There's so much to write about. This weekend I had the opportunity to stay with one of the students and his family. Many of you saw pictures on facebook. It was an awesome experience that is probably best told in person. I went to a hockey match on Friday night, but not all of you are interested in sports and it's one of those things that's probably better to experience than it is to write about. Literally, there's so much that I could write specifically about but all of the stories that go through my head have little details of hospitality that helped make the day/night/event. I've spoken about the hospitality that has been shown to me in general terms and now I'd like to give some of the finer details to that which I have received and had the opportunity to give.
First off, in my class I've taught a few of the larger concepts in leadership. Due to the language barrier we don't cover a whole lot of ground on the number of theories that we discuss but we do talk about big topic items and get a pretty good idea of the perspectives of each one from their different countries and cultures. Are leaders born or made? Are people inherently good or bad? How does this play into how we view and lead others? What is service leadership all about? Is it even possible to commit a selfless act?
The students were charged with the idea of a service learning project. I told them that I wanted to make one happen but that it wasn't part of their original syllabus and it wouldn't be graded. Everyone was on board. If I'm afforded the opportunity to return in the future, I'll probably make a service learning project around agriculture part of the class. This time the students opted to split into two groups. One group was more interested in visiting an orphanage and spending time with the children, while the other group wanted to spend time with veterans. They were eager to do this, despite it not having any bearing on their grade. Unfortunately, these types of tasks are very difficult in Moscow. They called around to several orphanages and were repeatedly turned down. I believe they finally got one that would allow it but they are having to arrange some papers through the university. If it happens, it will be after I leave. The group that wanted to spend some time with veterans also has had difficulties. They haven't been able to get in contact with anyone. I've stood over their shoulders while they found countless numbers and make phone calls to get shut down. The entire process of the groups trying to help anyone willing to receive it was sad, enlightening, and in a way refreshing. At first I was completely disappointed that we weren't making any progress and then it was rather eye opening at how difficult it is to help over here. Likewise, they thought it was crazy that we could just go to a nursing home, fire department, school, etc... and eventually find some way that we could help out with little problems. It was refreshing to see these students continue to press on. With every rejection it was as if it was a personal challenge for some of them to find a way to help someone. It was great to see that. Plans are still being made to make both projects happen, but I'm sure it will be after I'm back in the U.S.
On a much smaller scale I challenged the students to commit a selfless act for homework one afternoon. This led to a short discussion about selfless acts and we all took our position on whether or not it was possible. With that in mind, after the hockey game we all stormed the local McDonalds, which has to be the largest McDonalds I've ever seen. Chris, one of the Clemson students, and I were standing in line together. We were both starving. It was the typical guy food challenge moment. "I bet you can't eat three big macs". "Oh, I can definitely eat three big macs". "I'll eat three if you eat three." "Deal." Typical. Well Chris and I both got three big macs, a fry, and a coke. I was able to knock out two of them. Chris was the better man in this challenge. He finished all three. Well as we were getting ready to leave I said I didn't want to throw it away but wasn't sure what to do with it because we were leaving that night to go to Sergey's house so I wouldn't eat it this past weekend. I offered it up to any of the students that wanted an untouched big mac. One student blurted out, "Commit a selfless act. You know we'll see a homeless person on the way home." Awesome idea! Sure enough, in the metro station was a woman that was at least 80 years old. It's a completely separate blog topic about how many older women I see begging for change. I see many more older women in need compared to men. It's very sad. I passed her before I realized she was there and immediately turned back to give her the sandwich. At the same time one of the students turned back and gave her some change he had. Knowing the student lives off of about $8 a day for food and we had just gone out to eat, I was proud of him. The rest of the group, unknown to the fact that we had turned around, were barreling through the metro headed for a train. The other student and I were able to make eye contact with the woman for only moments but it was long enough to see her begin to cry. As he and I walked away, he looked at me and said that was awesome. I agreed. It was a great moment. I can't say it was selfless because I was thankful that we were able to help.
