We are so thrilled to be joined this year by such a wonderful group of stinters/interns! We'd love to introduce you today to the women on the stint team. I hope you enjoy getting to know them as much as we have!
The STINT team mission statement is to see six students at the Moscow State Pedagogical University, specifically 2 men and four women, being transformed by the power of Christ and passionately running after other students for the glory of God.
from left to right...
Anne
Bonjour ! My name is Anne, I am coming from FRANCE - and I am actually the first French person to join an American team of STINTERS abroad !
In university, I studied Economics and International Relations, and got a Master degree in International Trade (in the univeristies of Sciences Po and La Sorbonne).
Daily life in Moscow is filled with funny and crazy moments, so it's hard to pick one... and that's the beauty of living in another culture ! Every day is an adventure !
I'll always remember the day when the Internet guy came to install WIFI in our flat. It was my first week in Russia, I was alone at home, not speaking more than 5 russian words, he was a HUGE Russian guy and didn't speak any English... and well, installing the Internet is a little bit more complicated than pointing to fruits and vegetables on the market ! We had to communicate thanks to google translate, miming, drawings, calling friends... it felt like we were playing a game !!
I also love taking the Marchoutka (city mini-van) : people are so squeezed into the mini-van, yet the driver still stops every 2minutes to let more people get inside ! Drivers drive like they were in a "mario cart" video game, while sending text messages and receiving money from all the passengers and checking that everyone did pay their ticket fees ! And here's an advice : do not sit by the driver if you don't want to spend the whole ride passing people's money back and forth :)
Mattie
I am from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma where I studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Oklahoma. I love Oklahoma! Boomer Sooner! My craziest, most embarrassing moment in Moscow so far would be the time during rush hour in the Metro that I decided to cleverly avoid the crowd that was waiting to ride up the escalator out of the underground by walking up a stationary escalator not in use. However, because I did not take into account that this was one of the longest, tallest escalators in the Metro system (even riding it takes a solid 1 minute and 30 seconds!), I was completely out of breath and needing to sit down when I was only 3/4 of the way up. Needless to say, it took all my strength to crawl up that last bit at a snail's pace, huffing and puffing, with the people who've been riding up the escalator casually passing me. I've never felt so many stares; that silly American!
Angela
I am from Yukon, Oklahoma and studied Early Childhood Education at the University of Central Oklahoma. This is my third year on staff with Cru/New Life. I was previously on staff at the University of Oklahoma.
One particularly Russian moment I've had so far was when our heat was not working, so our landlord sent a man to fix it. He spent around 3 hours in our apartment, most of it waiting for a part or tool he needed. He didn't speak English and we didn't speak Russian. After he had been there a while, I wanted to offer him some water, so I whipped out the little Russian I knew to ask him. He looked at me blankly and responded, "I do not speak English. I am Russian." Wah, wah. Even my Russian sounded like English!
Lauren
I am from Dallas, Texas. I studied at OU, the University of Oklahoma #Boomer!, where I studied Elementary Education. The most impressionable moment I have had so far have actually been a collection of moments. Almost every student I have asked, "What is the main point of the Bible?" they cannot tell me and usually say, "I don't know." How much that must make God's heart break for His creation, that Russians would truly know Him.
