Day of Mourning
While my family in Canada is currently in mourning due to the Calgary Flames' annihilation, I stayed home this morning to see how my resident country is paying respect to their first President.I woke up not so early to my cell phone ringing. As luck would have it, one of my classes was cancelled. So relieved for an extra hour of sleep and extra time to go to the centre to pick up my pay (an hour commute), I began to relax.
Last night some of my students were talking about how today has been declared a day of mourning for Yeltsin. There would be no television commercials or entertainment of any kind. To find out if they were right, I turned on my television for only the second time since I've been here. The first time was to watch Putin's address on New Year's eve (booorrring).
There was a live broadcast on almost every channel of the funeral, open casket and all. They showed thousands of people lined up outside the church in Kropotkinskaya, which happens to be next to the school where I needed to pick up my pay. New plan. I decided to stay home, prepare some lessons, and watch TV.
The Russians were paying their respect by walking through the church and viewing the body. It went on for hours. The more important people were greeting the widow and her daughters. Mrs. Yeltsin looked exhausted. Despite not understanding the Russian commentator, I did hear some name mentions, including former Canadian Prime Minister Chretien... or was that Chechnyn? Probably not. I think I saw the back of his head, anyway. George Sr. and Bill, sporting what appeared to be matching blue ties, stole the spotlight for a while, along with some other former world leaders.
My students had nothing but praise for Yeltsin. Some recounted stories of his social exhibitions and a group of older students told me he gave them hope. Mary, who is 45 years old, said it was the only time in her life she felt that way. We don't talk 'politics' too much in class, partly due to my not wanting to offend anyone and also because, as one student put it, "the walls might be listening", But, without criticizing anyone in particular, they did agree that they don't feel that same sense of hope now.
No one's perfect but I think it's pretty cool that a guy could inspire hope in a whole country and keep their respect. RIP Boris!
posted by Ilsa @ Wednesday, April 25, 2007
6 Comments:
Boris was quite the guy, the first (and only, by all aspects) democratic Russian president. Russians would well remember the courage he displayed when standing down an attempted coup by the Communists. It's very fortunate you are in Moscow to witness the reaction of the Russian people at the time of his passing.
Oh yeah, and Mattew Lombardi of the Flames is playing on team Canada at the WHC. You should go.
The only chance I had to buy tix were in packages of 6 games - prices starting equivalent to my monthly salary. I might try to buy from scalpers.
Those rubles sure don't go a long way, do they ...
Why does it not surprise me that my husband took that opportunity to bring up hockey? Just missing the Flames I guess. Love the posts, new sister, and thanks for all the great wedding day photos you've passed along. I have a good one of you, me and Rob doing the much-needed Russian vodka shot at the rehearsal. Is your Scotland trip planned? We're just enjoying getting back to some kind of normalcy and gearing up for that next trip back to SK. All my best to you!
Now Dion Phaneuf made the trip. You're missing out, sis.
Hope you're enjoying the May Day parade in Red Square with the rest of The Internationale.
For Pete's sake. Alright. I'm going okay? If... When Canada wins on Wed, I'll go to the Sunday night game and do whatever I have to get in. Look for me in the crowd. I'll be the one not speaking Russian.
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