JUNE 2008: OPEN HOUSE/GOODBYE PARTY.
If you're in the Portland area,
let us know; we would love to have you drop in at our farewell open house on Sunday evening, June 8.
Our first stop after leaving Portland will be the Chicago/Indianapolis/Richmond/Cincinnati area. Then we spend a few days in Maine before beginning our journey to Russia.
APRIL 2008: Judy and I have been visiting many Friends meetings and churches in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, talking about our hopes and dreams for service in Russia. Our whole team has also met with several members of the Board of Global Outreach. The Board gave us a strong reaffirmation--they're definitely committed to service in Russia through us and alongside us.
We've enjoyed working together with Liz and Patrick and Christy. Liz is now living in Germany, but is still a member of our Russia team. (And she keeps running into Russian speakers in her new neighborhood!) Patrick and Christy and the Board are carefully considering a new opportunity for them in Haifa, Israel. So at first, Judy and I will be the only American Quakers in Elektrostal.
Right now we are awaiting the paperwork for our work invitations to come through so that we can resettle more or less "permanently" in Russia. We still have several more churches to visit, as well. And I am stocking up on new English-language materials and films to use in my conversation classes. My students in Elektrostal gave me a long wish-list of movies they'd like to discuss, and I've also been stockpiling resources for my American studies classes, including a good series of documentaries on the American Revolution.
Inevitably, as we travel and speak about Russia, we're asked a lot about political developments in the country and in US-Russian relations. We will not say or do anything to make it appear as if we are trying to import American solutions into Russia or are propagandists for the USA under the guise of innocent educators. To some extent, in fact, the reverse is true--I often find myself trying to explain how different all these controversies look from a Russian viewpoint! Citizen diplomacy is a time-honored dimension of Quaker service, and will certainly be part of our roles. But our highest priority continues to be to learn what Jesus is already doing in Russia, to join in--and to help Northwest Friends join in.
DECEMBER 2007: On December 24, the Institute threw a wonderful New Year's party in its Kapra cafe. As always, the students did an amazing job with a series of wonderful skits before throwing the floor open for a student-teacher dance. In between, founder Sergei Kazantsev made an appearance as Grandfather Frost, and Larisa Kazantseva threw the switch to light the New Year's Tree.
At the party, the students in my Conversational English 303 class showed this video, entitled "Would you like to know why students are late to class??"--
I was glad that the party happened before the actual arrival of the New Year; by then I was back in the USA with my family, where we're now busy getting ready to return together to Elektrostal early in the new semester.
On December 2, Russia held its elections for the State Duma, the lower house of the national legislature. Of course, as a guest and teacher, I observed political neutrality, but I did my part to join the school administration, the city government, and many other organizations in encouraging students to vote. The elections provided material for my conversational English classes; and in my American studies class, I talked about the history of voting in the USA. Did you know that early in US history, secret ballots were not necessarily the rule? Our third-year students saw the film Good Night, and Good Luck--the story of the confrontation between Joseph McCarthy and Edward R. Murrow; fifth-year students saw the film Ray, about Ray Charles, his growth as an artist and his struggles with addiction.
I got to know more of the city's wonderful librarians, artists, and musicians, attending a concert commemorating Edvard Grieg, a children's art exhibition in honor of Elektrostal's seventieth birthday, a public exhibition of our own Design Department's students' work, and another exhibition in honor of the 40th anniversary of the city's Children's Art School.
Our little Quaker community completed its study of the book of James before dispersing for the holidays.
The Institute's New Year's party:
Below: "Putin's Plan--Russia's Victory!" The building under construction on the far right is right next door to Liz Sugden's building.
Children's Art School director Gennadi Andreyevich Samokhodkin reflects on the forty years of his school's history:
Murad Abuyev plays Edvard Grieg in a concert at the city's Paustovsky Central Library:
Design Department exhibition at the city's Art Library:
NOVEMBER 2007: In our American studies class, we reviewed the ideals of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. We then did a twentieth-century reality check by watching and discussing Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. In studying King's rhetoric, we could cover English, history, and spirituality all at once--powerful!
The New Humanitarian Institute celebrated its 12th birthday with a wonderful party for students, graduates, and teachers on November 11. Here's a
YouTube link to one of the skits.
Among the many Elektrostal institutions I visited this month, the Museum "To the Memory of the Unknown Soldier" was one of the most moving and interesting. The Museum documents the work of young people from Elektrostal who have recovered human remains and military paraphernalia from the battlefields of World War II. Of the 27 million Russians--civilian and military--killed in that war, many still lie in anonymous graves, sometimes just barely covered, their fates still unknown to their families. I found no militarism, no glorification of war, in this museum--simply a respectful record of these young people's efforts to learn history, give fallen soldiers (both Russian and German) a respectful farewell, and in a few cases, provide records and closure for relatives.
On November 23, I enjoyed meeting a very interesting local artist, Alexander Poroshin--and in fact, a cross-section of the art community of Elektrostal--at the opening of his current exhibition at the Paustovsky Library, the central library of the city.
Institute Day celebration: English teacher talks with students.
Visiting the Museum "To the Memory of the Unknown Soldier"
Alexander Poroshin introduces his new exhibition.
OCTOBER 2007: I (Johan) began a temporary consultancy with the New Humanitarian Institute in October 2007, working out curricula for an American studies course appropriate for a Russian setting, and also testing materials for conversational English classes for advanced students.
Arriving in Elektrostal, the city I've become so fond of since first visiting in 1994 ...
Working with students on American studies:
JUNE 2007: Judy and I visited Elektrostal in June along with our Northwest Yearly Meeting advisors, Ken and Tonya Comfort, and their daughter Katie. We enjoyed spending time with Patrick and Christy Neifert and their children, and with Liz Sugden. But my (Johan's) biggest joy was introducing Elektrostal to Judy.
Together at last in Elektrostal! This sign is near the Crystal hockey stadium.
New construction on Fryazevo Highway at Yalagin Street; new buildings are going up almost overnight.
As our visit came to an end, Northwest Yearly Meeting's YCEW youth group was just arriving.
Just outside Red Square, General Zhukov rides past a new invasion.
Our friend Gennadi gave us a tour of his city, Noginsk, just north of Elektrostal. We visited Noginsk on a perfect day.