Let's Speak Russian Correctly

Let's Speak Russian Correctly
Weather -- Clear, warming, high occasional clouds
Temp -- 43F at 11:30 pm Wind -- Calm

I would not recognize the signs, but the missionaries tell me that there are signs in the Metro cars encouraging people to speak Russian properly. The signs read, "Let's speak Russian correctly", and give the reader some examples of words often mispronounced or misused. The sign then gives the proper pronunciation or usage and encourages the reader to be more respectful of the mother tongue and take the time to speak properly.

This is an example of the pride Russians take in their language and an indication of how seriously they take it. On the other hand, I have found that my friends here are very tolerant with the missionaries and myself when we try to speak Russian. I think there is a strong pride in being able to speak Russian at all and particularly to speak it properly.

Today we took the McCauleys on a shopping tour to several markets and a mall. Yulia, the 20-something accountant came with us along with President Yuri Gushchin, our driver. Yulia is a terrific young lady, beautiful in appearance and spirit. We love her and will miss her a lot.

While waiting in the checkout line we were all saying "привет" (previet) and "здравствуйте" (zdrasfitya) which are all forms of "hello". Yulia turned to me and quite seriously said, " The baby does not speak Russian yet". You and I would say, "The baby does not speak yet", but for her it was important that the baby did not speak Russian yet.

I love this genuine interest and pride in speaking their language and doing so properly. As I tell Sister Cindy all of the time, "Words have meaning" and we need to use them properly. I am so sick of "thingey" and "stuff" and "way" (as in way cool). I even heard an elder at English Club teaching the conjugation of the word "way" as in "It is way cold", "Yesterday it was wayer cold" and "Tomorrow will be the wayest cold ever". Things have names, words have proper uses, meaning comes from agreed usage, and they all contribute to communication.

Thanks to whoever put up the signs and to the effort it promotes. That was way cool.
What a country.
DS

The Problem with Dunkin' Cookies

The Problem with Dunkin' Cookies
Weather --Light snow and overcast
Temp -- plus 39F Wind --light 3-5 mph

The mission office is a mixture of solemn seriousness interspersed with goofy laughter. We need the laughter to break the tension caused by some pretty serious issues we deal with every day, all day, like when Elder So-and-so came back from his visa renewal trip and threw away his airline ticket before surrendering his passport to Olga to get registered in Novosibirsk. That ticket is necessary to prove that he actually CAME into the country and without it, he could be deported, fined, or jailed for being here illegally, or, when Sister What's-her-name didn't notice that the passport check officer in the Moscow airport port-of-entry didn't stamp her passport and she is now in the country without proof of legal entry, or, when the elders in Barnaul on their way home after English Club got beat-up by a gang of young thugs, or, the time the two Elders who went to Astana, Kazakhstan for a visa renewal couldn't get their Russian visas from the embassy because of a series of unfortunate events and were stranded there for over two weeks in the care of a Humanitarian Couple. Well, you get the idea.

To break the tension, we have to laugh from time to time. Above, one of the elders got a package from home and among the other emergency essentials the family sent there was a set of Ninja Turtle masks. I came around the corner into the "computer room" to find them sporting the masks and quoting Ninjaturtleisms to one another from the TV show that they thought quite funny.

In between emergencies, Sister Cindy laughs a lot in the office with the staff, especially with the elders, (she really enjoys them) but I rarely catch her in a real guffaw. However, twice I happened to be on scene when she really lost it and I caught it on camera.

Sometime in late November of 2008 she and her Travel Secretary Elder Watson were talking about something and his cell phone rang. For some reason she had to answer a question regarding the call and took his phone. (Not so funny yet, right?)

Above, as I sat around the corner with my camera, he is trying to explain what happened in a somewhat calm, collected manner while Sister Cindy is convulsing with laughter across the aisle.

It seems that when she finished the call, they were laughing about something and they both got distracted while she was handing back the phone. He didn't get a good grip on it and it fell between them. Watching it fall, she adroitly extended her foot to keep it from falling on the floor and timed it just right to actually give it a good soccer kick and sent it flying in five pieces.

 For some reason that struck both of them funny and they lost it. I was busy working my stubby fingers to the bone, with my camera in hand, and came around the corner into the foyer to see what was so funny. As they tried to explain it they both lost it again. While Elder Watson reassembled the phone she continued to laugh.
 
