The group

On Wednesday night, there was a gathering of friends at Maxim and Roman's apartment for prayer and dinner.  What a great group of guys.  HERE are a few pictures.

It is so good when brothers gather in peace!  The psalmist was absolutely correct.  I had some rather deep conversations with the guys, mostly about relationships and relationship problems. The evening sped by and before we knew it, once again it was after 11 and time to go to the apartment to stay up too late.

Tuesday - Declaration of Roman Day

I had a slow day on Tuesday, walking around, communicating by email with friends from the region and just walking around my neighborhood.  I'm fascinated by the variety of ethnic faces.  There are many kinds of people here and all are wonderful to people-watch.

Tuesday evening, Roman, Maim and I went to an ethnic Kyrgyz traditional restaurant.  It was crowded with people enjoying life and celebrations.  We were celebrating Roman.  He is a great guy and sometimes under-appreciated.  The restaurant was large and lively with a dance floor, already crowded with revelers.

We looked at the menu for a long time and then decided.  We ordered 300ml of vodka, enough to have three rounds of toasts in the course of our meal.  For appetizers we had a selection of sushi, and what's called "vodka appetizers".  The vodka appetizers were two kinds:  think round sections of horse intestines and horse meat sausage (a ring of half horse meat, half horse fat). We cleared the appetizers and drank our first toast.  Then we had a salad and our separate dishes:  Maxim got a steak, it was a porterhouse, Roman got salmon, and I got a Kyrgyz dish that was kind of like lo mein.  We drank a second toast.  Through the whole meal the music was bright and lively and we were all kind of dancing in our seats.  We finished the meal with a kind of chocolate cake with walnuts, not very sweet, and tea or coffee and had our third and final toast.

Roman was the man of the hour and got to make decrees.  It was a lot of fun.

We left the restaurant after 11 and once again, I was up till well after midnight.

travel day - to Bishkek

I was in the lobby of the hotel by 4:25 to allow time to catch up on email before the taxi came at 5.  The taxi came at 4:35.  I was at Sheremet'evo by 5:15.  I found a coffee shop and got a cappuccino - a large cappuccino.  The woman working the register and the barista were both really friendly for that hour of the morning.  The security didn't open until 6 so I waited with a bunch of people in front of the security gates.  When we got through, I set of the alarm because I hadn't taken my ipod out of my shirt pocket.  The woman was nice about it.

My flight to Bishkek boarded at around 8:30 and took off on time.  It was a three and a half hour flight.  The further east you go, the more different plane food is.  For breakfast, we had a salad with a piece of smoked whitefish, with a packet of mayonaisse for dressing, and an omelet with a piece of broccoli deep fried in batter.  It was delicious.  I'm getting used to fish turning up when I least expect it.

We got in a bit early.  We flew in over Kazakhstan and it was very dry and desert-like.  I cleared passport control and customs in minutes and looked for Maxim.  No Maxim.  I got a text from Roman welcoming me and telling me Maxim was running late.  I tried to find an ATM (Bankomat) but could only find ones that took Visa but I needed Mastercard.  I finally gave up and used my Visa credit card to get some cash.  I prefer to use my debit card.

Maxim came and we grabbed a taxi.  On the way into the city of Bishkek (about 30 minutes) the view of the mountains was magnificent. (The mountains are  the Kyrgyz Ala-Too range, an extension of the Tian Shan mountain range, which rises up to 4,855 meters (15,928 ft))

Maxim took me to the apartment he found for me.  It's right in the center and is light and airy and really clean.  The owner was there to get paid and give me the keys.  We went out to a market so I could stock up on essentials for the week, had tea, and then went to Max and Roman's apartment where Roman was preparing green borsch.  It was an interesting process to see so many good healthy ingredients go in.  The main green ingredient was sorrel, a green leafy vegetable we don't use much in the US.  The end result was incredible.  I've eaten green borsh in the home of green borsh (Lviv, in Western Ukraine) but Roman's was the best I ever had.

