We didn’t get to visit our baby today (Saturday 2/16). She has an upper respiratory infection and fever, so the director says she needed to rest and be away from germs the “foreigners” bring in. The baby home doesn’t receive visitors on Sunday, so we’ll have to wait till Monday until we can see her. Today we went to lunch at a pizza place, then visited a Russian Orthodox Church that dates back to the 17th century, according to our translator. It was very beautiful and ornate. The women had to cover their head to enter, and the men had to take off their hats. Their tradition is to light a candle for someone you are praying for, then the priest and church pray for all the people represented by the candles. We lit a candle for our baby and Nikolai said a prayer for her to get well and for us to all have a safe trip home. I wandered around the church for a long time admiring the artwork of the saints. Our interpreter asked me “where’s David? I looked around and couldn’t find him or Nikolai, so we opened the door to go outside. As soon as we did, we heard a loud “wooo-hooo!”. It was Dave sliding down a large snow/ice hill built by the neighborhood children. Dave said he was helping Nikolai up the slippery ice stairs, then once at the top was too scared to go back down the stairs, so he was “forced” to go down the slide!
Around the church are some brightly painted houses. They have also been there since the 17th century. They have no central heat or running water. We saw people carrying large jugs on sleds. They went to the well, filled their jugs, and took them back to their houses. I can’t imagine how cold that water must have been!
Around the church are some brightly painted houses. They have also been there since the 17th century. They have no central heat or running water. We saw people carrying large jugs on sleds. They went to the well, filled their jugs, and took them back to their houses. I can’t imagine how cold that water must have been!