Incident number two, Sister Cindy likes to dunk her cookie in milk. One Family Night when we had the elders and their investigator over for dinner, FHE,  and the requisite game, she served some homemade chocolate chip cookies and provided herself, and all who wished to dunk, a cup of  milk. She likes the wide opening of the cup because she can get a good dunk and not get her hand stuck in the glass.

 Above she is demonstrating the manual dexterity she inherited from her baseball-playing father by dunking while managing her Phase 10 cards. All of a sudden, disaster strikes; she lost her cookie. Amid some little embarrassment and an apology for having to fish her cookie out of the cup, she begins to laugh.

After fishing her cookie out of the cup and downing it quickly, she pauses momentarily to gain her composure and play a card. Taking a new cookie, she makes another attempt at a dunk. You guessed it; dropped the second cookie. If you click on the picture you can see the floating cookie number two.

By this time, everyone at the table played another card while breathlessly awaiting a successful dunk.  After fishing cookie number two out of the cup, and eating it, she takes a moment to compose herself before making the final assault on the cup.

Well, as fate would have it, I missed the final and successful dunk and had to be content with this final picture below of Sister Cindy confidently relaxed and fully composed at the opposite end of the table after finally achieving a perfect dunk. I, on the other hand had to be satisfied with simply drinking my milk with my non-chocolate chip cookie, especially made by Sister Cindy because I don't like chocolate chips.

This is the last of the list of blogs that I intended to write over the months and never got to it. The writing may taper off now as I finish the projects I have on my list. The things left on the list are to finish creating the game I have started to introduce to our friends and to sort, cleanup, and categorize the pictures so that we are prepared to use them if we are ever asked to talk to a group about our mission.

Thank you for following this blog and I hope you will check in from time to time to see if anything else has popped from my fertile mind.

What a companion. What a country
DS

A Patriot's Dream 4/4/2010

A Patriot's Dream 4/4/2010
Weather--Overcast, still cold, warming
Temp-- plus 36 F Wind--calm

Yesterday while looking for something to watch while I did my morning exercise (that is what's so hard about exercise, it is mind-numbingly boring) I came across the archive copy of the 2008 Utah Freedom Festival on BYU TV featuring Glenn Beck as the main speaker. I WAS BLOWN AWAY.

Not so much by the program, although that was terrific and I follow Glenn Beck (although I think the few times I have listened to his radio show on the internet it was too silly for me), I did not realize how I would be effected by the flag . . . and the music . . . and the whole idea of people getting together to celebrate their freedom . . . . and the whole idea of home. I stood there for several minutes, tears running down my face and just felt . . . just felt home . . . just longed for home.

I will apologize to my Russian friends right now for what I am about to say and hope they will forgive me for my open love for my home. Please forgive me. I love you. I love you collectively. I love you individually as we have become acquainted and with some have become close. I love you. I have loved being here with you.  I have loved my experiences here and will treasure the memories of my time here with you and my privilege to serve here, but this is not home.

I don't know if you have ever lived elsewhere and longed to be back in Russia, I don't know if you have ever felt a longing for home no matter where home is, but I have and I do, and that 20 minutes or so of looking at home stirred in me feelings that I have put away somewhere for the last 22 months. I cannot afford to dwell on them and will put them back away for another 4 weeks, but for those few minutes they were all-consuming.

I long to be where I have choices, almost unlimited choices. I long to be where birth is less of an issue than talent. Where who I know is less important than what I know. I long to be where freedom to choose is still the prime directive and where I can be, do, go, get, give, run, stand, lay, look, picture, serve, laugh, cry, love, be loved, and just be, without fear.

Some will say that America is not what it used to be or that it never was what it was purported to be or that it is all an illusion. Well, some of that may have a kernel of truth, and for some it may not have been true at all. But for me is was and still is. My ancestors read the signs that "Irish need not apply". My ancestors were driven from Kirtland, Nauvoo, Independence, Spring Hill, Haun's Mill, Far West, but over time truth, honesty, law, and justice have caught up with all of us and the wrongs get righted and the wounded get healed, and the evil punish themselves.

America is not perfect. America is not Zion (yet). America has lost something precious over the last two years, but with whatever faults exists, America is not only my home, it is the greatest, most generous, most free place I know of. People are still coming over, under, and around our borders to get into America for a very good reason. America is not perfect, but it is way above whatever is in second place.

