Wednesday, 06 January 2010 15:34
Russian Orthodox Christmas is tomorrow, but we’ve already celebrated. One of the most exciting parts of our very busy Christmas season was getting to take boxes of gifts to kids at an internat—a boarding school for “social orphans.” Most of Russia’s so-called orphans actually have at least one living parent, but poverty, crime and drug- and alcohol abuse have rendered them unable to take care of their kids. Some have had their parental rights terminated or have given up their kids to orphanages, but in some cases their children live at boarding schools with other kids in similar situations, and go home to visit on weekends. It was to one of these schools that we went, with members of our church, on Christmas Eve.
First though, the church obtained a quantity of shoebox-sized boxes, and we had the fun of shopping to fill them. We agreed with the church that we would fill half the boxes (30) if they would fill the other half. They did this, each family taking one or two and filling them with toys and candy at great sacrifice to themselves: many of them cannot even afford Christmas gifts for their own children.
(Mark and Sarah organize the filling of the boxes)
One of the women in our church is a talented seamstress, and she made beautiful “Grandfather Frost” and “Snegurochka” costumes (again, a 50/50 deal, where we paid for half the costumes and the church paid for the other half. I mention this to show that we are trying to help the church do ministry, instead of just doing it for them.) Grandfather Frost bears a striking resemblance to Santa Clause, although he speaks Russian and is really a 35-year old taxi driver in disguise. Snegurochka, which means “little snow girl” is his pretty granddaughter who always travels with him and helps bring presents to Russian children. (This part was played by the lovely blonde wife of our worship band’s accordion player.)
At the internat, classes were in session, and our group of 6 went around to each classroom, from the 7 year-olds up to the 17-year olds and gave out bags of candy. Grandfather Frost and Snegurochka delivered Christmas greetings and wishes for the new year, and our pastor Volodia told the children the real Christmas story—only a few had heard it before. Then our assistant pastor Vasya gave each child a Wordless Bracelet and explained the Gospel message through it. We sang “Silent Night” for them—accompanied by the very Russian accordion—and moved on. We did all this with the full consent and blessing of the internat director! Pastor Volodia is certain, as are we, that this is a direct answer to prayer, as it’s something that hasn’t been allowed in this city for a long time. In all, we visited nearly 200 children, leaving the 60 boxes we brought for the director to distribute to the poorest of them.
Although we were allowed to photograph each class of students with Grandfather Frost and Snegurochka, I am not including any of the photographs here. We want to be careful not to appear to anyone here to be captializing on less fortunate kids, and to respect their privacy. We did, however, print off the photos and give them to the internat as a gift.
The next day, Christmas night, our church threw a big Christmas dinner and evening of entertainment. Although December 25th isn’t recognized as a holiday here, we have found that many Russian believers celebrate on that day instead of January 7th, in order to separate themselves a little from the Orthodox church. The evening included a Christmas pageant, in which our 12-year old Miles had a part. He was some sort of large bird (of indeterminate plumage), and delivered his 4 lines in flawless Russian. I was almost more proud of him for that than I was of myself for finishing 2 ½ years of language school! There were games and contests and presentations…. When our family left, dizzy from exhaustion at 9 p.m., they were still going strong.
I’ve mentioned before that New Year’s is really the big holiday in Russia. For several weeks before the day, Tim & I caught several gentle hints from church members that they would just love a place to celebrate, but the church building was so…well, institutional. Plus, it had no place to put their children down to sleep once the party really got going. The insinuations of that, plus all we’d heard about Russians’ stamina for partying on New Year’s, was enough to make us say no at first, but eventually we decided that offering our house would be the right thing to do. Let me tell you, it was the party of my life.
The guests (there were 24 of us at the peak of things) began arriving at 9 p.m. and the women descended on my kitchen and took it over with an energy that left me breathless. I was stunned by the quantities of food they brought: all their “crown dishes” as they say here--enough to feed a hundred people--and a great vat of meat to cook on the grill outside. Tim and the men disappeared into the backyard to preside over the grill while the women organized things in the kitchen. I had only to hand over the reins and obey orders. We ate literally for hours, and at midnight we joined our very drunk neighbors in the street outside to watch a spectacular fireworks display. (Not Nina & Vladimir: fortunately, they were away for the week.)
A word about Russian fireworks. The first New Year’s we were here, I woke up at midnight thinking we were being bombed. What America sets off on the 4th of July is what Krasnodar sets off at every mall in the city on every Friday and Saturday night of the year. Words can’t describe the sheer amount of fireworks set off at midnight on New Year’s Day. It was outrageous, and if it hadn’t started suddenly pouring down rain at twenty minutes past twelve, I’m sure my neck would have been permanently cramped from craning up at it all.
After fireworks, we ate some more and they taught us some Caucus Mountain folk dances, and we ate and did karaoke and ate…. We all went to bed at 6 a.m. (yes, at our house) and when I woke up four hours later, they were still here! We ate leftover, congealing, mayonnaise-y salads for breakfast--which I highly recommend--and everyone left at noon. As soon as they were out the door, Tim and I looked at each other and said, “We’re doing this again next year!”
So that was more or less our holiday celebration, although we did have a few much more low-key parties with Americans as well. Tomorrow, we leave for Slovakia, where we’ll be renewing our visas and getting our annual medical work done. This year, we have our Letters of Invitation in hand (which is what we didn’t have last year) so it will only take 3 weeks to process the paperwork. We’ve rented a house there, but it does not have internet connection. We’ll find someplace to update you from periodically. Tomorrow, I’ll post our itinerary in case any of you want to “follow” us across Europe like several of you did last year.
Meanwhile, Happy New Year!
