Letter From Hank
October 8, 2007
My friend Hank was one of my inspirations for going to Russia to work with orphans. He goes every few years to do missionary work in a different part of Russia than I visited — he goes to the Siberian city of Tyumen in south central Russia, about 1,000 miles from Moscow. He left in September for another visit. Here’s an email he recently sent to some friends (thanks Hank, for including me on the email and agreeing to let me post!):
I must first apologize – I should have sent this message last week, now that I have been here for 10 days, and am getting ready to leave. But life here has been hectic to say the least – great – but hectic.
I just returned from spending a night with a kid I met at camp over 5 years ago. He is 20 now, attending the local college, and is still an awesome young man. He is a growing Christian, doesn’t drink like most do here, doesn’t date excessively (no time for it), and is working hard to save up $4000 for a 1993 Toyota that he just couldn’t stop talking about.
We stayed in the tiny apartment in a house he shares with his brother – one den, one kitchen, and a storage room. Yep, no bathroom – that was in the back yard, in a barn – an outhouse. No running water except a hose in the yard. If my stomach survives everything I ingested while staying with them, I’ll be able to eat anything anywhere, anytime! So far so good. The sofa in the den let out into a small bed, on which all three of us slept. No problem with that, except Igor has a stuffed up nose, through which he whistled and snored ALL night long, and I just couldn’t tune it out much, so I didn’t sleep. Maybe a nap today will take care of it.
But we had such a good time, with my small Russian and his small English, and my Russian/English dictionary. Amazing how much you can communicate without speaking the same language. 
But I’m rambling. I have been to several orphanages, and taken lots of goodies to them. It was not easy – you have to go there first, see the needs, and then go buy the stuff, and then take it to them. All of that took much longer than I thought it would. In the two years since I have been here, the city has grown tremedously – traffic jams are everyday, and stores are packed. It takes hours to drive around a few miles and buy goods, two lanes on the road become three just because the drivers make it so, and traffic still crawls. But it is worth it to see the faces of those little kids when they get a stuffed animal or ball, or even socks. They really don’t expect much from life, so anything is great to them. I was so humbled to walk through those places and be announced as the American who is bringing things to them.
Credit is now available – you can buy many things on credit – even shoes, one sign said. I’m afraid this concept is going to be a bad thing – these folks are not used to planning ahead, and easy credit can mess you up. Prices have skyrocketed, with housing more expensive in the city than my home town of Atlanta, just for an apartment! This is the oil and gas center of the region, and those companies are booming and paying big salaries. The monthly salary has doubled, now up to $500 per month for menial jobs. Business office type jobs pay upwards of $2000 per month, which was unheard of 2 years ago.
So far all has been awesome – tiring, but no problems. I have not been sick more than a day, no problems driving the car around the city and region (though hair-raising sometimes), and I have been able to find the supplies I needed for the orphanages. Most of that due to a 16 year old high school student who has been my guide and interpreter, when he is not in school. He has been the biggest blessing – the missionaries here met him at English club the week before when he just “happened” to come for the first time. He was in America this past year for 9 months as exchange student, and was desparate to keep his English skills up. We have become fast friends, brothers we call it, and have had loads of fun. He is an excellent guide around the city streets, and can bargain with the best of them when I need to buy 50 pairs of socks for an orphanage. I could not have accomplished much at all without him. A gift from God he is, I keep telling him, which embarasses him. He is also part of an accomplished Russian folk dance troupe, and the dances they do are amazing, I have never seen anything like it. I think leaving him will be very hard, but that’s the way it goes.
Well, I better end this, I have rambled too much! Tomorrow I visit an English class for law students, as a favor to a friend, they love to practice and hear American English. Then it is pack up and head to Moscow, starting the trip home.
I look forward to getting home, and seeing you all, but be patient as I will be full of Russia stories for a while.
Take care, thanks for listening and being such great support,
Hank
