Welcome to our Dom (home)

Through the trees you will see a large pink building -- this is where we live in our new city. It lies along the river and plaza where many people come to walk, hold hands, sing, dance, drink, and party. Which makes for some really noisy nights -- like when Russia was in the finals for the Soccer World Cup -- we didn't get much sleep that night.

One day we were walking on the plaza and a many was unloading this toilet, unfortunately he forgot to close the hole in the bottom of his truck so as he pumped raw sewage from the toilet, in went in his truck and flowed back out the bottom all over the cobblestones. Boy was it bad!! As we hurried away, promising not to return this way again for a long long time, I thought to myself, now that's what you call a really bad day!

Standing across the plaza you can see our apartment complex. A river runs right down the center of the plaza -- quite lovely, but quite polluted also.

This picture is taken right outside our entrance. I had a nice picture of Ron holding the door open, but when I brought it up I could see some rather nasty images of graffiti right over his head. Not appropriate for an Elder of the Lord's.

Third floor at the top of the stairs, that's where you will find us. We do have a small elevator, but it stinks really bad, so we get our exercise -- thank heavens we didn't choose an apartment on the 6th floor.

Guests, how nice, come on in and see our new digs. I'm not sure how Ron sees with his sun glasses on -- its fairly dark in the hallways. There are windows at the end of each staircase which when opened let in flys. Our apartment has nice new windows with screens -- a BIG plus when we were looking for apartments.
Don't worry about us being safe once inside our domain. Take a look at these doors -- a thick one on the inside and a metal on on the outer door -- and take a look at those locks. Three to be exact -- plus the very outside door at the end of the hallway going outside, which requires a special button to open. The phone on the wall is when people come to the outside door, they call our apartment number,#58, and we buzz the door and it opens for them. Pretty nifty, huh?

Once through the doors you enter our hallway which takes you to all rooms within the apartment. Behind the mirrored doors is a storage/coat/and clothing closet. On Sunday evenings this area is full of shoes. It is the custom here to remove your shoes when you enter someones home -- a very nice custom. But the real reason they do it is because it is quite muddy and dirty outside and they are thoughtful enough not to bring it in.

This picture is out of order, but I wanted to include it because I think it is funny. These two doors are to our WC and our Bath/Washroom. Notice anything funny? Well, the locks are on the outside of the doors, which presents a problem when our youth come on Sunday evening. They usually have a guard stand outside the WC to make sure no one enters while they are inside. Ron is trying to remedy the situation, but lacks some tools. He tried to remove the locks with a screwdriver the the screws have been stripped -- we will have to replace them.

They are in the process of restoring the outside of our building -- thank heavens, it really needed it, as do many of the large apartment buildings. Two men were out of some pretty shakey looking scaffolding this day scraping off the old stucco -- it made me nervous to watch them.

Our bedroom -- we hang our clothes in the wardrobe and also in the closet in the hallway. We moved one bookcase from the front room to make room there and it doubles as a place to store some of our clothes and other items. The bed is quite comfortable -- we were worried about it, but are grateful for the blessing of sleep in a bed that is not as small as we had imagined.

Almost all of the things we thought we were going to 'inherit' from the previous CES couple somehow 'disappeared from storage, but we were grateful for a few blankets and this one comforter which was stored at the mission office.

This is a picture of our dryer and I suppose it really should have followed the picture of the washer -- oh well, you get the idea.

Our bath/wash room -- I don't know if you can see it, but we have a bottle to water on the shelf to brush our teeth with. Sometimes we have no hot water -- Ron found that out one morning as he showered -- me I always shower at night.

Our WC -- water closet. Very small, but it does the job.

I wanted you to see our water purification system -- very expensive -- only a small amount of purified water comes out at a time, but enough for us to fill our sprite bottles. We usually wash the dishes in hot soapy water then boil water to rinse everything in. We have been told not to drink unfiltered water. It is a hastle, but we want to stay healthy. The missionaries used to have these same systems, but they require filters to be changed periodically and when a shipment of filters arrived at the Moscow airport they were taken -- a very big expense for the church. Now the missionaries buy bottled water.

Our apartment was just redecorated, they put in a new kitchen, which it quite nice and will do fine for our stay here. The oven and stove are small -- We purchased a cookie sheet and it wouldn't fit. So when I bake a batch of cookies I can only cook nine at a time and it takes quite a while.

Looking out the third floor window lets us see what's going on outside -- which can be very interesting. Because we live in the center of the city we have alot going on on either side of us. Last week there was a concert on the main street in back of our building -- a small wooded area divides our parking lot from the businesses. Anyway, a lot of drinking was taking place and so our little wooded area became a local toilet for many of the men and a few females. Very interesting and a little surprising to gaze out the window that night.

