Kazan — summer 2012

Marina and her family had a long day with the Osipovs at Raifski Monastery and other places. They came home. The kids played peacefully, then fought like cats and dogs, then played peacefully, then fought like cats and dogs, then played peacefully, then fought like cats and dogs, and then fell asleep.

Today we had a tour to Bolgary, site of the ancient capital of the Volga Bolgars. Neat archaeological sites. I like the trip more, though, just for the exposure to the Russian countryside. Picture The Shire, but on a massive scale.

Our tour guide, Natalya, was Russian Orthodox. She's a good tour guide. On the other hand, her private conversation with me about Tajiks who come to Tatarstan was dismaying. Pretty darn racist, from my point of view. From the humanist point of view, of course, such an attitude is distressing. By world view I am a liberal Christian, and from the Christian point of view that attitude is even more distressing. Part of the Christian path is learning to treat everyone as your neighbor, generally; to reshape your own heart in the presence of God so that you wish well for all and even at times make decisions that sacrifice yourself for your neighbor's benefit. To see someone who claims to be a Christian and has so far to go on that path... well, in short, it makes me sad. No one who seriously tries to walk with God ever achieves perfection this side of the grave, of course. We all fail in ways that distress both ourselves and others. Encounters like this, I think, should make us more determined to seek perfection in ourselves and to be beneficial to others who are still having difficulty on that path.

Our students had a lecture today on human rights and indigenous people's rights in Russia. It's the third time I have heard the lecture over the years, and I'm still interested. It's actually a great introduction to the bases of human rights in international law. Alas, Russia still has a long way to go in actually implementing them.

Our students today visited the Museum of Socialist Life, a place that shows what life was like during the Soviet years. I was stuck at the institute responding to e-mail and didn't get to go. Y'know, I'm going to have to visit that place.

In the past when a Russian student has received a test, they have received a grade on it on a scale of 1-5. Five is an A. Four is a B. Three is a C. Two, theoretically, is a D, but it's actually a failure. They didn't assign ones all that often.

Over the last few years that has started changing in Kazan. Now they are giving percentage scores. 85-100 is an A. 75-84 is a B. 65-74 is a C.