I took a taxi back to my apartment about 11 and was up till well after midnight getting settled, drinking tea and enjoying internet access.

Sunday - final day of conference.

Sunday morning was quite cool at the conference center and we had to get packed before events started for the day.  I met a small group at 8:20 for a half hour of morning prayers before breakfast.  There was oatmeal at breakfast - hooray!

Worship started at 10.  Bishop Vladimir decided to use long form for worship (Liturgy of St. Basil).  I persuaded him to turn the table we used as altar so we were standing facing the people instead of with our backs to them, and to have at least one woman reading scripture which isn't seen in the Orthodox churches here.  I also suggested having a Dutch minister preach.

After the scriptures, the Bishop went right on with the liturgy so I reminded him that we were having a sermon and we did.  After the sermon, we had the wedding of Misha and Denys.  I had spent an hour with them on Saturday evening when Denys arrived.  I showed them how to write their own vows and suggested that they not show them to each other before the ceremony.  They looked right into each others eyes as they read their vows.  Their sincerity and devotion to each other was so strong that there wasn't a dry eye in the house, including mine.

Then the Bishop went on with liturgy which took almost 3 hours by the time he was finished.  There had been two hours alloted for Sunday worship.

After a brief coffee break, we had our closing session and with lots of hugs, people began to scatter.  At 3 o'clock, those of us going back into Moscow got on the bus.  A reporter from the English language Moscow newspaper had been with us Sunday morning.  He interviewed me briefly and I couldn't place his accent.  On the bus, I found out that he was from Boston, grew up in Waltham.  We had a great talk about our home city.

Yury had arranged a bus tour of Moscow from 5-7.  Our big bus dropped us off in the middle of Moscow with our luggage.  We were supposed to have another smaller bus immediately.  Well, it didn't come and didn't come.  We left some folks with all the luggage and found a coffee shop.  The bus finally came at 6:30 when it was too dark to take good pictures.  I left the group at the Kremlin because it was a short walk to my hotel.

I dropped my bag and went out to a good coffee shop in the neighborhood to get a cappuccino and a ham and cheese sandwich.  Then I sat in the lobby and caught up on email.  It was after 10pm by that time and my taxi was coming at 5 to take me to the airport on Monday morning.

Some photos of the conference and Moscow are HERE.

Saturday - another long day

We began the day with a half hour prayer meeting and then over to breakfast.  A group of 400 youngsters (early 20's) arrived which makes the dining room way overcrowded.  They are like a horde of locusts descending on a fertile field.  Being that young, they inhale their food and go as rapidly as they arrived.  It still makes finding room for our group of 40 a challenge.

We had workshops all day.  I skipped out on the workshop right after lunch so I could take a nap, which I did.  I rejoined the group for the 5pm workshop and have stayed.  I just ducked out a little so I can get this internet access then I'll go back to the singing.  A VERY talented woman arrived with her guitar to entertain us.  She has a pleasant voice and sings some very funny songs.

I met just after supper with Michael and Dennis whose wedding I will conduct during tomorrow's two hour morning worship.  They are such a good couple.  They both teared up during our discussion of the wedding and the ceremony.

Friday late afternoon - great conference

We had a full afternoon of workshops.  Willie from Holland, a Reform Church pastor, gave a wonderful workshop on Queer Theology and Reading the Bible.  It was clear and orderly.  there was good dialogue and excellent questions and comments.  I decided to skip the next workshop when I heard there was now hot water in our building.  I came back to my room and took a nice long warm shower and washed my hair.  Now I'm catching up on this blog.

There is only internet service from the main building.  I've been in withdrawal all day.  You know how I start feeling crazy when I don't know what's happening with my peeps!  Sometime before bed I'll go over and get online to post this blog online and put up some pictures from my walking tour of Moscow.

I have a workshop at 8pm on what church needs to look like in Eastern Europe and then there's a movie.  I'll probably skip the movie and seek an internet wifi signal.

