Happy Women's Day

Hello everyone!

Happy Women’s Day. This is the Russian equivalent of Mothers Day, and it is a great day, where basically all the men give all the women flowers and cards. It is a bit like Valentines Day, but for everyone, and it is a public holiday and everything. It should be good fun.

Well, this week things have changed a little in our flat. My landlady’s daughter and her family have been staying, as their bathroom has been undergoing “remont” – the general word here for either repair, redecorating, rebuilding, which can be used for anything from clothes to buildings. That has mostly involved her granddaughter Masha, who is 10, and has been off school with sinus problems being home. It has been very funny, especially as she walks around a bit like a model, will disappear up the stairs, and reappear with a completely different hairstyle. There has been the odd tantrum as well, but it is good having more people around. I was asked to speak a bit off English to her, as she has started studying it, so I tried out a “Good Night” the other day, to see what she would understand. She looked a bit confused, and I think she has been avoiding me since…

On to some happy news now. We spent a great weekend in Helsinki (with a few precious hours playing monopoly, because we were locked out of our hostel room as the lock broke, and they had to call out the key company to fix it) and returned to a six month registration. That was what we had been hoping for, and it means we can stay here until the end of the summer project in mid July. Wahooo!

Helsinki was really nice. It was good to get away for a short time, and it was interesting to see another city. We didn’t have time to see very much, and everything seemed to be closed on the Sunday anyway, but we did make it into a few churches, and had a good explore outside, as well as the aforementioned Monopoly. Most of what we did seemed to revolve around food, which was good too – we found a really lovely café, with amazing pastries, and also a noodle bar. It was nice to go out to eat something that wasn’t either a burger, pancakes or sushi!! We got there by train, which was good as the customs people board the train, and so you don’t waste any time there. It was really comfortable, and we even managed to watch the whole of the long version of Pride and Prejudice on the way…

Talking of Pride and Prejudice, the first session hasn’t happened yet, as it turned out that the girls couldn’t come last week, and we haven’t yet pinned down a time when they can all make it. Hopefully we can do it some time this weekend. Ministry-wise, it has been a quieter week, as we had to recover from the weekend, but I went to an Orthodox church youth group on Thursday night, with a girl named Olga. It was really interesting, as it is the week before Lent starts here – the whole week is a festival where the idea is that everyone eats lots of pancakes. Mmmm. The East Asian girls group happened as usual, and apparently an Evening for Hungry Men was a success again, with spiritual conversations sparking off everywhere, without the boys even putting in any special effort!

Right, time to go, as I need to go to the other flat, where a Women’s Day breakfast awaits…

Have a good week

Lots of love

Sarah

xxx