Community Service Day

On Sunday, 7 July we spent three hours with an amazing bunch of Russian Volunteers helping out in a home for mentally disabled children. The volunteers were from  Дорогами Добра (Dorogi Dobra – Paths of Kindness).

 

It was a very humbling experience. The volunteers work with these children on a weekly basis and put together all sorts of activities for them.

 

Today they were teaching the children  about money and shopping and after a short lesson we opened up our shops for them to purchase all sorts of toys, books, etc. 

 

The children who range in age from around 10 to 18, were very eager to meet us and so friendly. They all seemed to be very happy.

 

 It is a shame we did not connect with this group earlier as we could have spent a few hours here each weekend we have been in Ekaterinburg. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Verkhoturye - Religious Centre of the Urals and Gateway to Siberia

DOn 6 July we went to visit Verkhoturye.  This trip was organised by Andre, Head of the Ural City Administration and he and his wife came with us.  This was another example of the amazing Russian hospitality we have experienced during our time in Ekaterinburg.

Only six of us went on this trip as the others did not want to spend so much time in the van travelling.

Verkhoturye is located in 306 kilometers from Ekaterinburg on the bank of the River Tours. It is the largest spiritual center of the Urals and the gateway to Siberia.  

We left at 7.00 a.m. and it took us about four hours to get there, including a stop for breakfast at a cafe called Milano.

When we arrived we met our local guide, Vera and took a walk to look at the village.

The first place we visited was the Kremlin and Trinity Cathedral.

 

 

After our visit to the Kremlin and St Trinity we went to lunch at the Empire Restaurant.  The food was superb and the vegetarians amongst us commented that it was the best food they had since getting to Russia.  Andre explained to us that the difference was that all the food was grown on the local farms we had seen on the way to Verkhoturye and was therefore organic and fresh.  For the first time in m life I could reall taste the difference - so much more flavour!  

After lunch we went back to the Kremlin as there was a wedding taking place that was using some of the rituals from the past.  It was very interesting to watch.

 

After the wedding we drover further into the countryside and visited some more churches.  The first one we visited is on the banks of the river .... the river is considered to be a sacred source of water so a lot of Russian Orthodox pilgrims visit this church.

The last place we went you could actually bathe in the sacred water - or more to the point you could tip buckets of water over you.  The boys were very brave and  went into a room where they stripped down and doused themselves with the freezing water and then put their clothes back on without drying themselves off.  The girls were much more sensible .... although we got eaten alive to huge mosquitos waiting for them to finish.

We then headed back to Ekaterinburg ... got back about 10.00 p.m.   Nearly everyone fell asleep on the way home.  It was a great day and I really enjoyed getting out and seeing some of the countryside.

Valentina who had been our tour guide the weekend before came on this trip with us and shared some interesting facts on the way there

• There is a lot of unused farmland because in the Soviet days they had collective farms and people were paid to work on these.  However, today farming is not considered to be a worth profession and there is such a focus on manufacturing that the land just sites there empty.
• There are a few dairy farms but there is no milk processing plant ... yet the land would be highly suitable for dairy farming!  So all the milk in the Urals comes from other parts of Russia or overseas.  An opportunity for Fonterra!!
• Learner drivers are identified by a yellow sign with an explanation mark - not so interesting.  However, what is interesting is that there is a yellow sign with a high heel shoe on it that is used to identify women driver - and some men make their wives use this!!