Zdravstvuyte from Russia!

Well, it’s been a crazy couple of days here in St. Petersburg! Within the first few hours of being in the country, one of our guys, Eric, busted his head open. Our translator, Lyena, and I took Eric to the clinic to get it looked over. I went back into the exam room with him and when the doctors came in, they wanted to know exactly how he did this to his head. After trying to explain that he hit his head on the skylight in the ceiling, they started laughing at him. I think something got lost in translation. Needless to say, it was an interesting experience and Eric ended up with four stitches. He’s doing fine and gets them taken out in a week, but it sure made for an interesting first day. Today will be our first day at an orphanage. I think everyone is a little nervous of the unknown, but really excited. Our group has been working together really well and I know things are going to be great today.
Yesterday morning I woke up for church and looked out the window to see a huge cruise ship sitting across the street! Someone had said that some ships dock around here, but I wasn’t expecting something that large to be outside my window! We are staying on Lieutenant Schmidt Street and across the street is the Neva River. There are many ships and boats of all sizes that dock along our street. We continually see Russian sailors walking around and men that work on the different kinds of boats.
Our first days in Russia have been very exciting. We can’t wait to spend time with the kids and get to love on them for a week.

~ Amanda