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- TeamUfa
- We are a team of people trying to reach people in Ufa and Bashkortostan in Russia. It is no small task and we want your support!
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Friday, September 2, 2011
First Impressions
2:40 AM | Posted by
TeamUfa
Shannon and I are a little over a week into our 4 month stay in Ufa now. What has my initial impression of Ufa been?...BIG! I am from a small town. Ufa is more than 100 times bigger than my hometown. But to the people here, Ufa is more like a town than a big city. I have definitely noticed some differences between life here and life in America. Where I come from in Texas, there is very little public transportation, but here, everyone uses trams and busses. I definitely should be in much better shape after 4 months with all the walking and climbing many flights of stairs that we will be doing. I can also already tell that my personal space “bubble” is certainly going to be tested and possibly shrink during our time here. So far though, the cultural differences have not been too overwhelming. I am so very thankful for Chris and Eileen and their family! They have welcomed us in and made us feel at home even though we are thousands of miles away from everything familiar.
We have had the privilege of meeting quite a few people by now and they are all very friendly and welcoming. Everyone wants to make sure we have a good impression of their city. So far, we have found that most people are very excited to meet us and want to attempt to talk with us so that they can learn more English (We, of course, also need to practice our Russian!).
In general, my overall impression of Ufa (and Russia) is that there are less of America’s modern conveniences here. Elevators are rare, not nearly as many people have their own cars, apartments are smaller, fold-out couches are often used as beds, and people go for walks to hang out, rather than watching TV or spending $4 on a cup of coffee. Right now, I can’t even remember how this conversation got started, but at some point in the last week, Chris said something that has been making me think. In America specifically, modern conveniences have made our lives so much easier, and we are constantly trying to figure out new ways to make life easier still. This mentality may very well be seeping into our spiritual lives as well and making us think that the Christian life should also be easy and that we can come up with ways that make it easier or more comfortable, but that’s not how God intended for us to follow Him. He never told us that being a Christian would be easy. In fact, He told us it would be difficult and that we would face trials. Perhaps it has taken a trip to Russia to show me that I do not need to be striving to make my Christian life as easy as I can, but instead I need to be willing to follow Christ no matter how difficult the road may be.
-Rachel
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