A thousand little things

A friend asked me to share some of these stories.

Buying appliances: Things are quite different from life in Australia
or Canada. The concept of customer service is still a long way off
from what we understand. When I bought our washing machine the
salesperson dragged out the sale for an hour trying to up sell me,
long after I had made up my mind. When I threatened to go to another
shop this made no difference at all. Even as I was paying the
cashier the salesperson was telling her not to take my money yet
because he was trying to sell me something better.

The washing machine, stove and fridge were all delivered on the same
day. This was good considering we had to wait around all day and
preferred one day waiting instead of 3. When the men brought in the
stove they brought it in to the living room so as to make room for
the washing machine in the hall way. Often delivery men will only
bring it to the door and then one is expected to take it the rest of
the way. I asked them to put the stove in the kitchen three times;
they just looked at me strangely and walked out the door. When the
fridge was delivered it was bolted down to a wooden pallet; we were
expected to get it off ourselves.

On Tuesday we had a plumber come to connect the washing machine. He was here all of five minutes but he still charged $50. There were no taps in the bathroom so he had to put one in for the washing machine. This is very common in Russia. Yesterday we proceeded to do a load of washing. The power could not handle it and kept tripping. We had to go out and buy an amp meter that could handle higher ampage so we could simply do our washing.

Attitudes to children: In Russian society children are considered an
interruption. At the same time people keep them in cotton wool.
People also feel they have every right to tell you how to take care
of your children.

The other day it was 20+ degrees. Mothers still had their babies
wrapped in snow suits. This is I feel, an unhealthy level of
paranoia. I felt that Abigail was getting hot so we took some layers
off. A little while later we were scolded on the bus, "That child is
not dressed warm enough!" Still another man felt that he needed to
tell us that Abigail's shoes should come off because her feet would
get too hot and it would be bad for her toes! If we did what
everyone told us......

A lady at the mega church told us off for allowing Abigail to talk
during the service. Thankfully another man apologised to us after
the service for the usher's attitude. I realise that, as this is a
common attitude in Russian society there must be an understanding
that God is still working in this lady's life. So our lesson is to
have grace for her.