Julia brought her art supplies with her and so we visited the orphanages and children's homes and a school to teach them a lesson and give them the supplies. We also took some puzzles to the children that my sister-in-law Ruthann had her Young Women's group make. They were a big hit with the children and we had fun being the ones to deliver them.
One of my favorite children, Edik is being adopted by Italians so the teachers cornered Julia and asked her to read to him from an Italian story book. He just looked at her like she was crazy and got distracted really fast! He will have a difficult adjustment but in the long run I am sure it will be a better situation for hm.
The children's home we visited is a couple who have 11 children they are fostering. It was nice to see the progress they have made on their home. They have added a small playground for the children and 3 new windows to keep the heat in better in the winter. They are pretty crowded there at the house, but all seem happy and well adjusted. I do think it is a better setting than the orphanages even if it is cramped!
We took Julia's art lesson to four classes in Nizhni Tagil as well and the students raved about their suprise guest and Engish art lesson. They treated us to lunch afterward in their teachers dining room and it was a beautiful room set up with tablecloths and formal china. The food they prepared was presented beautifully and was tasty as well.

village school

My driver used to work at a village school near our town. It is difficult for the villages to find teachers so the government has made a rule that if a man will go to a village and teach he can skip military service. So Alexei Moroso worked there until he was over the age of military service. I thought it would be interesting for Julia to see so we made arrangements and when we arrived the teachers had made a traditional loaf of welcome bread and the students were standing in the doorway singing and holding out the loaf of bread for us to taste. They were so excited to meet the Americans it was really cute. They took us on a tour of their little log cabin school house. It has two classrooms, a main hall, a kitchen dining area and a room for bringing in water and heating. The school is heated with coal and the teachers have to start the stove every morning and keep it going. There is no indoor plumbing so the students use an outhouse. The water is hauled from the local well. The village has one phone, a store that is open twice a week and a log cabin post office/ city hall. There is a bell in the center of the town to warn villagers in an emergency.
The students invited us to come back in August and go mushroom picking with them. They say their forest has the best mushroom picking of all. They offered to share their lunches with us and showed us their art work. I think Julia enjoyed seeing their lifestyle, but did make the comment she would like to go dunk them all in a bathtub for the afternoon. It is difficult to stay clean I am sure when you have to haul your own water and heat it!

Moscow and St Petersburg

On our way to and from Beijing we visited Moscow and St Petersburg. The Russians in Salda don't like Moscow. They say it is not the real Russia. After having visited there I understand. The amount of wealth in Moscow is ridiculous compared to the rest of Russia.Their priorities and values are very different. They are all in too much of a hurry to be polite. We did enjoy the Kremlin and went to the Ballet, we had some really high quality Russian food and saw some nice museums, but I am glad I don't live there because the people here are much friendlier and down to earth.
St Petersburg though was really nice. It is a university town full of young people. It is very vibrant and full of life. We went to the Hermitage museum and Julia really enjoyed that. We also went to the Russian Museum and to some of the really impressive churches. We took a day trip to Pushkin, a city of Palaces where you can find the Amber Room and Catherine's Palace. It was tricky to do without a tour guide, but fun to try to figure out. St Petersburg doesn't know how to cater to the non-tour-group visitors yet. They just figure everyone there is with a tour group and the operators organize everything for you. So there are a few signs in English, but not enough. We managed to use the Metro and the minibuses without any big problems but it was a bit frustrating. I got a chance to practice my horrible Russian and it was just enough to survive. That's all. It was a few days before Victory Day when they celebrate winning world war two so we were able to watch the rehearsals for the Parade in front of the Hermitage museum. It was very impressive with thousands of troups and a parade of their best artillery. A band and a welcome of the troups by the head of the military. Four days was not enough time to see all of St Petersburg. I look forward to going again with Jill and Britain and Kelly in August.

A side trip to Beijing

Hi We have been on a trip to Beijing with our daughter Julia. It was nice to get away for a few days and leave the snow behind and walk in the sun. We were fortunate to have friends living near Beijing who helped us considerably. We first visited the Temple of Heaven. It a beautiful spot with many retired chinese nationals relaxing, playing games, singing, dancing and just enjoying the beautiful day. The people seemed very happy and had such hopeful faces. It was a very nice way to start our trip.
We then went to the Pearl Market. Crazy bartering everywhere. Gary was loving it. We bought pearls and just enjoyed the ambiance of the halls.
We went to Tianaman square and the forbidden city. What can I say. Really beautiful!
We climbed up to the chairlift to take us to the Great Wall. It was a beautiful day and we walked for a long distance along the wall, exploring the watch towers and visiting with our friends. We took a slide back down the mountain afterwards and bartered for some dried fruit with the local sellers.
Next we went to the silk market where Gary bought a tailored suit for hundred dollars and had 6 shirts made for about 7 dollars each.
We saw the dirt market and the bird's nest stadium from the Olympics and went on the art walk. We even managed to get two foot massages and try a little street food. It was a very full four days! My Aunt Francis loved China so that, plus Gary's trips really sparked my curiousity and am tickled that we finally had the opportunity!

