KAZAN

On Friday, April 17, we flew from St. Petersburg to Moscow, and then flew straight east to Kazan. Here is where east meets west, and where Muslim and Christian live peacefully together. Kazan is a university town, with 17 institutions of higher learning. We stayed at the "Grand Kazan Hotel", which had only been open a few months and was the tallest building in the downtown. It was very upscale, but alas, still no internet access.

The leaders attended a press conference while the rest went to lunch. Apparently, having water with a meal is not too common here. They did not have enough water glasses for everyone, so they asked us to share a glass between two people. It's all good...

The concert was in the "Pyramid" a very beautiful venue. Unfortunately during Footloose, Brandon rolled his ankle on his flip. He had quite an experience with paramedics, doctors, and two Russian hospitals. Gratefully it was just a bad sprain and not broken. The only upside of this was having Bro. Larsen dance Brandon's spot in Hungarian.

On Saturday we toured and performed at the disabled children's school, which was the benefactor of the performance. It was a very rich and moving experience. The children were precious and well taken care of. They throughly enjoyed our mini-show, and then they performed for us. This was one of the most memorable experiences of the tour.

We then went to the Kazan Kremlin, which is an ancient fortress. It houses both a beautiful Mosque and an Orthodox Cathedral. We went through a museum of the Tatar History which was interesting even without being able to read any of the signs or label.

Then on to one of the biggest challenges that we faced -- staying awake during the "Round Table" discussion with students from a university. The first 30 minutes was all lecture and promotion about some pet projects. It takes twice as long when everything has to be said first in Russian and then in English... Even though a few eyes closed briefly and some heads nodded, and least no one snored out loud! It did get more interesting when they began to ask specific questions about the dancers and the show. It was nearly unbelievable to them that none of the dancers are "professionals" and that some of them have only been dancing for a few years.

The evening's entertainment for the dancers was an ice show, and the entertainment for the Felts and Fishers was washing the leo's and undershirts in the bathtub. This was cheaper than the $1500 laundry charge to have it done professionally!

On Sunday morning, we had a testimony meeting at the hotel. The church is not officially recognized in Kazan. After that we packed up and prepared for the marathon train ride - 16 hours - to Saratov!