{"id":391,"date":"2010-07-22T10:14:07","date_gmt":"2010-07-22T17:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sunergosorphans.wordpress.com\/?p=391"},"modified":"2012-03-27T23:33:47","modified_gmt":"2012-03-28T06:33:47","slug":"update-from-ffmc-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sunergosint.org\/blog\/update-from-ffmc-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Update from FFMC Team!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Tully \u2013 After spending the first day exploring this very beautiful and very different city in unusually warm weather, we spent today at the transit center for the first time.<\/p>\n

I was profoundly moved by some of the stories we heard.<\/p>\n

The kids\u2019 smiles and laughter while playing belied the unspeakable things some had endured, but seemed showed the healing that is possible.<\/p>\n

Meaghan \u2013 Coming here I really didn\u2019t know what to expect so as for expectations, they were pretty non-existent.\u00a0\"\"<\/a> Traveling in the taxi and metro has really exposed me to a few of the many gorgeous buildings this city has to offer and the major differences in the Russian culture from what I\u2019m used to.\u00a0 The time difference is a little hard for me to get used to seeing as I almost fell asleep on a Russian woman while sitting on the metro bench.\u00a0 It was very refreshing to hang with kids today and smile and laugh with them.\u00a0 I was able to explore the many benefits of universal signs and sayings like \u201cwow\u201d or \u201couch\u201d and the awesome thumbs up.<\/p>\n

Kiri \u2013 We snapped lots of photos yesterday during our first chance at touring this beautiful city! \u00a0The sun has been shining consistently these past few days and it\u2019s been so warm. Such a nice alternative to our normal Seattle weather!\u00a0 Today we spent our first day at the transit center and it was such a blessing getting to know the kids we will be spending the next couple weeks with. \u00a0We also learned some colors and numbers yesterday for training and they came in VERY handy today. I only wish we could speak more Russian. But turtle sounds something like cheery-pa-ha …so knowing that should break the language barrier.<\/p>\n

Jason \u2013 I\u2019d like to tell you about the many strange things I\u2019m learning whilst leading this trip: living in close proximity to others means you have to ask if it\u2019s OK to flush the toilet; a salad in Russia doesn\u2019t have to have salad in it; \"\"<\/a>Cyrillic looks cool, but is hard to pronounce; night doesn\u2019t necessarily mean its dark; old buildings are interesting, but not as interesting as the stories of how and when they were erected; the people on this team have incredible hearts and incredible initiative; whilst carrying a heavy history, children laugh and play like everyone else; and a smile is a smile in any language.<\/p>\n

Megan \u2013 Since this is my first time abroad, I have been amazed by everything along this journey, from the sights and smells and fo\"\"<\/a>od to the incredible people I have encountered. There is a profoundly rich culture here, and I have only started to plum the depths of this beautiful city and beautiful country. However, I would be remiss if I did not mention that the kids we have met are the highlight of this experience. Even with the language barrier, these children have surprised me and shown me that joy and laughter can break down walls.<\/p>\n

Serena \u2013 It\u2019s been so great to get settled in to St Petersburg, get to know the city just a little bit, and today, for the first time, see where we get to spend our next 10 days.\u00a0 I loved how the kids were so excited to see us, play with us, and talk to us (even though there is some pantomime to communicate!).\u00a0 I am l\"\"<\/a>ooking forward to starting with our lessons tomorrow and continuing the fun with the crafts.\u00a0 Das Vi Danya for now!<\/p>\n

Tatiana: What a blessing to walk into the transit center and have kids running to you with “you came back!”\u00a0 Seeing their smiles and getting their hugs –that is why I do what I do, now for 8 years… \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tully \u2013 After spending the first day exploring this very beautiful and very different city in unusually warm weather, we spent today at the transit center for the first time. I was profoundly moved by some of the stories we heard. The kids\u2019 smiles and laughter while playing belied the unspeakable things some had endured, but seemed showed the healing that is possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[84,79],"tags":[20,23,32,33,38,41,51,57,66,68],"class_list":["post-391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ffmc-teams-2","category-teams-2","tag-ffmc","tag-first-free-methodist-church","tag-ministry","tag-missions","tag-orphans","tag-russia","tag-st-petersburg","tag-sunergos","tag-teams","tag-transit-center"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2j3in-6j","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sunergosint.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sunergosint.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sunergosint.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sunergosint.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sunergosint.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/sunergosint.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1311,"href":"http:\/\/sunergosint.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391\/revisions\/1311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sunergosint.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sunergosint.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sunergosint.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}