Little Sisters of the Poor

So the team returned to NYC and happily returned to the Little Sisters of the poor in Queens. The immaculate cleanliness, as Tyler says, and tremendous hospitality of these sisters was a magnificent way to end the trip and recuperate from our travels. Additionally, they asked for and enjoyed the first and only presentation of the trip by all 13 members gathered in one place. While they loved our stories, we also loved being caught up on everything we missed, especially World Youth Day. It was a great day to decompress and talk about the trip in a wonderful environment. All that being said, the team still crashed pretty early in the night. 

WELCOME TO AMERICA!!

We have successfully made it back to the United States. I cannot believe that we spent a month on the other side of the world!! Bittersweet feeling as our mission comes to a close. 

Flight delay update

Hey all you concerned parents! 

So flight update. The team all got meal vouchers from the airlines, so we are fueling up now on airport food. It's pretty decent lol. 

New flight time is about 6 pm Moscow time (10 am Miami time) so we should be out of here soon. 

Delayed

Russia just loved us so much that they don't want us to leave. 

Actually our flight is just delayed. I don't know why yet. There is a plane and "engine ok" but we are delayed until who knows when. Early estimate is about 2 hours. Haven't really tried to get too much info since there are a lot of people around the desk. 

Pray for us! 

Missy: Perspective

By Missy

            After 2 days of traveling by bus, plane, and train, all I wanted was a shower and a nap. I tromped through the dirty city streets in flip-flops that felt inadequate against the conditions. Climbing the uneven stairway towards the monastery, a rotten scent filled my nose and a dog chained just off the path barked viciously at our mission group. Lunch was waiting for us, and on the menu was fish soup, seaweed salad, baked fish (skin and all). Where I’m from, we do not eat like that. Finally able to take a shower after lunch, the tiny bathroom, lukewarm water, and bare piping reminded me that mission trips are not fraught with the comforts of home. To say I was slightly overwhelmed is true, but I swallowed hard and reminded myself that mission trips are meant for this: to expose my first-world eyes to something beyond American amenities and to live in solidarity with people of other cultures, fish soup and all.

            Arriving back to Vladivostok two weeks later, climbing the same smelly, uneven stairs and using the small, lukewarm shower, was like climbing a stairway to the heaven of safe, running water and a feeling of freshness we hadn’t experienced in days.

           

            Ah, the perspective that mission can bring.

            Progressively throughout my journey to Russia, my living conditions became less and less comfortable. First, there was the small, sweltering Queens apartment where I stayed for a couple days with a friend before our mission group gathered. Then, there were the community bathrooms of the Little Sisters of the Poor where we had orientation before flying to Russia. Upon arrival in Russia, enter the monastery described above. And that was not the last rung of our descent. Then, on the first leg of our mission, came the small, one-room apartments in the dark, narrow hallways of a high-rise building with no hot water and only a small toilet to share. The parish building had a shower that seventeen of us took turns using, and the children who came to the camp each day shared this space. Conditions were cramped and less than desirable. Would you believe that even that looked good when we arrived on the second leg of our mission?

Toilets at Far East Conference.
Luckily there were a couple of real ones. 

Our accommodations for Week 2 were an old Soviet Children’s Camp in a forest near the coast and when we arrived, we were all in for a rude awakening. The rooms, shared by 2-4 people, were damp and reminiscent of 5^th grade science petri dishes, with mold growing in everything. Like, our beds were wet. Gross. The toilets were several steps (Chris’s note: by several, Missy means there were many uneven steps that were scary at night) away from our bedrooms and afforded no privacy. One side men, the other side women, with open stalls, no doors, and a little hole in the ground for squatting over. Oh my. The sinks, were in an entirely different location, several more steps away, with cold running water and no soap. Until we brought out a bar. The showers appeared to be outdoors, with curtains blowing in the breeze and ramshackle tin surrounding them. Staring at those showers, and thinking of the 8-day stay ahead, I begin to think of all the ways I could avoid using such facilities. Thankfully, there were other showers, indoors, and sometimes with warm water, but without doors and with nowhere to dress or undress. I suppose with children, this matters little, and eventually with us young adults, it mattered little as well.

By far, the bathroom conditions throughout the trip were what continuously plummeted, and what shocked me the most. And of course there were other struggles, like the food types and portions, the cramped quarters, and the grueling schedule of our mission activities. In situations such as these, there comes a human resilience that shines brighter than the discomforts or inconveniences, or even downright deprivations. We learn that the creature comforts we normally enjoy in the United States (and then, not even all Americans enjoy these) are not necessary for our survival and that in fact, they are immense blessings for which we must give thanks. For goodness’ sake, we even learned that toilet paper is a luxury! I have such a sense of accomplishment for surviving these circumstances and coming out reasonably on top. I feel like I could do anything! Like when I had to use the restroom at the bus station on the way home from the children’s camp: I had to pay 15 rubles (about fifty cents) to squat in a port-a-potty with no hand sanitizer, no toilet paper and no toilet seat. By that point, I wasn’t even phased. 

American Chains.

So in our travels and tour of Moscow today we came across a lot of American Chain places. We did not see any of these in Vladivostok, but all over the place here in Moscow. It is much more westernized here. It's cool though to see the logos with the Russian alphabet used

NOTE: my personal fav and addiction, Starbucks, was among the ranks. 

Also apparently McDonald's is ridiculously popular here! Sorry I didn't get a pic of any of the many we passed 

Father Steve's Surprise

There are no words to describe the emotion, shock, and reaction of 12 young adults when your priest comes out of the bathroom wearing this . . .