Off to work we go

Our days of a small country drive to DHQ are over. Now it is a 20 minute walk with the temperature rapidly dropping. The THQ building is set in the midst of a busy metro, high rise apartments and shops. There are many trees surrounding and some kids play areas. The building is over 100 years old. You realise that, as you enter and find your way through a maze of small offices. In fact some workers are placed in areas we would use as a broom closet at home. It is quite amazing to see the way work is done over here. Every potential space is used for something. Storage is found wherever it can be placed and stacked to the roof.
The dining room is in the basement and you sit in a communal dining room with floral plastic table cloths. The TC & Chief have modest offices on the middle of the three floors.
Our office on the top floor looking out over a tree filled park. They tell us when the snow falls it is the best view.
There is no luxury of a welcome receptionist, no lcd screens, but the latest war cry in the foyer with some army pictures remind you of where we are.
And so our work begins. Lots of paperwork to begin but we look forward to finding ways to connect with people and make a difference in this place.

Language learning

We ventured out yesterday to discover a large shopping mall. Our limited lanuage learning has been bolstered as we studyed the important symbols. No we did not eat any - just had a coffee.

We shopped for some essential things to keep us going until our luggage arrrives in a couple of weeks.

We are creatures of habit and one of the things we keep forgetting is that on escalators you stand on the right hand side and leave room for the fast walkers on the left. Just like the roads this is opposite to what we know. The metro - or underground they say is the best in the world - not in the newsest trains as they are old rattlers - but in effectiveness to transports millions of people each day around Moscow. We are starting to familiarise ourselves - the long station names can be confusing so we just follow the coloured dots and instructions on how many stops to go through. When the language skills are developed a little more we might follow the letters.

There is much to learn - Ron discovered this week that you do not whistle ! it is thought to bring bad luck. We will be constantly learning and challenged as we grapple with a new culture. We look forward with much anticipation. This week will mostly be in the office studying files and trying to get our head around a very large Territory - 5 countries, 5 languages 5 cultures and probably 5 different ways of doing the same thing!

We've arrived

It is now one week exactly since we landed in the City of Moscow. Having departed Melbourne on the wed evening (the 3rd Sept 2008) we enjoyed a one day stop over in Dubai. This allowed us to rest and recover from the final farewells, to get on to the same time zone and arrive reasonably refreshed. We were met at the airport and taken to our apartment. We will live in this small one bedroom apartment until our more permanent residence is made available in about three months time.

We were introduced to the public transport system when on Saturday we returned to the airport to collect a bag I had left on the plane.

Our first Sunday we went by train to the Army. The Moscow Corps which is also the site for DHQ, Training College and the main social program. A busy place.

Our first week at THQ began with coffee and cake and the official exchange of eppaulettes, but then it has been straight into discovering what our new roles are about. Project work is an essential source of funding for this Territory and so our role in supporting the sources of funding and ensuring the process of implementation and accountability will keep us busy.

So week one comes to an end. We know with a confidence and peace that we are where God wants us to be and look forward with great anticipation what is in store in coming days.