Day 1: Tuesday, July 8 - From Edna

We arrived in our Moscow hotel after about 21 hours of travel. We were weary, but excited. Jacob and Zachary were champs through it all, and it was a lot of fun to have that much time together to talk and play games. Zachary slept a lot on the plane, but Jacob has only slept about four hours in two days because he is so excited. Olga, the administrative assistant to the director of European Nazarene College, picked us up at the airport and helped us get settled into our hotel.

My sister is making fun of all the ziploc bags I used to assemble kits (a first aid kit, office supply kit, medicine kit, toiletries kit, etc.). Zachary thinks its fun to brush his teeth with bottled water, and Jacob can't wait to barter with the vendors in the markets for a matroyshka doll.

On arriving I was shocked first of all at how easy it was to get through passport control and customs. The only things we had to do were show our passport and fill out a migration card. We weren't even asked one question! It was also interesting that an international airport in a major city could be so old and rundown.

I've also learned that Moscow is much more than Red Square and the Kremlin. Outside of old Moscow it is very industrial. There are miles and miles of gigantic, homogenous, highrise apartment buildings made out of cement and steel. I can see that this environment could easily stifle creativity or ambition in people.

I'm looking forward to meeting more people here and seeing the work that the Nazarene church is doing.