"24"

Like the popular TV show called “24”, I thought I’d share with all of you a typical 24 hours on a mission trip in Russia. This day also includes the evening that the second mission trip team arrives from the USA to do ministry in the town of Lomonosov at the Baby Home, Children’s Hospital, and with a special group of young ladies taken in by the Lomonosov Baptist Church. Here is my version of “24”.

10:20pm: On Friday, October 24th at 10:20pm I am leaving a movie theater with my kids. I had promised Tanya, Dima, and Masha that I would take them to a movie after we ate dinner. We had gone to see the Russian made movie called “Admiral” which is a true dramatized story about the famous Russian General named Aleksandr Kolchak around the time of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. It was an interesting movie, even though I didn’t understand all the dialogue. As we were leaving around the metro, a drunk man about 40 made a pass at Tanya and Masha. They giggled, but I gently moved between them and gave a serious stare that even a drunk could recognize. I escorted them to the tramway (rail car that travels to areas beyond metro stations) to ensure they were safely on the way home. I travelled by metro back to the apartment I was staying at.

10:50pm: I arrive at MIR, an apartment that is run by our partner organization. I do a little packing for the next day as I will transfer to the hotel when the second mission team arrives at the airport on Saturday evening. I’m fortunate to have internet access at this apartment and spend some time checking and answering e-mail.

12:30am: As I crawl into the bottom bunk of a bunk bed that tends to roll slightly to one side, I turn out the lights and go to sleep. The building is on a quiet street allowing me to quickly nod off.

8:30am: A small amount of light drifted into the windows on this cloudy day as I wake up and begin to get ready for the day’s events. Again I check e-mail and eat a banana that I had bought at the local grocery store called “Dixie” the day before.

9:30am: I lock and leave the apartment, press the button to disengage the magnetic lock on the outside door and being my 10 minute walk to the metro station. I get have way there and discover I’ve forgotten my cell phone. I turn around and go back to the apartment and retrieve my phone. That’s going to make me a few minutes late for my appointment at 10am. I hate when that happens!

10:00am: A few minutes after 10am, I arrive at the top of the escalator where I’ve planned to meet an American who was living in St. Petersburg with another ministry. They had invited me to have breakfast with them so we could share about our ministries and what we are doing. I hadn’t met them before, but it’s usually easy to recognize a fellow Christian at the top of the escalator. He would be the only one with a smile. We walk to his apartment and I get to spend a relaxing morning with their family over breakfast as we shared testimonies and about our ministries. Their three young kids were anxious to have the attention of their parents’ new friend.

12:30pm: I travelled back to the MIR apartment and while walking made a cell phone call to a friend who owns a taxi. It’s not really an official taxi, it’s his personal car (a small Russian made car called a Lada) that he uses to supplement his income. It’s a common practice to do this in St. Petersburg. He’s a nice Serbian guy who speaks English that I met through another friend.

1:10pm: At MIR I have just a few minutes before I’m to leave again to meet my daughter Masha to do some shopping for her. I heated some leftover soup Dima had made a few evenings ago, sliced some Russian cheese, and drink some tea. I packed a little too as I knew I wouldn’t have very much time when I arrived back at the apartment. I called Masha and said I would be 15 minutes late.

1:45pm: Finally, I depart the apartment again and head back to the metro. This time, I’m heading two metro stops north to the last metro stop in the northwest part of the city. The metro station is called Komandanski. It’s near where my kids apartment is.

2:15pm: As agreed, I would meet Masha in the metro at the top of the escalator. I made a few cell phone calls as I waited. I knew that Masha would be “fashionably late”. I made my calls without speaking too loud and having my English identify me as an American.

2:20pm: Masha shows up and Tanya has come along as well. We all go shopping as Masha needed to buy a winter coat and some winter shoes. The shoes are those black boots that go up to the knee with a high heal. We find a coat that she is pleased with, but not the shoes. I’m not surprised as I have gone shopping for shoes for Masha before. The last time I think we went to 23 stores before giving up for the day! Though my daughters, God has taught me to walk slowly, walk behind or to the side, and have a lot of patience as they look. It takes a concerted effort on my part!

3:30pm: We go through all the coat and shoe shops in this one mini mall near their home. I’m glad she got the coat, but they are hungry and want to eat. We take a take tramway to a McDonalds near the metro station that’s crowded on this Saturday afternoon.

4:00pm: I had only 30 minutes left with them as I needed to head back to the MIR apartment to gather my bags and await my taxi to the hotel. I leave Tanya and Masha finishing their meal as I head back to the metro. I arrive back at the apartment at 4:25pm

4:30pm: Igor, the taxi driver arrives and we depart MIR for the hotel. As we arrive at the hotel, I see that it is NOT next door to train station as I had been told. It was more like a 15 minute walk! To Russians, a 15 minute walk is “right next door”. I check in and argue with the receptionist and their manager about the need to do the in country registration again since I had already registered. I lost that battle. It seems new rules require the hotel to register ALL international travelers regardless if they had already registered. As they said, it was a stupid rule, but the rule drains my pocket of a few more rubles to perform this required service. I drop the bags in my room and get back to the taxi to head to the Balticskaya Metro. This is also next to the train station that will take us to Lomonosov each morning and evening. As I was dropped off, I had a quick lecture with Igor about being on time to pick me up. He was late last year when I was waiting to depart to go to the airport last August and I almost missed my flight! I negotiate the price of the taxi ride, pay for picking up Tanya at the train station when she arrived from Rostov the week before, and the police payoff I had to pay last August when Igor went down a one-way road in front of the apartment. I hand him some rubles, grab my bag, and head to the metro.