One of the greatest things about America is the right to make changes in it. I strongly object to some of the changes that have been made recently and I glory in the opportunity to change it back. Some of those who voted for those changes have had second thoughts; and even repented. That is what America is for me . . . an opportunity to make it better. Heavenly Father protected it while it was growing and as long as the majority of us honored Him He blessed it. I am afraid He has withdrawn somewhat from it and I for one am going to try to help my fellow Americans show Him that most of us still honor Him.

I love the people I've met in Russia and I will always love them. They are my friends and my brothers and sisters. We are more alike than we are different and that gives me hope for the future. Bloom where you are planted. God bless you my friends.  God WILL bless you my friends as you love and serve Him. Love one another and keep the faith. Hold one another up until the Savior comes. I love you . . . I'm just ready to go home.

What a country.
DS

Winter is Reluctant to Let Go of Novosibirsk

Winter is Reluctant to Let Go of Novosibirsk
Weather -- overcast, light wind, warming
Temp -- plus 36F Wind -- 3-5 mph

April first and the melt is on; again. Here I am in my winter duds, wearing my scarf "Siberian Style" with my fur collar around my neck and my shapka down to my eyebrows. 

In mid-March the temperature got up to the mid 40's and everything began to get soft and/or melt. That lasted 4 days, enough to get a good melt started. Then it snowed for 4 days and then the temperature dropped into the 20's and whatever was melted froze into a solid sheet of ice. Novosibirsk became a huge ice skating rink with people slippin' and slidin' from площадь Ленинa (Ploshad Lenina) Lenin Plaza at the city center to площадь Марксa (Ploshad Marksa) Plaza Marx at the left bank Metro terminus.

It stayed that way for a week or so and then we hit the 30's and the ice began to get really slick with a sheen of water on it. Then last week the snow came again and we were back to the high 20's. Finally this week we have had 3 days of high 30's and the water is flowing again. Below is our office driveway with the ice partially melted (about a foot thick) and the water flowing from beneath it.

It is interesting to contemplate the various things that have been contributed to the water that now splashes from passing cars and collects in puddles that you must traverse on the way to and from. Surely it contains the auto component, the dog component, the trash component, the human component, and whatever is actually seeping up from the ground as it mixes with the flowing surface water.

 The trash component is huge. All winter stuff accumulates around the neighborhood and is then buried with snow that becomes encased in ice and remains out of sight until the melt. As the ice recedes and the waters flow, the hidden becomes known and what was not picked up last fall or winter now becomes a project. The snow removal department and the ice chippers do a very good job keeping the major thoroughfares clear and as the snow stops falling and the main roads are passable, they start on the smaller roads and even  parking lots. One morning last week we awoke to the sounds of a snowplow breaking up the ice in our parking lot and moving it into piles. You always know when the weather has been clear, the machinery gets closer to home.

Another contemplation is the question of, "where does it all go?" The storm-drain system is full of the sand they spread on the ice for traction and as Sister Woodhouse can attest, it is full of a lot of trash as well. You remember that she was the one who stepped into an open storm drain one night while leaving our house on her way with Sister Boggs and a recent convert, Anya, to English Club. There WAS enough room for her to go down past her waist, but I can see the trash piled up in there to stop the water. So where does it go? There is no sign that it flows in any systematic way to the river. The drains don't work. Closer to the office we DID see several sink holes that formed last spring and there was significant water flowing underground there to create quite a hole. The ground must be saturated pretty quickly, and evaporation is a little slow; a mystery.

When you are little and the snow gets icy, it is hard to find a place to play outside. Here a mother and toddler are trying to get some outside time and it's tough finding something to dig in or slide down. Having a young child in an apartment is like having a large dog. They both need to get outside during the day and just run around. It surely strains a mother's patience to have such an "animal" on the loose in a 800 sq. ft. apartment.

Here the water has melted and frozen again. This can be really dangerous for us older folk. We don't bounce like the young ones and we hit with a thud. The only time I have fallen (knock on wood) during our whole mission was as we were coming down the stairs from the hill upon which is the Zolani Kulola building (green roof) where the 1st and 2nd branches meet. The stairs have two sets of about 30 steps that end at street level. Then you make a 90 degree turn to the right and walk about 200 feet to the Metro entry. As we turned the corner ( the only time I wasn't wearing my shoe chains) I slipped on the ice on a little incline and took out Sister Cindy like a 7-10 pin split (bowling term) and we both went down in a heap. Fortunately, 5-6 of the YSA girls were with us and got us on our feet. I cracked a rib on Sister Cindy's bag that I had on my right shoulder, but otherwise we survived.


