United Airlines to Russia, would I do it again?

So, a week later, I'm thinking about the trip and how well it went.  I'm looking at all fo the great things that happened.  Sure, we could have done better, but all went really well.  Everything went well, except for one thing--the experience with United Airlines.  So, let me tell a little story--a true story.  So that I don't bore you, I'll stick to some bare facts about our trip.

First, we have always flown Delta.  We've had a great experience with Delta and even one year that our visas were late, Delta waived additional change fees for our passengers who had purchased team tickets.  The process of purchasing group tickets is very easy and the instructions are well laid out and complete.  I almost never have to wait on hold for more than 5 minutes to get a customer service rep.

This year the ticket price was great enough that we decided to fly United Airlines--the largest airline in the world.  The largest airline in the world sure acted akin to the largest car manufacturer in the world.  It was  like a bloated beached whale.  Don't get me wrong.  Many of the individuals who work for United were very helpful, but even many of them told us how bad the systems were. 

Let's start with making the initial reservation.  So, you call and get put on hold.  I think that it will be about ten to fifteen minutes.  Approximately four hours later, I get a real voice.  We go through the process of making the initial group reservation.  I then receive an email with two documents, neither of the proving overly helpful.  Two examples,  one document tells me when the names are due, but not where to send them.  ????  It made me wonder if this was the first time they'd done a group reservation.  In addition, the language about when to provide names was a bit confusing.  There was a deadline to ensure that you didn't lose some of your reservations.  Then there was a second drop dead date.  Interestingly enough, neither of these dates matched the date in the computer when I called.  I also found out that I misunderstood the deadline language.  The message says that the number of tickets reserved would be reduced to ten if not made by a certain date.  As I only had ten travelers, I really didn't care.  So, I set my sights on the second date.  When I called (another two hours on hold), I was informed that I should have provided the names by a different date that was close to the first date in my letter, but not the same.  Of course, I had sent an email earlier in the year to ask a question regarding this and I received an email almost two MONTHS later with my answer.

I was told that I had to complete ticketing that day or I would lose the reservation.  So, I pulled out my trusty credit card and promptly purchased $14,000 worth of plane tickets.  Well, perhaps not so promptly, because when they tried to run the credit cards, their system was down and they took my credit card information and told me that they'd call me if there was a problem. 

Fortunately, there was no problem and we got tickets. 

Of course, that couldn't be the end of it.  We arrived at the airport on the Thursday morning of our flight and found that our flight from Denver to Washington, DC was cancelled.  At first our option was waiting till the next day.   NOT! So, we managed to get everyone on a Lufthansa flight eight hours later. 

I guess that was the end of the terrible stuff with United...

Oh, no, wait.  I forgot to mention the $1,000 deposit that I made to reserve the tickets.  It's now been eight days since I arrived home and my deposit refund has still not shown on my credit card, nor have I seen a check in the mail.  So, now, I may have to spend another 4 hours on hold to get my deposit repaid. 

So, I'm not sure if this is a real airline or not.  Seems to me to be a bad imitation of the old Soviet version of Aeroflot.  I guess it's comforting to know that at least the pilots weren't up front smoking and drinking vodka...or were they?

Silly Americans in Pokrov

After a lovely sunny day in Pokrov, the skies began pouring rain shortly after our team meeting.  Four of us braved the rain to get to the grocery store to purchase a few items.  People looked at us as if we were the craziest people in the world.  Other shoppers called cabs to take them home while we walked the three or four blocks without umbrellas. 

Today began with half the team walking to a local convent for a tour and explanation of the orthodox faith.  The rest of us stayed and worked with the kids on repairing books.  We had to skip our lesson due to a number of factors.

After lunch we had some free time, then we had a presentation about Peter the Great.  A dance group from the city came and danced as part of the program.  They were giggly littel 12 year old girles and they loved the fact that I had lived in the Los Angeles area.  Later we played games and crafts.  The craft for today was a paper mache bowl.  There were a number of great looking bowls and it generated a lot of interest and very nice projects.

I also was able to connect witha girl named Ksusha who I have known for two years.  It was the first time that I have seen her photographs of her family and friends.  She was very proud of it.

A group from the Russian party led by President Putin came also.  They led the students in games related to the celebration of Pushkin's birthday.   Pushkin would be 213 today. 

It was a busy day, but we only have two days left.  We'll have to make the best of it.

Yoga in Pokrov

While we did far more than yoga today, that was the big hit.  Julieanna Keenan, a high school student and new member of our team,  decided to try a yoga class just for girls today.  It was our way of connecting and also encouraging the girls to exercise.  It was standing room only in the yoga room with barely enough room for all of the mats.  Tomorrow we will likely have more girls as Julieanna was a HIT.  

The day begin with our teams being set up and developing their slogans and their posters.  I was asked to write the text of our poster in English.   The kids decorated the poster in English.  The theme for the week is a positive attitude and the theme for today was do a good deed.  We were encouraged by the orphanage staff to do a good deed and to also compliment people, especially orphanage staff. 

We also played soccer and did crafts.  We didn't have time to do our lesson, but Chari thinks that she can get two skits into one lesson and combine the two themes. 

We also had an orthodox priest come to the orphanage today.  Some of our team members met with him and some kids and had an interesting time learning more about the orthodox faith.  In addition, some went to the local Grace home.  The Grace home is an apartment, supervised by Svetlana and her husband.  Five boys live in this transitional housing apartment while they adjust to their new roles in college, technical schools and universities. 

So, now we have to make plans for the talent show on Friday.  We have to provide 5 acts.  I have to find one.  ARGH.

