The Johnson's in Moscow

July 12, 2012

Dear Fellow Travelers,

There has been a little break in the action/rhythm in the blogging because of the loss of our internet for most of a week. But the presses are running again--lucky you. (Mixed metaphors are my specialty.)

One effect of this loss of connection is that I could not blog on Sunday evening—at least I could not post to the blog on Sunday evening, but here it is Sunday evening (the 8th) and I am writing the entries that I hope to post on Monday evening—and blah, blah, blah ….

But, but, we have done some interesting things this week … I just wish I could remember what they are.

On Wednesday, the Fourth of July, the Russians held an enormous celebration of America’s independence. Right.

More accurately, the Church held a going-away devotional for David and Lisa Stapley. David has been the Area’s DTA (Director of Temporal Affairs) and Lisa is his faithful and kind wife. I have mentioned them in the past. They are wonderful people, and he is Darren Webster’s former bishop. It was a lovely and thoughtful service.

On Saturday we had a very nice day visiting the Novodevechy cemetery and convent. The cemetery is famous for holding the remains of some of Moscow’s most famous politicians and artists. We showed you a few pictures in a previous blog. Marlene then had some reason to go without me (relief for her, I suppose) but those pictures are not nearly as good as these I took on Saturday. This cemetery has some of the most striking monuments that any of us have ever seen. I think I found the one I want. I advise the children to start saving their money.

Contiguous (for Emily—‘right next to’) to the cemetery is the monastery. Some of its buildings were started in 1525, so they are almost as old as Scott’s house in Vancouver. I think it was Peter the Great who came to dislike his sister. He had her locked in the convent and then hung some of her supporters and strung them up in trees near her room so she could enjoy watching them decompose.

We had quite a unique experience when we went into the operating church on the grounds. We found ourselves watching a Russian Orthodox (Pravaslavian, pa Ruski) infant baptism. Of course I don’t know what the happy parents had to pay for this service but they got their money’s worth. It had been going on for at least a little while before we got the chance to watch it and we must have watched for 25 minutes.

Pictures to follow.

(Sasine. You remember the line from the album we used to listen to, "Looked like li'l animals when she walked."? That phrase comes to mind every time I am out on the street. I can't get it out of my mind. Also, you will see some Russian airplane guys in the cemetery. You might like that.)

I took this with the iPhone because of the girl in orange stuck to her mother. That is how it is here. The children, up to about 12, cling to their parents. It was very hot and humid, but that had no influence on the mom or daughter. I often wonder what they tell their children to cause them to fear everyone else.

Here is the babe on her way to the devotional for Brother Stapley. We went downtown with some of the rush hour crowd, but there is still room to stand so we must have been near the beginning of the Green line trip.

Sister Stapley giving a very tender going-away talk. Oksana Mayrarova is translating for Lisa. Oksana is David's secretary, but will become the Area President's secretary at 8/1. We will be very happy to have her in the office. She is a gem.

IPhones don't take very good pictures from any distance. This is David and he is being translated for by Alexey Samaykin. Alexey's wife was the Area Secretary before we got Olga. Lydia had the Samaykin's first child and she went home to take care of the baby.

There is a very shallow pool of folks who can work in the Area Office, but it is deep enough.

President Lawrence saying some very nice things about David--which was easy to do.
We got to go to dinner with the Stapley's on Tuesday--to a 'Mexican' restaurant. Picture may, or may not, follow.

Rechnoy Vauxal. This is 'our' metro stop. The north end of the Green line.

Two Americans. Sister Jones has been in the country about a week and may be awake in one more week.

The Novodevichy church. When you see the pictures of the baptism, the camera, inside the building, will be pointed at this part of the structure.

Young artistes painting the church.

The car that Nathanael has always wanted. It is almost as long as his Yukon. But, then, it is a Cadillac.

Our little group eating lunch. Tim, the Heufner's and Bro. Walker.

The other half of the group--the Jones' and the babe.

Cute cafe and a nice afternoon.

Out our back window looking at an impending celebration in the park. We had to go to work so we did not see the fulfillment of the obvious promise of a good time.
Notice the flower layout in front of the maroon car. Picture to follow.