A day with the Orphans

Today I visited several childrens homes in our area. First we went to my favorite children's home in Vagonka and I was very happy to see that my friend Roman has been adopted. Also Edik who is another of my favorites who you can see here all smiling and happy is in process of being adopted. Yeah! They are both beautiful well behaved little boys and I am so glad they now will both have a Mom and Dad.  We played games and sang songs and told stories and put together some puzzles. It was great fun to be there with them. I haven't gone for awhile because the have been under quarentine for something called itching disease. 

Afterwards I met up with Elena and we went to the shelter for runaways that

 Desanagiving sponsers. Those kids are all just lost souls with no direction. They feed them a few meals a week and try to give them counseling. Alexei was with me and he gave the boys a very good lecture about setting goals and not being so self absorbed. Ya gotta luv im! He is always pleasant to take to these places. He says all the stuff I would say if I could speak the language better. 

The biggest of the boys started asking me questions about America. He wanted to know if I knew any black gang members, If it was legal to put graffiti on public places and if I was into hip hop. He was very disapointed with my answers. 

I don't think I am cool enough for him.  They offered to share their lunch with them so I tried a little beet and potato salad. It looked ok, but did not settle well. 

Next we went to the store to buy some groceries with Desanagiving funds and went to visit a graduate of the children's orphanages who has been sent to the village her Mother was from and given the family apartment. She has a small baby. 

It was basically comparable to living in a barn. She had a tiny 2 room place that hasn't been renovated since 1920. No running water, No bathroom. An outhouse. A mattress on the floor. The stove was blocked so she couldn't heat the place because all the smoke came back into the room. The tiny refrigerater wasn't working. She had a hot plate to cook on but has to haul her water from the local pump. I insisted we needed

 to get the stove cleaned so she could build a fire and warm the place. When the people downstairs from her start their fire in their stove all the smoke comes into her little apartment. It has got to be a fire hazard. The whole place is one big tinderblock waiting to go up in smoke. Her babies hands were very cold! I volunteered to pay for the cleaning of the stove. So Elena went to the city hall to see if they could refer us to anyone. They told us they were aware of this girl and her situation. She had been sent to them with about 700 dollars from the state to help her get started. She was young and inexperienced so the woman from city hall tried to help her figure things out. She set her up with a bank account and tried to help. but the girl used the money to buy a small tv and a cell phone and DVD player instead of

 getting the basics for the winter set up. She recieves about 60 dollars a month from the state until her baby is 18 months old. After that she will be completely on her own. She was working as a cook before the baby was born, but now has no one to watch the baby so she can go back to work.  We told her we would like to help get some heat in her house. She said she would see what she could arrange for us. It was a reality check as to what poverty really is.

 Another interesting thing in that little village was the whole look of the place. It had the appearance of being at one time a nice village that fell into disrepair and now is starting to come back to life. Alexi saw a monument and went to look at it. It was a monument to the soldiers from that village that had died in World War II.  1400 Soldiers had died from that village. The village only has about 5 thousand people in it. So it had to have been all the male population of that time. It was a city of widows and orphans. Very sobering to think about.

We then went to the family that has taken in 11 foster children and the woman came to the door completely frazzled. One of the children had fallen and cut his head and her husband was on the way to the hospital with him. She had blood on her arms and was really shaken up. All the children were sitting in the livingroom, very quiet! I was asked to sing some American songs with them. So we did that and I told the story of the boy and his goats with the help of a translator. I had made some snickerdoodles to take to all the places we went to so we shared the cookies and tried to cheer up the kids. 

It was a long day. We tried to spread a little cheer where we went, but it is a bit overwhelming when you see so many people struggling in such a short amount of time. 

Today I am picking up my coat. I took it in to have some real fur added to the collar. The stuff that was on the collar was getting all matted and ugly, but the down coat is still in great condition. Now I am starting to understand why they use real fur here. The weather wears down everything else. They pulled out a big fox pelt for me to look at. The pelt cost 45 dollars and they would only sell me the entire pelt. Not just a piece of it. It was a bit of a shock to see the feet and tail and all attached but I did it anyway. I don't know what I will do with the rest of the pelt. Gary will probably just use it as a means to tease the kitten.

Saturday Drive

We went for a drive on Saturday and walked for awhile up in the forest. It was nice. Gary found our summer home. What do you think?
On the way home we spotted some old antique Russian window frames that were just sitting outside in front of a house, so we stopped and had our driver go to the door and ask him if he would sell them to us. He had four big old window frames and sold them all to us for about 30 dollars. He had put up new siding and windows on his old dacha and had no use for the old window frames. Gary was delighted. We put them on top of the car and then went to a car wash and had them washed and then he took them to work and laid them out to dry. He wants to hang them in his office and put work assignments in them. The Russians who work for him think he is nuts! But you know they really are beautiful old hand made artistic things. The russians don't appreciate that stuff yet, but I think someday they will because all the new things that are going up are just plain without the decorative work. In fifty years all the old windows will disappear. After picking up the windows we spotted smoke coming from the street up the road and went to see what it was and it was an abandoned kindergarten school that had started on fire. All the locals were starting to gather around. No one was doing anything about it though. I guess there is not much you can do when you have to pump the water up from the local well. As we left, the fire trucks all started to come so we were glad to get out of the way. Then we passed a store that makes gravestones and Gary decided to stop by. They etch the dead man's face on the granite and put it on the stone. Gary wants to buy one and take it home. Kind of morbid, but they are nice. He particularly liked the sales lady. He thought she belonged in that job. What you think?