When the melt is in full sway, this is what we have in several spots along our route from home to the office. Some creative Russian has laid some pallets against the fence and they stay there all year just for the month or so that we have the spring flood. Why not?

If you aren't fast enough getting across the street or watching carefully you get some of that interesting water on your nice clean пальто (palto) and I'm sure it will eat a hole in it before I get home.

But for Russians, and particularly Siberians, any hint of sun and thaw is time for a bar-b-q and shish-kebab is the order of the day. They call it шашлык (sashlik and it is usually beef and veggies on a steel rod cooked over coals. Very ethnic.


The melt is what the Siberians hate almost as much as the winter. The good thing about winter is that it is not so messy. The bad thing is that it's "DARN COLD". The bad thing about the melt is the mess. The good thing is that summer is coming and there is hope for a time to thaw out and rest up for the next winter.

Finally, I just love this picture. It is Elder Wilson and Elder Baird in front of their передняя дверь (front door) that did not close all the way during the winter. The moist air from the building's interior leaked out all winter and formed ice crystals on the under-side of their entry awning as you see here. You can just imagine what the melt will do to that.

Winter is brutal; the melt is just a last reminder that man is nothing in the face of nature. We can prepare for it and even endure it, but we cannot control it. Once the melt is past we will enjoy five months of reasonable weather and freedom.

For our missionaries, this begins the time when they can contact people on the street and have a hope that they will stop and listen. It is hard to concentrate on a gospel message at -37F.

The melt is also the reason that Siberian Russians take off their shoes when they come into a house or apartment and they always head straight for the bathroom to wash their hands. This is a dirty place and you have to have these traditions, habits, to keep any semblance of cleanliness.

What a country.
DS

One of the great families of Novosibirsk

One of the great families of Novosibirsk
Weather -- Slight overcast, cold, mild wind
Temp -- Plus 20F
Wind -- 3-5 mph

Meet the Savchuks, one of the really great families of Novosibirsk. Father is Victor, mother is Nina, daughters are 21 year old Galia and 18 year old Dasha. We said good-bye to them after dinner and a round of Phase 10. As I closed the door Sister Cindy said what I was thinking. "There's a family we should have gotten better acquainted with a year ago. They would have done things with us." They are some of the nicest people we have met anywhere; just genuinely nice people.

Victor was the last of the family to join the Church, getting baptized in 2006. First was momma, Nina, who met the missionaries at her door in the 1990's when the church in Novosibirsk was totally run by the missionaries and they had many small branches scattered around the city. Later Galia and Dasha were baptized when old enough and now Victor has made the family complete.

At dinner, Victor talked about the various jobs he has had over the years. He said there were 10 different jobs, starting with his work in a factory that made components for the Soviet space effort. It was there that he met Nina who worked in the same factory. They both were in a back-packing club organized at the factory. I believe he started as an electrical engineer and continued in that general category for several job changes.

Next he worked at a gold mining site in the Yakutia area of north-central Russia, then worked in the same general area for a diamond mining project. Both government projects during the Soviet period. Later he continued in other jobs using his electrical expertise, turning to home building, large building construction, and now has turned a photography hobby into a business where he now has contracts with schools to take class pictures all over Novosibirsk. He is a smart, capable man with the willingness to succeed.

A few months ago we had Victor to our home with an investigator to meet with the elders. The lesson went OK, but when Victor started to tell his conversion story and bear his testimony of what the Gospel and the Church had done for his family, the meeting came alive and the Holy Ghost was talking. That was the first time I had heard him talk, through a translator, and was I impressed.

The family took a road trip last summer that would put our US road trips to shame. It is like comparing a road trip on the Big Island of Hawaii to one on the mainland. In short, they drove from Novosibirsk to Helsinki to be in the Temple for only the second time. They were sealed as a family in May of 2007. That's 4311 km one way, or 2675 miles. That's 5 thousand miles by car; Yikes! Galia got to drive in the country, but papa drove in the cities. That's quite a commitment for four people in a sedan.

Galia and Dasha are two of my favorite people. They are beautiful outside and inside. Above they are the ones kneeling on the left and standing on the left. Below, Galia is sitting front right. They are open, friendly, kind, smart, and a lot of fun. They are two of the bright lights I will miss.

What a family. What a country.
DS

The Lost and Found

The Lost and Found
Weather -- Bright and sunny this morning, now beginning to cloud over

Temp -- plus 20F Wing 5-7 mph

This morning I was cleaning up my computer desktop and came across this post I never completed. It was from April 2009 and I wanted to save it here rather than trashing it.