Tim Stratford, legal intern, staying with the Walkers, ace guide and interpreter.

The Belaruskaya Metro terminal. We went exploring that evening, but did not find as much interesting as the previous week's work.

Another train terminal outside the metro station. We might use this one when the children come to visit. You can get a train from here to the main airport, Sheremetova. We'll see what our transportation options are, closer to the event.

I think this says that the Army band is glad to be able to take their accordions and trumpets to the front in lieu carrying of guns.

Some babe wandering the steetes.

A wider angle view of the side of the train station.

I thought this was an interesting looking building.

An old church nestled next to Price Watterhouse.

For Rachael.

More for Rachael.

Especially for Rachael.

You remember the picture of the cars with balloons out our back window, earlier on? This is the cartoon character in flowers.

The cemetery tour group. You can't see the shovels behind their backs.

Part of the wall around the convent, on the way to the cemetery.

A watch tower above the convent wall.

At last! the cemetery. No vo de vechi.

Josephina agreed to be our guide for 500 rubles--$15.00. She proved to be well worth the money. She spoke, animatedly, in Russian (and sometimes German) and Tim translated for us.

I am going to minimize my comments from here on, for the most part, because this is taking too long, but this is a famous futbol trainer-guy.

Striking, I thought.

Boris Yelstin's marker. The West likes him, but he is not so well thought of in his own country because he initiated the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the people suffered a great deal because they had to change from a system of State ownership of everything to a system where the State does not own everything, but controls most things.

That is the symbolic Russian flag, I suppose lying on the ground.

Interesting.

Leaning into the wind.

Raisa Gorbacheva. (The women's married names always [mostly?] have an 'eva' on the end.)

Gorbachev/Gorbacheva.

He is still living and Josephina said he brings flowers to the grave every Saturday. We did not see him.

The guide said that many Russians did not like this slim statue at Mrs. Gorbachev's grave because while she was a nice dresser she was not nearly this slender.

Josephina said that the answer to that criticism is that the statue is meant to symbolize Russia, not Raiza. You can't see it, but there is a tear on her cheek.

A guy with almost as many medals as I have.

What I wish I looked like.

What Ben would like to look like.

Toopalev.

Closer to what I look like.

Block head.

Still closer to what I look like.

I thought Mao Tse Tung was buried in China. A note: you know, I'm sure, that Russia extends all the way to the Pacific ocean. We see a lot of oriental looking folks in Moscow.

Crack head.

Striking, but deteriorating.

A little Pinocchio in the middle of the carving.

What Rod wishes he looked like.

Josephina carrying on.

Fighter pilot. MI-2 I think it says.

Several folks killed in a plane crash, as is apparent from Josephina's gesture.

I don't think this was planned, but it does add to the mystery.

Someone with artistic genes (Becky?) will have to interpret for me.

A pillar of the community. Airplane as a back drop.

Interesting.

An important pillar of the community.

Hkr u chev. Khrushchev.

He supposedly saw his life as a mixture of good and bad.

An astronaut. Sorry i don't know which one.

Josephina did stop at this marker to note that this man was to have been the first astronaut, but he had a German last name and whoever was in charge said we can't have a Russian German be the first man in space, so down the line you go, buster.

Aviator is the long word, I think.

Cemomov is the last name.

The only guy in the place I saw who had his own desk. Maybe it's a TV tray?

A very famous broadcaster during WWII. Josephina said that Hitler said that this is the Jew he would hang first if the got to Moscow.

Either a pervert or an obstetrician.

Famous actor, Fyodor Chalyapin.

The oldest grave in the cemetery, 1881.

Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev, composer and performer

Gromeko, I think, one of the cold war Russian foreign ministers. There is a bas relief and a concave image.

Ben, the man given credit for preserving Lenin's body. I guess there was not enough goo left over for him.

Tretikov. An art benefactor. We have been trying to get to the Tretikov Art Gallery for weeks. It is said to house some of the best Russian art.

What I think I look like.

Saborova. Pretty.

The convent backing up to the edge of the cemetery. (Contiguous, Emily.)

For Jacob.

