English! We all laughed each time I did that. Olya did a good job correcting my grammer but she understood everything I was translating for her. I am glad they hit it off!

I just got home from Olya's. First I got a phone call from Sveta. She is 22 weeks pregnant and tired of sitting at home. She wanted to come over to visit but she forgot where I lived. So she asked for someone to come and meet her at the supermarket. Nathan went down to get her and she visited with me for a while. She was so happy that I can understand her better and she said that my Russian was very clear. She asked me about how Olya was doing. Olya is also pregnant she is around 18 weeks. So they are a month apart. I asked her if she wanted to visit with Olya and she did. I called and let Olya know we were coming. When we got there Lena was there too. Sveta was so excited. She got to see three girlfriends in one day! Her husband works long hours so she is alone a lot. she and Olya made a date to go over to the mall and price baby items. Once I get a list of what they need I will post it.

While I was at Olya's I was asked to translate an English email she had received. I was excited that she asked me. She understood A LOT of it already. It was a very long email longer than this post! I only had to translate three sentences that had some medical terms she didn't quite understand. Wow! I was very impressed with her reading in English.

On Friday we will be making a quick trip to Ukraine. Every six months we are required to leave Russia. It is a new law. So we will have Vovo drive us to the border cross over on the Black Sea on the ferry get our passports stamped and come right back!

Pray for us since Vovo wants to leave at SEVEN AM! and anyone who knows us knows that only Spencer loves that time of day!

Ring Tones

We saw a young man on the bus today. He was impeccably dressed. Dress shirt, nice slacks, good looking coat. And then we hear his phone ring and it was Fifty Cents "Just a Lil Bit". Tom and I just looked at each other and tried not to laugh!

On the way home from there was a very drunk man who had fallen down while he was walking. Tom tried to help him up but they guy was too drunk to stand. Everyday we see drunk people. The alcohol problem seems huge somedays.

We met some of the new students today at school. They will start in a few weeks. We have more Californians now. Their names are Rob and Donna. They are from the San Francisco area. Now if the Texans try to take on the Californians at least we are gaining in numbers and I don't think they can lick us!

Right now we have spring like weather... sunny and a little windy. I got a copy of Melanie and Jody's newsletter and they are from the other side of Russia and they have three feet of snow! Oy!

It's Monday!

It is never easy to get back in the swing of things.

Spencer had guests over yesterday. His friends Tobias and Andrew came over to play video games. They were pretty loud there for awhile.

We decided to watch Hotel Rwanda last night because Spencer had not seen it yet. After it was over we all needed to do something else to get our minds of the movie. Just as we were deciding what to do Erin called! It was great to hear news about her and her family and I totally forgot about the movie.

Nathan and I belong to the same message board now. We are both going to Bibleforums.org. It is different for both of us to be in the same place. But, having things to talk about that we each have opinions on is pretty fun.

Tom and I both had a good night's sleep for the first time in months. We switched mattresses with Spencer and he likes the soft mattress. Our old backs were grateful for the firm one! O to be 15 again...