This weekend was full of hospitality from Sergey's family. First off, Sergey approached me and asked if I would like to come spend the weekend with his family and go hunting. Of course I jumped at the opportunity. While there, his parents made sure that Chris and I were completely dressed appropriately. Sergey's uncle is about my size so they made the call to get some of his clothes for me. They fed us until we were plump. Chris made the comment Saturday night for Sergey's mom to quit putting food on the table. Sergey's father quickly responded with "When the food stops, everyone goes home. Keep bringing food!". We ate cake, cheese, pears, apples, kiwi, shashlik, and grilled fish until sometime after midnight. To top it off, his uncle and mother tried to give me the coveralls to take back with me. I couldn't let that happen so I told Sergey of my plan to conveniently forget them. He thought it was funny but after describing how they would be great for the 2 days out of the year that I may use them in Georgia, they would serve someone else better here, he understood.
We visited the museum and home of Dmitri Mendeleev. This man is responsible for the periodic table and vodka. How much cooler can you get? Oh... did I mention that he bought the 250 acres that his house and museum sat on to do agricultural experiments? He just got cooler. Well it turns out that according to the old ladies that worked at the museum, we were the first Americans that had been there in their recollection. It is out of the way and off in the country, but it's awesome and sad to think we were the first Americans there. The director of the museum pulled all of the desks from the office together and cleaned them off. All of the workers dispersed and he asked us to sit down. The workers brought back cakes, hot tea, snacks, etc... We sat and talked for at least 45 minutes. He then wanted to take us to see another house of Mendeleev's that he left to his maid. It was another truly great experience.
And finally today one of my students from last year came to visit me in the classroom. I asked if she would like to give any advice and she revealed to the students how much the class has helped her when she interacts with others in a group. She spoke about the student's upcoming leadership papers and how when she wrote hers, which consisted of a plan to become better leaders, she acknowledged how she had little patience. I didn't recall this but she said that I wrote how she was a great student and that I said something to the degree of "If you want to work on your patience to try and make it a daily task". Whatever it was that I wrote back on her paper, she typed into her phone and she sees it on a daily basis. She said whenever she has one of those trying moments where she needs more patience, she reaches for her phone. I had no idea and it was very nice of her to say these things to the class.
I've literally just scratched the surface of all of those little moments that have been awesome in regards to people's generosity towards me here. I could write a book, much less a blog. The people have been wonderful. The students have been wonderful. It's been a pleasure to teach them this year.
Tomorrow morning, we're heading to a mushroom farm. I'm really looking forward to that opportunity and hopefully I'll get a blog out on that experience.
First off, in my class I've taught a few of the larger concepts in leadership. Due to the language barrier we don't cover a whole lot of ground on the number of theories that we discuss but we do talk about big topic items and get a pretty good idea of the perspectives of each one from their different countries and cultures. Are leaders born or made? Are people inherently good or bad? How does this play into how we view and lead others? What is service leadership all about? Is it even possible to commit a selfless act?
The students were charged with the idea of a service learning project. I told them that I wanted to make one happen but that it wasn't part of their original syllabus and it wouldn't be graded. Everyone was on board. If I'm afforded the opportunity to return in the future, I'll probably make a service learning project around agriculture part of the class. This time the students opted to split into two groups. One group was more interested in visiting an orphanage and spending time with the children, while the other group wanted to spend time with veterans. They were eager to do this, despite it not having any bearing on their grade. Unfortunately, these types of tasks are very difficult in Moscow. They called around to several orphanages and were repeatedly turned down. I believe they finally got one that would allow it but they are having to arrange some papers through the university. If it happens, it will be after I leave. The group that wanted to spend some time with veterans also has had difficulties. They haven't been able to get in contact with anyone. I've stood over their shoulders while they found countless numbers and make phone calls to get shut down. The entire process of the groups trying to help anyone willing to receive it was sad, enlightening, and in a way refreshing. At first I was completely disappointed that we weren't making any progress and then it was rather eye opening at how difficult it is to help over here. Likewise, they thought it was crazy that we could just go to a nursing home, fire department, school, etc... and eventually find some way that we could help out with little problems. It was refreshing to see these students continue to press on. With every rejection it was as if it was a personal challenge for some of them to find a way to help someone. It was great to see that. Plans are still being made to make both projects happen, but I'm sure it will be after I'm back in the U.S.
