A Very Blogworthy Day

This rainy, gray Tuesday began with a group of burly looking, armed men in flak jackets striding towards me. Yes, a SWAT team was at my apartment block this morning. Now I don't know about you, but as soon as I see armed police in heavy gear purposefully striding towards me, I start racking my brain to remember what I did wrong and get an immediate guilty look on my face.  I'll bet my eyes were as huge as saucers.  But they were after someone else this morning, so that was good news.  You never know, given the current Russian/US political climate!

Next I remembered the artisan fair was happening at school.  We had already had an artisan fair in November, where I found a lady who painted beautiful folk art on old wooden pieces.  If you followed my house clearing episodes this summer, you know I was having to pack up/get rid of all sorts of things.  I had an old wooden box (or small trunk) that I had bought 25 + years ago when I lived in England.  An old box, with a cool skeleton key, but it was so old and dried out it was gray and not very pretty.  So I had the idea to bring it back here and see if I could get it painted.

I gave the box to the artist in November, and was supposed to go to Sergei Posad and pick it up in February.  But we ended up not taking a school trip there this year so I never picked it up.  I meant to call the lady yesterday (or rather, have my assistant call her since she speaks Russian) and ask her to bring it, but forgot to bring her card to school.  I was kicking myself and wondering when/if I would ever see that box again.  But as I walked round the fair today, I saw her sitting there--and lo and behold, there was my box! She did a fabulous job, and it is so very special to me because now it represents not one, but two places I have lived in my "overseas years".  (I guess I should add a Turkish magic eye and a Chinese dragon to get the full range, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!)

So I was already chalking this day up as a win.  But wait!  It gets better!  As mentioned in my last blog post (oddly enough less than a week ago), the Veteran's Choir comes and performs at my school every year to celebrate Victory Day.  And every year, I look for my favorite little old man, Mr. Vasily. This year, Mr. Vasily was not there and I about panicked, because as I've said--there are less and less of the veterans every year.  I went and found Mr. B (one of our Russian teachers--such a lovely man! who helps to organize it) and said, "I didn't see Mr. Vasily.  Please tell me he's still with us."  I found out he had been ill and unable to come, but was so sorry to miss it that he wanted to come back when he was well.  So Mr. B came to me yesterday and said, "He's coming tomorrow, would you like me to bring him to your class?"  Would I?!!  Of course!

So in Morning Meeting time I told the kids--they were so excited!  We wrote some "interview" questions that we wanted to ask Mr. Vasily, which our Russian speakers would translate for us.  Finally he arrived at about 12:15.  He's getting quite frail so Mr. B helped him in and he sat at the front of the room--he is 94 years old now!  We began asking our questions, and Mr. Vasily told us how he went to war when he was 17 years old.  How normally training would take 6 months, but they needed more men quickly so his was only 3 months.  How he slept in trenches in the open and then became a tank driver and at that point lived, cooked, ate, and slept in his tank because "you would get shot if you got out of your tank". How he lost his arm when his tank was blown up at Stalingrad.  The kids were so spellbound we went right through recess time and no one even noticed!  I look up, and my "Mr. Tough Guy" student (who I adore, by the way) has tears just streaming down his face.  And then another student joins in.  And then another.  Until about half my class was crying.  You know, WWII was "Over There" for we Americans, but for Europeans it was "Right Here".  I'm sure many of my European and Russian students have heard family stories of the losses their families suffered, and it had been just a story.  But hearing it from Mr. Vasily who WAS THERE made it come so alive for the kids.   We were all just so touched and so honored to have Mr. Vasily share his story with us, and I know one day when the kids are in a history class and learning about World War II and the Battle of Stalingrad, it is going to be so much more meaningful for them because they met a man who WAS THERE.

So, it started with a SWAT team, and ended with tears, but this was truly an excellent day!

Mr. B and Mr. Vasily