Tonight we had the Zone Leaders, Olga (office), President Chudinov, Lena (first branch), and President Gushchin for dinner to celebrate Jesus birthday and the birthday of the church. It was not a kosher meal, but it was worthy of the celebration with salad, pork chops, buttered noodles, asparagus, rolls, butter, and jam.

After dinner we had a lesson from the elders on Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection. I contributed some answers to two questions, “Why do we have Christmas on December 25^th”, and Is the evergreen tree a pagan symbol. The first, about the date was quite simple. Constantine tried to unite the Roman Empire with Christianity by meshing Christian holidays with the old pagan calendar of festivals. The end of the year celebrations were ideal for celebrating Jesus’ birthday and Christmas was born.

As for the evergreen tree, "yes" it was pagan at first as a symbol of life in mid winter at the winter solstice but was combined with Christmas as the symbol of Christ’s living and resurrection.

After the lesson we had dessert and while eating, the elders started on a discussion of how bad their apartment was and how they would like to move into the building where the Assistants and the Office Elders live, called “The Palace” because it is so large. After about 5 minutes of the virtues of the Palace and the shortcomings of their current apartment, Elder Bindrup said that they were going to look at it tomorrow and I said not to get too excited about it because both of you will someday be transferred and moving into better digs would not benefit them. Then Elder Bindrup made the fatal slip, saying, ” Well, I wouldn’t just go there and buy it”. I smiled and quietly interjected, “you are not going to buy anything”, meaning that I make those decisions. That caught him off guard and he was speechless for a few moments. Then we all laughed and had fun with that little play of words.

What a country.

DS

The 1,000,000th visitor

The 1,000,000th visitor
Weather -- Warming, overcast, melting
Temp--plus 40F Wind--3-5 mph

When I began this blog, I intended it for family and a few friends around the country. I never dreamed that other people would want to read about our experiences in Novosibirsk. I guess we each think that our lives are uninteresting and that no one would care, but the truth is that everyone's life is interesting and full of stories with life-lessons, humor, pathos, sorrows and joys. The blog has certainly changed from what I intended, and once people began to tell their friends and friends told friends, and the online Mission Moms group found it, the hits keep on coming.

Around September of 2008 I began to learn about Blogspot and some interesting things I could put on the blog. I am very ignorant of this technology so everything was an adventure. Among other things I found a counter that could be put on it to tell me how many looks I received and I expected that it would be maybe 100 a month. You can see the counter on the left side under our picture.

I kinda lost track of it until Christmas time and when I happened to look at the counter in December it was about 80,000. I was stunned! It was at that moment that I became aware of the exposure this blog might have and that I needed to be careful that what I put on it was factual when I was talking about anything serious because people from all over were reading about us, our mission activities, and the people of Russia that we met here. I certainly didn't want to give anyone an incorrect impression, so I tried from that point to be factual and even-handed with any comments about events here. I hope that I have succeeded.

Occasionally, I checked the counter over 2009 and saw that the speed of the hits kept increasing. At first there might be 1,000 a month and now it runs about 10,000 a week. I just don't know what to do with that. It is amazing that so many people around the world have read, and apparently continue to read what comes out of our experiences or out of my imagination.

I have enjoyed reading the comments from the readers. Some members of the on-line missionary moms group read it to keep up on life in the mission. Even young men who are called to Russia and are preparing to go to the MTC have read it. Some of them have even come to Novosibirsk and left comments. Many of the young members here in Novo have read it, but none have commented that I know of. Several comments have been made by Russians that I don't know, but wish that I did. The readership is diverse geographically, demographically, and in some way very random.

Thirty-five people have registered as followers and even that blows me away. Even though most of them don't leave comments, apparently they read it and get something out of it, which is really gratifying. For people to come back means something, doesn't it?

I will close this rambling with thanks to you all who have read this blog over the past almost two years. We will be going home in April and the accounts of our adventure will of course cease. However, I like to write and maybe I would decide to start some kind of general blog to air my ramblings.

In the mean time, I would like to say a big welcome to the one millionth visitor. I never imagined that you would exist and I am stunned by our existence, but I love you and hope that the time you spent here was worth your effort.

We still have a month to go and will continue to write about our mission in this country and specifically this city as the snow melts and spring approaches.


What a country.
DS