A day at the spa

Most people would not compare a day at a Russian orphanage to a day at the spa, but that's what we did.  We traveled from Vladimir today to Pokrov and one of the main activities was to make the girls feel special.  We brought a number of types of hair and body products to help the girls do make up and hair and nails.  One girl, Lena, has learned to braid hair and braided hair for some of our team members (it was women and girls only).  It was a great time.

Others played soccer and marbles with the boys, while the women had their spa day.

We also participated in some games with the children and well as had free time with a number of the kids. 

We also watched a program about the birch tree that the orphanage children put on. 

It was not an exciting day in what was accomplished, but even new trip participants felt as if we set a great foundation for the rest of the week.

A funny day

It was a funny day—funny in a funny way and in a strange way.  It was funny because Maksim was being his funny self, pestering everyone trying to work on his English.  It was funny because in Chari’s lessons on parenting, Nathan, Julieanna, and Kate played their parts well acting like spoiled brats (Julieanna and Nathan) and an out of control mom (Kate).  It was strange because kids that I thought would certainly be at the ministry center weren’t. 

So, for the disappointing part of the day, both Valya and Oleg, whom I’ve known for years, were not able to make it to the ministry center again today, which means it’s like that I will not see them this year.  For Valya that would be two years in a row. 

For the bright spots.  I talked to Pasha, who was the first kid that I connected with at the orphanage in 2005, and he just graduated from Vladimir State University.  He is a great young man.  We also talked about my endeavors.  Some of the older kids are getting to be much better conversationalists.  They actually ask about other people rather than waiting for Americans to ask about them.

Another highlight for me was that Anna Frolova, who stayed with us two years ago for six weeks (not an orphan) drove to the Vladimir ministry center from Ivanova (about an hour and a half) to see me.  She and her sister Masha arrived just as the church services was getting out.   Anna and Masha joined us for lunch.  We had some great conversation, and they even stayed for Chari’s parenting session.  It was a great chance for them to see what we do and to listen to a lot of English. 

We saw a lot of our former interpreters at church this morning.  I was able to sing all of today’s songs out of the church song book.  For dinner we took all of the kids that were with us to Globus.  It’s a lot like Costco, except it has a very large buffet type restaurant.  The kids liked it and we didn’t have to deal with the chance of rain. 

We also gave away most of the clothes that we brought with us from our clothing drive today.  The clothes were very well received.  We set them out and allows kids to shop for two free pieces of clothing each, then the remainder was put away to give to kids who were not able to attend.  One jacket that we almost left behind was snatched up immediately by one girl and another Adidas jacket created a debate between two good friends about who would get it.  When one of the friends realized that the jacket was too small for him, the potential conflict was resolved.

And now it’s almost midnight and I’m falling asleep as I type.  So I’ll insert a few pictures and get to sleep.

Today was a most excellent day

That's what BJ called it.  Today, we drove from Moscow to the ministry center in Vladimir.  Fund Nadezhda runs the ministry center.  We were up early for breakfast in the hotel restaurant for its wonderful buffet.  After that we gathered out things and took off for Vladimir.  Unfortunately, traffic was very bad and in order to save time we had to stop at MacDonald's for lunch along the way and eat on the bus.  It always strikes me as funny to come to Russia and go to MacDonald's, but just as in the US, it was the most convenient option along the highway. 

Zhenya, a girl who graduated in 2010 from Pokrov arrived from Kovrov (about an hour and a half away) with her boyfriend.  He seems like a nice guy and she seems to be well.  He is 23 years old and she is 18.  He has graduated from college and has a job.  They seem happy.  It was great to see her again.

Many of our friends from the immediate Vladimir area arrived to hear and particpate in the lessons on anger by Don Shive and lessons on business that I prepared. 

In between and after the lessons our free time was filled with conversations, sharing photos, and playing Uno.  The Uno game became very loud and laughter filled the room. 

BJ's highlight was seeing both of his boys, Sasha and Dima, together for the first time in a long while.

We had a pizza dinner and finally left the ministry center a little after 8 p.m., so it was a long day and it's time for me to go to bed.  We had a team meeting and we've decided to leave all of the donated clothing at the ministry center.  The director said that they can uses all of the clothing there as some of the women in the young mothers program can have childrens as 7 or 8 years old and some of hte orphan graduates are small enough to wear even a size 14. 

We were glad for such great blessings to today and to see that the kids really do want to related to us and to learn from us.

Made it to Russia

So, we finally made it to Russia after an extra 8 hours in the Denver International Airport and our flight through Frankfurt.  It was my first time in Germany in 35 years.  We didn't see much because we arrived a the gate that was only a few gates away from our departing flight.  Everyone made it safely and Anna N. met us at the hotel.  Anna graduated last year and she now works in Moscow while she prepares to go to school next year.  She looks good and seems to be doing well.  Tomorrow we will got to the Vladimir ministry center in the morning.

The trip starts with a delay

So, we all arrived on time at Denver International Airport this morning for our 10 a.m. flight.  Unfortunately, United Airlines had to cancel the flight.  After about an hour and a half, we were rebooked onto a Lufthansa flight for 5:50 p.m.  That means that some of the things we were going to do in Moscow will not get done. 

So, we had lunch here at DIA and now some are playing cards, some are walking around the airport and I'm chatting with friends on VK.com.  Now, they are all going to bed. 

We managed to get almost everything in our suitcases, but had to leave some things behind.  We are excited about our trip, even though this delay is frustrating and it was not clear at first whether our new flight was confirmed.  We had about ten minutes at the Lufthansa counter trying to find out if we really had seats.  We had a big sigh of relief when they changed from saying that the flight was full to printing our boarding passes.  Still we sit.

Russia Team almost ready to go

We leave in a little over two weeks.  Wow.  The time passes so quickly. 

We've got almost everything ready.  The theme this year is recycling and renewing.  It applies to the environment and it applies to our lives. 

Live anew.

Peace.

Doug