Late Friday night.  Before I went down to supper, I put on my Orthodox cassock and outer cassock because I wanted to wear it for my presentation. It's raining lightly and isn't very cool out.  It's after 11 and we just finished our evening activities.  I gave my 8pm presentation to a packed room. It was a good session and well-received.

We all hung out and several groups set out display tables about their country and organizations.  a bottle or six of wine made way around the tables and several started dancing to various music.  It was so fun to watch.  A Ukrainian group presented me with a jar of home-made blackberry jam, specialty of Krivoy Rog.  A singer song-writer gave me his CD as a gift.  He will perform several songs tomorrow during one of our sessions.  I got to know several people I hadn't met before and couldn't believe it got to 11 so quickly.

It was a really good day, even if I am still in internet shock from not being connected.

Tomorrow promises to be a really long day too.

I walked back through the rain to my building.

Friday morning at the conference center

The food here is plentiful and varied, probably not to the taste of many who read this.  I had buckwheat groats for breakfast (hot cereal) not sweetened, eggs with hot dogs, a kind of pudding with raisins and sweet cheese and a roll with cherry jam, and, unfortunately, instant coffee.

The morning sessions were great.  We had introductory speeches, the first by a representative from the US Embassy who spoke lightly accented, very fluent, Russian.  I gave one of the greetings.

We had a brief worship service and then some ice-breakers.  We stood in two circles, the inner facing the outer.  for 15 seconds we introduced ourselves to the person in front of us and they to us, then a bell rang and the inner circle moved one step and we repeated with the new person.  It was really good.  We did other excercises that included movement and hugs and getting-acquainted exercises.

We had a sermon after that and broke for a walk before lunch.  I'll spare you the details of the lunch menu but it suited me fine, including the liver chunks in liver-flavored gravy.

I'm getting ready for the afternoon session.  Oh, we still have no hot water.

Thursday - Comedy of Errors

HERE is a link to the pictures I took yesterday.

While I was waiting to be met at the hotel, I walked down the street where I had seen a lot of coffee shops.  I found one whose name was in English called Coffeeshop Company and went in.  It was pleasant and clean and the waitstaff had black slacks and shirts with the logo and a banzai type headband.  I don't exactly know what look they were going for.

I had a large cappucino which was served in a glass rather than cup.  Then I had a second.  It was after noon and I hadn't had coffee yet.  The coffee machine in the breakfast room at the hotel was out of service.  I'll go back to this coffee shop on Sunday evening when I'm back in Moscow.

It turned out that the guy who came to meet me, Michael, was someone I knew.  In fact on Sunday I will officiate at his wedding to his partner.  There were three folks from Holland with him. Willie, Annemarie, and Diane, living in Holland but from Malta.  We walked to the Metro, took the train to our general meetingplace and waited for the private bus that would take us to the conference hotel, 30 kilometers outside of Moscow.  The group gathered to wait in front of the train station.  It was good to greet old friends as they arrived.  I was especially glad to see Bishop Vladimir and his friend, Ivan, who came by train from Kiev.

The bus was pretty nice but it was an endless stop-and-go trip through horrible Moscow rush hour traffic.  We finally arrived at the hotel which is in an area surrounded by country and trees.  Nice.  The air was fresh and nicely cool after a way too hot bus ride.

We hurried up to wait at reception.  Finally we got our room assignments and shlepped over to another building to wait some more before we got keys to our rooms.  I got settled in my room (three single beds but only me in the room).  We gathered in the lobby and walked to yet another building for supper.  After supper we went back to the building we were sleeping in and finished registration.  All of this hanging around gave me a chance to visit with people I didn't know.  A really nice young woman introduced herself shyly as Anna from Minsk, Belarus.  She spent a little while telling me why I had to come to Minsk next year.

