From Jeff:

We finally arrived in Tambov, Russia at approximately Friday @ 7:30 AM.
Everyone is a little drained, tired, but we are doing well. Its amazing to
realize our flight left Boise on Wednesday @ 7 AM and it took this long to
get here. We ran into one issue at Chicago where we were delayed for
three hours due to the plane having an electrical problem. We finally were
able to take off with one exception and that was only a couple lavatories
were working... so we were advised to use the bath before we took off.

Most of us didn't sleep very well on the plane to Frankfurt due to the seats
being really uncomfortable in that I really got to experience flight via the
metal of the seat.... I was a little sore after that ordeal. We missed our
flight out of Frankfurt, but Lord willing we were able to catch a later
flight. When we arrived in Moscow one of our bags didn't make it so we
had to wait about two hours waiting for it to arrive, since it held Dirk's
guitar. Going through Russian custom went well for everyone except
Vicki. The gal she gave her passport too asked for her boarding pass,
which Vicki didn't have so we got to see Vicki using her quick wit with
trying to explain to someone who didn't know english by nervously flapping
her arms saying she left didn't have her pass and was most likely on the
plane. The custom official's voice continued to rise as she said "Boarding
pass", and then Vicki was finally admitted with me telling Vicki that her
passport was most likely stamped "Psycho".




From Paul:

We are going this afternoon to help with VBS. The pastor says that the leaders are tired, which means they are probably exhausted. The train ride was pretty good. Bear said that we were on a newer train. The flight from Chicago was awful. I think it was configured for Asians. 9 hours next to Bear- every time I started to doze off he would move and we are a little to big for the seats. We all had a few hours of on and off dozing for maybe twenty minutes at a time on the planes. We missed our connecting flight to Moscow from Frankfurt due to the delay in Chicago. We were able to catch the next flight a couple of hours later but we were not able to get into the hotel and rest. We went to a local mall in Moscow and ate some quick food. The US has successfully exported its culture. Mcdonald's is the cheapest place to eat in Moscow. There was a KFC and Sbarro just like our malls. The dress was possibly less modest than in the US. Surprisingly, the cost was a little more than in the US. We then went to the train station. I can try to give more details later since we have to go now, but we finally did get to sleep for about 7 hours straight on the train. We are still all messed up in our sleep patterns but hopefully we will function well soon.

As you pray for the June team, here's a picture for reference. Left to right: Jeff, Vicki, Bear, Paul, Samantha, Jerry, Dirk.

The picture is from the Boise airport. Considering their flight delays, I doubt they would have looked this good and smiled this nicely if the picture was from their arrival!

Departure

The alarms went off at 3am this morning and they all made it on the plane. The Chicago stop was longer than expected because the plane needed a little work. Their plane is due to arrive in Germany at 3am Idaho time. Making this part of their trip very long. I'm waiting on a picture of the team as they left Boise. I will keep you updated.

Packing

Yes, there are clothes in there.

Tambov Region

Overview:
Geographical Features: Tambovskaya region is situated in the central part of the Oksko-Donskaya plain. The region borders on Voronezhskaya region in the south and the south-west, on Lipetskaya region in the west, on Ryazanskaya region in the north, on Penzenskaya region in the north-east and the east, on Saratovskaya region in the east and the south-east.
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Population: 1,315,300

Administrative division: Tambovskaya region is divided into 23 districts, 7 towns of the regional submission, 1 town of district submission, 13 town settlements, 304 villages. Centre of the region is the town of Tambov.

Brief History:

Tambov was founded in 1636 as a frontier fortress at the southern boundary of Moscow State in order to defend themselves against the raids of Tartars.
Since 1779 the town was at the head of the Tambov region, ruled by the governor-general.
In 1796 it was transformed to the Tambov Province.
Established as oblast' in 1937.