Russia... Day Four

Sorry, camping trip delayed any posting that might have gone on in the last four days...

The events of 7/10/12
Tuesday! This was our first day of going to placements and man were we pumped! My group went to the Leninksy Center. Each district has a center that provides a location for elderly and disabled people to come and interact and play games and get exercise, do crafts, and meet new people. We went to the center in the Leninsky district. Each work day, we would go in the morning to one place and then come back to Home Base for lunch and then head back out to another placement. On this first day, my group was in the same place in the morning and afternoon but we worked with two different groups, the elderly in the morning and then the disabled in the afternoon.

The group of elderly people that we got to work with were great! We shared with them about ourselves (through the translator) and showed them pictures that we had brought of our family and where we lived etc... they all had lots of questions for us, some of which were just silly and maybe even startling. They all wanted to know what it was like where we were from and they also were very interested in what we thought about Russia and if we liked it.

When it was my turn to introduce myself, the first question they asked me was if I was married. When I said no they asked if I had a boy friend and they were completely scandalized when I answered no to that question as well. One lady said that I needed to be married, that it 'was time' and that she would find me a nice Russian husband. I later asked Natasha our translator who is my age and already married about this and she said that Russian woman marry young and really you're considered a lost cause if you're older than 25 and not married. Great!

Armando introduced himself and shared that he really likes to dance, especially salsa. The whole group was fascinated by that and wanted to see him dance. So he turned to me and grabbed my hand and did a little salsa right there in the room with me. Luckily I know the basic step and Mando is a great leader, I just kind of follow by way through it and hoped it looked alright.

We made stationary with the elderly folks. Since I had told everyone that I was an art teacher, they were interested in what I drew on my card and one lady asked me to make one for her. All the ladies thought that Armando was pretty good looking and one even gave him a card with her full name and phone number! We all got a good laugh out of that!

About halfway through our time there they served tea, which was amazing. All the old ladies pulled out their purses, rummaged around in them and brought out hard candy for us to share! So wonderfully typical.

In the afternoon we returned to the same facility to work with the disabled group. It was a much younger group and many of them spoke English so it was easier to interact with them without the use of a translator all the time. We played table games and joked around. I had a great time with them! Sasha, one of the group members, was hilarious. Always cracking jokes! He made me laugh so much!

This first day was difficult because I was nervous about working and about our group and just everything was so new. But I really enjoyed the people I worked with. Our group for the two weeks I was there consisted of; Michelle by roommate. She's an elementary school teacher in Washington DC, probably in her late 30s. This was her second trip to Russia. John Hagen was also in our group, he's the leader of the West Point crew. I thought he was going to be really harsh but really he was mild mannered and easy to talk to. The other older person in our group was Basil, a retired farm-implement maker from New Zealand. Awesome accent! He was super hard to read and most of the time I couldn't tell if he was teasing me or seriously upset with me. Then it was just Armando and me who were in our 20s. We got along really well and I had a great time getting to know him.