Hello everyone!
Well, it probably serves me right for writing that Sping was here, but it is now on the chilly side again, with temperatures around 5 degrees again...hopefully in a couple of weeks things will be better again!
As usual, things have been very busy. Jo and Aaron left about a week and a half ago now - life is very strange without them! My friend Eleanor came to visit for nearly a week (actually I only realised that she wasn't coming for a week a couple of days before, and I had to re-arrange some things...a bit embarrassing really!) We had a really good time, doing some ministry together, some sightseeing and one of the best parts of the week was the introduction to sushi for Eleanor. As I considered this an integral part to life in St Petersburg, I arranged to meet some girls who also life sushi. A good time was had by all, and also an interesting conversation about Russian Easter traditions, such as egg-painting.
The evening after Eleanor had left, we had a girls party. Rather than making cards, this time we decided to decorate photo frames, and we did a journey around Misha and Meredith's flat, finding out about Easter. It was good fun. We had about 20 girls there. It was also a good opportunity for the old Polytech team to get to know the girls from our side of the city, and vice versa.
I have been to the orphanage "The Ark" twice since I last wrote. The first time, we were greeted by a total riot in the boys room, but eventually they calmed down enough to do their homework. They really love working with Indira - they will do almost anything for her - it is amazing to see. I helped with the usual English homework, and then went to play with the little girls. I had completely forgotton how important winning or losing is at that age! Sometimes fights break out there, which are almost as rough as the boys are. One little girl in partucular will play a board game by herself, and even if you play too, she throws the dice for you. She will invent the rules (or even the game) as she goes along - it is hilarious. Yesterday there was a group of us playing a German game, so none of us knew the rules, so it was very creative. I can only stay there for 2 hours, as I have to go home for my language lesson with Anya, but I nearly wasn't able to leave last night, as the girls wanted me to stay so much they were clinging onto my legs... I love going there so much - I wish we could go there more!
This weekend, we are going to Zelonogorsk again, for a sort of retreat/fun weekend away. We are deliberately not planning anything so we will see what happens. Hopefully people will come, they will all have fun, and there will be lots of opportunities to share the Gospel!
Lots of love
Sarah