5:20pm: By the time I’m dropped off, it’s 5:20pm and I travel to the south end of the city to the Moscowskaya Metro station. I had agreed to meet Vica, the SAC Program Manager, there to catch a Marchucka to the airport to meet the arriving team.

6:10pm: I arrive at McDonalds about 20 minutes early, get a quick sandwich as I wasn’t sure the team would want dinner. In this crowded McDonalds I was able to find a quick seat. After a few minutes, a couple of ladies sit down with me. It’s a European tradition and custom for strangers to share the same table in a restaurant. They use their broken English to ask me where I am from and what I was doing there. I told them I was here doing charity work in orphanages. They thank me for coming to Russia to do this kind of work with their people. Then, when they find out I’m from America, they ask who I will vote for!

6:30pm: Vica arrives at McDonalds. Vica translates for me so I could say goodbye to the ladies and answer some last questions before we depart for the Airport by Marchucka.

6:45pm: Vica and I arrive at airport. The flight had just landed so we will have a few minutes to wait for them to get their luggage and pass through customs. A few minutes later, the team arrives with all their luggage, but tired from the trip.

7:00pm: The van arrives and we are off to hotel. On the way I welcome them to Russia and explain some sights and what we will do over the next few minutes to get to the hotel and get settled. On the way, we eat some pumpkin bread provided by one of Holly McGee’s friends, talk with driver, and stop to exchange money. While there, Shawn McGee makes a request to get 200 Russian coins for a project after he returns home. The lady at the exchange counter was a little surprised at the request, and laughed with us about the bag of coins we put in a shopping bag!

7:30pm: We all arrive at the hotel and move all the luggage inside. I pay the driver 1800 rubles for van taxi ride and I began the process of checking in them all into the hotel and providing their passports so they could all be registered in the country.

8:20pm: When I go to the rooms, I see that the McGee suite for their family of four only has two beds. I call the front desk and they assure me that two other roll-away beds will be delivered soon. The next day we discovered one of the ministry bags missing from the room. I suspected it was taken while we were at dinner, but I can’t prove it. I spent the entire week working with the hotel to find the missing bag. Security tapes, electronic room key logs, and other things were reviewed. We counted 10 large bags making it all the way to their room. Unfortunately, there were only 9 bags in the room when we returned from dinner. It’s unknown what happened to this bag filled with activities for the Children’s Hospital and Bibles to give away. God must have had other plans for it.

8:45pm: After they all got settled, we went downstairs to see if we could order dinner from the menu. They have a buffet, but they want to charge 500p per person. That’s about $20 each. That was WAY too much to spend on any meal and I told them so. After Vica explained to them that we would go elsewhere, the price suddenly dropped to 250p per person. To me, it was an obvious attempt to gouge the “rich” Americans into paying a higher price. The meal was good, but was only worth the $10 we paid for it. We went back to them the following evening and they refused to honor the 250p per person rate. So, that time we DID go elsewhere and their restaurant sat empty that evening.

9:20pm: It was a good meal, but the dinner caused everyone to feel even more tired. I could see the trip participants were fading, after all… they had only been up and travelling for the last 32 hours! We all went back to the rooms. I checked the train schedule for the next day and told them when to be downstairs for breakfast and when we would go to Lomonosov for church.

9:35pm: I went back to the rooms to confirm that roll-away beds had been delivered. I explained to the McGee girls how a duvet for bed cover works. Then I went back to my room to get Susan Bollinger a converter plug extension for her hair dryer. All in a day’s work for the mission trip leader!

9:55pm: I get to my room and settle in. I set up my computer and ensure the free WI-FI works in the room. That was a great benefit.

10:10pm: I begin to check e-mail, do some trip administration, and then notice in St. Petersburg Times paper that Russia is moving back the clock one hour tonight for daylight savings time. I called the front desk to confirm and then call the trip participants to sleep in one hour extra, but to still come downstairs at 7:30am for breakfast.

10:30pm: The hotel also made a mistake and had us staying only 7 nights instead of the 8 nights I had paid for. I called the Russian contact I have in St. Petersburg to arrange to make that change. They are usually still up at this hour to conduct business like this.

10:35pm: As I get ready for bed, I listen to fireworks being shot off near the hotel – it must be a wedding. It’s a tradition here that fireworks are launched for weddings. They can be launched anywhere in the city and at ANY time. So, we often hear them in the middle of the night.

As I try to drift off to sleep while watching some Russian TV, I think about all the things that had happened over the last 24 hours.