After supper we went back to our rooms.  It was getting to be late.  We were so sooner in our rooms than we were summoned to the lobby.  It seems that there was no hot water in our building so we had to move.  So we took our luggage and went through the dark to another building - and waited.  After about half an hour we were told.  "Well, never mind, we should go back to the building with no hot water and they'd fix it in the morning."  So once again we gathered in a lobby waiting for our keys to be given back and then went to the rooms that had originally been assigned to us.  It took me two minutes to crash.  Someone knocked loudly on my door saying some incomprehensible thing which I decided to ignore and went to sleep.

What a day.

In the heart of darkness

Growing up during the Cold War really established some old tapes about Russia - the evil empire.  I never wanted to come to Russia and now, that I'm here, I don't know why.  It's an interesting city, not that I've seen much yet.

I didn't sleep well at all last night.  I was anxious about coming here.  Jenia and Kate were supposed to pick me up at 8:45 but really arrived at 9:20.  My flight was 11:25.  They got there, all happy and newly-married.  We got to the airport (Boryspil) at around 10 and by 10:15, I was all checked in, had gone through security/passport control and was at the gate.  I never flew Aeroflot before.

The plane was an Airbus A 321, kind of old, the seat cushions had gotten thin.  It was kind of a full flight.   As we were waiting for take-off, they piped in music.  I almost fell out of my seat.  All of a sudden I was listening to a very country-western version of the old hymn "How Great Thou Art."  Oy!

Lunch was a sandwich, a box of apple juice and coffee with milk.  The sandwich was on a roll and the filling was not tuna fish but salmon.  I've never had a salmon salad sandwich before.  It wasn't bad at all.  It wasn't great either.

The flight only took a bit over an hour and landing was really soft.  I made it off the plane, through passport control, through baggage claim in less than 15 minutes.  When I exited customs, I saw my name on a card held by Olga, who was kind enough to meet me.  We didn't communicate easily but first we took the train into the city, then two different metro lines and then walked to my hotel - Hotel Matreshka.  My room is the size of a closet, with no windows.  It's really small but clean.  I chose this hotel because Moscow is really expensive and I'm only going to be in this hotel one night.  I'm trying to find someone to have dinner with.  I will meet the crew tomorrow at 2 so have this evening and tomorrow morning to sight-see on my own.  I'm quite centrally located so the usual Moscow sights are only about a 10 minute walk.  I hope to get some pictures to post tomorrow morning.

It's quite a bit gloomier and colder than it was in Kiev but no big deal.

So, that's my travel day.

Almost time to travel

It's been a pretty low key several days.  Cool mornings and evenings, pleasantly warm days.  We had thunder and lightning just before light today and I realized that I haven't heard a lot of thunder here.  When it rains, it usually just rains.

I got a text just before 5 last night from my friend, Sergei, asking if I wanted to meet for beer and light supper.  I had just about enough time to walk to our usual meeting place at Metro Khreshchatek.  Instead of going to Shato, which I'm not really fond of because of all the people smoking, we walked up to International Plaza and went to Sunduk.  It wasn't crowded.  We caught up on what we've been doing and it was good to see Sergei relax after a hard day at work.  We ate a Ukrainian specialty.  You probably wouldn't like it.  Quite greasy potato pancakes, topped with fried onions and pieces of pork fat, with sour cream.  I'm almost hesitant to say that I like it a lot.  In the States, I would never eat pieces of fat; in fact, I always trim every piece of visible fat of of meat.  Here it tastes good to me.  Not sure how my arteries feel about it.

I hear that the foliage is approaching peak at home.  We don't much have obvious change of season in Kiev, except for temperature changes and more rain.

It's kind of a tense day among the LGBT community here.  Bill 8711 (which bans "gay propaganda" but which really is just homophobia enshrined into law) will be voted by the Parliament today.  Unless some ploy can defer it, we expect it to be voted into law.

Tomorrow I fly to Moscow.  I have so much cold war propaganda stuck in my head from growing up.  It's temporarily interfering with my pleasure in going to a remarkable city and seeing good friends.

Hope everyone is well.