Molotov. A Russian minister. No one was safe. Stalin denounced Molotov's Jewish wife. Molotov divorced her and she was shipped off to Siberia.

When Khrushchev came to power after Stalin's death he asked Molotov is he would like his wife back. He said "yes" and they were a happy couple again.

I guess life with a guy who dumped you was better than life in Siberia.

Stalin's 2nd wife. I don't think he strangled her, but ....

I think this woman has a daughter who lives in the U.S. I can't read this name.

There are apparently no liability statues in Russia.

Shostakovitch.

Chekhov.

Gogol.

You have seen this before--the actor/clown in front of the Old Circus.

The clown's dog.

Good luck comes from rubbing the dog's ear. That always worked for me.

This guy must have had some guns.

I think to the left is the Russian version of the SST. The name is Cheremookin, or something close to that.

A famous folk-songstress. When Marlene was here six weeks ago there was just a bump in the dirt.

Josephina insisted that I stand beside her for the picture. She must have noticed my charm.

I am wearing the white pants I carefully packed and brought over. I wanted to get a 'wear' in before Labor Day.

Interesting.

Kind of what I look like. Kind of what Marlene wishes I looked like.

Part of a wedding party. I think the grounds-keeper drove it to work.

Heading into the convent.

Nice.

Almost always a golden dome.

One of the convent dwellers.

Nice of them to think about us Anglo-philes.

We had been watching the back side of the priest for about 15 minutes while he chanted toward the gold encrusted wall. Marlene presumed these are the god-parents because you will see below some suspects she thought looked more like the parents.
I could not tell a difference but she sees everything.

More chanting and getting ready for the baptism.

Parents (?) and onlookers. There were two photographers wandering around inside the gates.

The threesome is circling the baptismal font, each holding a candle I believe.
When the priest got ready to baptize the infant he had someone take off the disposable diaper, he turned his back to us, to face the fond, and he then set the baby in the font up to about its neck and took hand fulls of water and splashed those over the baby's head.

As you can imagine, the child screamed like crazy. It had no idea what was coming before the priest plunged him into the water. Marlene said her heart jerked when she heard the baby screaming. She did not see the baptism and wondered if he was being circumcised.

I don't think the screaming could have been any louder, no matter what happened when the priest turned to face the font, but I'll just speculate that if he had been circumcised the screaming might have gone on longer.

I think they circled the font three times.

I had some thoughts as we watched this very interesting ceremony:

The priest had on some mighty costly apparel.
I wonder if you can find this ceremony described in the New Testament? And if not, and revelation ceased with the apostles, who devised this ritual?
And, of course, no man there missed remembering Mormon's quote about infant baptism.

About a month ago we showed you a picture of some municipal employees planting flowers among the weeds, on the road to the chapel. Here is the result of their work. Not bad.

After church, on the way to the Metro stop.

You have seen pictures of this recreation of a Tsar's wooden palace before, but you have not seen the insides. Here come some pictures.

Not quite yet.

Get ready ...

Almost.

Ta da. The Russian two-headed eagle.

The ante-chamber ahead of the dining room. Guests and servants would wait here to be summoned into dinner with the Tsar.

The dining room. Tables on both sides.

The Tsar's private table. Reminds me of Andy's dining room.

We are headed away from the dining room toward where the Tsar received visitors.
Very elaborate doors.

A painting of Solomon dealing with the disputed-child problem.
Notice the six-pack, or the four-pack.

There was a lion on each side of the 'throne' that moved its head and whose eyes blazed green.

Katti asking for a date with Ben.

More double-headed eagles, in ceramic form.

The Tsar's study.

The Tsar's bed. Kind of short.

Here we heard on interesting story. Everyone slept on an incline. To sleep flat on the bed meant that you were dead. And, since your spirit left your body when you slept, if it came back and found you lying flat, it had to presume you were dead, and so it would leave, and sure enough you would be dead.

Tim is explaining the intricacies of the 'banya.' Sort of like a sauna, only bigger and better. The hot rocks were thrown in this large kettle in the middle, creating steam, or course.

The room is large because it's more fun the more of your friends you have in here with you.
Of course, after sweating like crazy you were supposed to go jump in the snow or some such insanity.