Krasniarsk Training

We traveled to a nearby town to Church Education System training.  It gave us a chance to see some of the country side.  We took a twelve hour overnight train ride to get there.  It was a fun experience and reminded us of our overnight train ride in Australia. Except here we had to share the bathroom with the rest of the people in our wagon (car). 

Since we left at night we didn’t see much of the country side until morning, when we got our first glimpse of the white, snow covered expanses of Siberia, lots of trees and snow.  

After the training sessions we went sightseeing to a park with an overlook point for the valley and river. 

  It was snowing quite hard so we were glad we had already purchased our Siberian winter clothes.  

The snow didn’t stop the wedding pictures.  We watched while the bride and groom posed for several shots and especially in front of the famous “fish” monument.  Cassi, when I saw this I thought of you and how you like to take your pictures of families or weddings in natural settings.  Well this qualified.  The bride was shivering and her wedding dress was dirty, but I guess this is a normal condition for a Siberian wedding.

Notice the famous fish monument in the background

The training was good and we were able to trade ideas with the other people who attended.  Below is a picture of the group we were with. 

 Our ride back on the train let us see the other end of the trip in daylight.  Many of the people have garden spots outside the city where they spend time raising their own vegetables and then store them in underground root cellars outside their apartments.

Garden huts behind the trees.

It is hard to believe how fast time goes by.  It is hard to keep up with everything that is going on around us, especially when we understand very little of the day-to-day conversation.  Every normal task we do, like grocery shopping is a major event since we are trying to figure out what all the labels mean.  But slowly, very slowly we are making headway. 

Love you all, Brian & Barbara