At the Dacha

In August were spent three days at a dacha about 5 hours outside the city. The trip there was very interesting. We first travelled by Metro for one hour, then we took a marshrutka (a van taxi that holds about 18 people). We knew we were in trouble when the driver had the hood raised before leaving the parking lot. After about 6 hours and a few push starts by the passengers, we finally arrived in Ivanovo. We spent our time there with the Stameys (our mentors). The dacha had no running water and an outhouse. Twice a day Doyle and Brad had to draw water from the well while fighting off bees (quite a funny scene, too bad we don't have pictures of that one). We all enjoyed getting out in the nature for a bit. The kids enjoyed sleeping in a tent at night (their first time), and Daegan especially enjoyed finding many, many bugs. We took the kids to the creek (which was VERY cold), and they enjoyed running in and out screaming and rolling in the sand. After our 4 hour marshrutka ride home (a little better this time) and 1 hour Metro ride, we were so excited to find that our hot water was turned on (after being off for 4 weeks)! We each took what Doyle called "hour showers"!