(I erased the pictures, sorry -- I'm still getting used to blogging)
Our refrigerator -- the freezer works well, but the fridge part doesn't keep things very cold. Ron freezes sprite bottles filled with water and puts them into the fridge and that has helped. We need to talk with our landlady. A bit of a problem since we don't understand each other.

Ron studies -- Scripture study, language study, lesson planning, and then in the afternoon we are on the go to appointments, shopping, or just trying to find our way around the city.

One of the reasons we chose this apartment was because it has a realitively large living room -- but even so, when the youth arrive we have to move things into our bedroom to make room, and then we are still really crowded. So far, the youth haven't seemed to mind, but as we grow in numbers, which we hope we will do, we will have to come up with a new plan.

The halls are in much need of repair, but they keep it fairly clean.

We travel out the long dark, stinky hall ( I know it looks light, but it is almost pitch black ) to the bright sunlight, where take long gasps of fresh air.

And so, for now we say goodbye to all of our friends and family. We'll talk to you soon.

OUR TRIP TO LITHUANIA

We flew out of Yekaterinberg to Moscow four days after our arrival and headed to Vilnius Lithuania. After our arrival at the airport, a bus picked us up, along with several other missionary couples heading for the same CES conference in Kanaus. It was about an hours drive to get to the city of Kanaus and we passed Rumsiskes like this one above. The countryside was beautiful and a lush green --forests and rolling hills. We got to know many of these seniors over the course of a few days and were grateful for their enthusiasm and wisdom-- we were the 'greenies', with only 4 days under our belts.

Kanaus is the second largest city in Lithuania and was a former temporary capital. Between the world wars industry prospered in Kanaus and at one time it was the largest city in Lithuania. During the inter-war period, Kanaus had a Jewish population of 35,000-40,000, about one forth of the citys total population. Jews were concentrated in the citys commerical, artisian, and professional sectors. ( a little history lesson)

There are two large rivers that run through the town and merge. They are called the Nemienas and the Neres.

Ron holds on the the railing because he is afraid he might fall in.

We know nothing about this church, except I got the name off the internet -- Vytautas church.

On our lunch breaks, we journeyed out and walked around the town. Here Rone stops in the shade of a watch tower.

This is Hotel Daugirdas -- I know it looks lovely, and it was, but we really did spend the better parts of three days in class. The first night we were so tired and class lasted so long that neither of us could hardly stay awake. We were still reeling from jet lag (12 hour difference from home) and then a three hour difference between Yekaterinburg and Kanaus.

Looking up from the lobby of the first floor where we sent many emails while were were staying here

We had delicious meals in this lovely little dining hall. Breakfasts were the best -- a buffet with a large choice of whatever you might like (with the exception of many fish items that I would'nt even try).

This was a former Presidential home/palace.

Ron and took walks around town whenever we had the opportunity, but we really didn't have any information about the buildings. It was a quaint, little town filled with much history.

This beautiful church stands in the city center, surrounded by a large cobblestone square. They don't hold services here, only weddings

We took a walk early one morning and found the town quiet -- in the afternoon and evening it is filled with busy tourists and cars crowded together in the narrow streets.

The CES Director for this part of the world, Henry Kosak rented a bus for us, so we traveled comfortably. Away we go into the country.

This is a picture of the church I shot earlier, called the Vytautas church - shot from across the river and in a moving bus. Pretty good, huh?

It was a beautiful day -- and nice to get away from the classroom and breathe some fresh air.

In June of 1940 the Soviet Union occupied the city and a series of arrests, confiscations, and the elimination of all free institutions began. Soviet authorities confiscated the property of many Jews, while hundreds were exiled to Siberia. Germany invaded the town in June 1941 and Soviet forces fled. The anti-communist German organized insurgents began to attack the Jewish people blaming them for Soviet repressions. Of the 37,000 Jews in Kaunas only 3,000 survived the war.

One of the death camps where the Jewish people and others were exterminated. We took a tour, but came away feeling very sad.

This is a picture of the massive memorial they built to the holocaust victims. A beautiful memorial to a horrific part of history. I came away feeling very greatful for my heritage.

I hope you can see how impressive this massive memorial is.

After our return to the city we shared a good meal and held a testamony meeting on the top of our hotel. They even had an ice cream birthday cake and sang 'Happy Birthday to me. It was very memorable.

And so we say goodbye to Kanaus, and all the lovely people we met. But we will have many fond memories of an enjoyable trip to a beautiful county.