On a much smaller scale I challenged the students to commit a selfless act for homework one afternoon. This led to a short discussion about selfless acts and we all took our position on whether or not it was possible. With that in mind, after the hockey game we all stormed the local McDonalds, which has to be the largest McDonalds I've ever seen. Chris, one of the Clemson students, and I were standing in line together. We were both starving. It was the typical guy food challenge moment. "I bet you can't eat three big macs". "Oh, I can definitely eat three big macs". "I'll eat three if you eat three." "Deal." Typical. Well Chris and I both got three big macs, a fry, and a coke. I was able to knock out two of them. Chris was the better man in this challenge. He finished all three. Well as we were getting ready to leave I said I didn't want to throw it away but wasn't sure what to do with it because we were leaving that night to go to Sergey's house so I wouldn't eat it this past weekend. I offered it up to any of the students that wanted an untouched big mac. One student blurted out, "Commit a selfless act. You know we'll see a homeless person on the way home." Awesome idea! Sure enough, in the metro station was a woman that was at least 80 years old. It's a completely separate blog topic about how many older women I see begging for change. I see many more older women in need compared to men. It's very sad. I passed her before I realized she was there and immediately turned back to give her the sandwich. At the same time one of the students turned back and gave her some change he had. Knowing the student lives off of about $8 a day for food and we had just gone out to eat, I was proud of him. The rest of the group, unknown to the fact that we had turned around, were barreling through the metro headed for a train. The other student and I were able to make eye contact with the woman for only moments but it was long enough to see her begin to cry. As he and I walked away, he looked at me and said that was awesome. I agreed. It was a great moment. I can't say it was selfless because I was thankful that we were able to help.
This weekend was full of hospitality from Sergey's family. First off, Sergey approached me and asked if I would like to come spend the weekend with his family and go hunting. Of course I jumped at the opportunity. While there, his parents made sure that Chris and I were completely dressed appropriately. Sergey's uncle is about my size so they made the call to get some of his clothes for me. They fed us until we were plump. Chris made the comment Saturday night for Sergey's mom to quit putting food on the table. Sergey's father quickly responded with "When the food stops, everyone goes home. Keep bringing food!". We ate cake, cheese, pears, apples, kiwi, shashlik, and grilled fish until sometime after midnight. To top it off, his uncle and mother tried to give me the coveralls to take back with me. I couldn't let that happen so I told Sergey of my plan to conveniently forget them. He thought it was funny but after describing how they would be great for the 2 days out of the year that I may use them in Georgia, they would serve someone else better here, he understood.
We visited the museum and home of Dmitri Mendeleev. This man is responsible for the periodic table and vodka. How much cooler can you get? Oh... did I mention that he bought the 250 acres that his house and museum sat on to do agricultural experiments? He just got cooler. Well it turns out that according to the old ladies that worked at the museum, we were the first Americans that had been there in their recollection. It is out of the way and off in the country, but it's awesome and sad to think we were the first Americans there. The director of the museum pulled all of the desks from the office together and cleaned them off. All of the workers dispersed and he asked us to sit down. The workers brought back cakes, hot tea, snacks, etc... We sat and talked for at least 45 minutes. He then wanted to take us to see another house of Mendeleev's that he left to his maid. It was another truly great experience.
And finally today one of my students from last year came to visit me in the classroom. I asked if she would like to give any advice and she revealed to the students how much the class has helped her when she interacts with others in a group. She spoke about the student's upcoming leadership papers and how when she wrote hers, which consisted of a plan to become better leaders, she acknowledged how she had little patience. I didn't recall this but she said that I wrote how she was a great student and that I said something to the degree of "If you want to work on your patience to try and make it a daily task". Whatever it was that I wrote back on her paper, she typed into her phone and she sees it on a daily basis. She said whenever she has one of those trying moments where she needs more patience, she reaches for her phone. I had no idea and it was very nice of her to say these things to the class.
I've literally just scratched the surface of all of those little moments that have been awesome in regards to people's generosity towards me here. I could write a book, much less a blog. The people have been wonderful. The students have been wonderful. It's been a pleasure to teach them this year.
Tomorrow morning, we're heading to a mushroom farm. I'm really looking forward to that opportunity and hopefully I'll get a blog out on that experience.
Tonight the blog bout' did me in. I have cried over and over for the older woman you gave the sandwich to...and thought of how many times she may have had a kidney stone or pneumonia...and her suffering through it. Then I read "We've Got It Made" and Debbie's comment. I am so proud of you. Proud of all of you and that you all seem to realize what is important in this life on Earth.
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