As much as I wanted to keep this a secret from my Dad, I wanted to share the pictures more. So yes Dad, we found an Orthodox Church here and you may or may not be getting a gift from it. Man, I have no ability to bluff....
Last Sunday 3 of us walked to the Russian Orthodox Church in town - it's very small, but most of the population here is Muslim anyway.
When we entered we found out that we needed to cover our heads with scarves, and my friend's jacket wasn't very long so an old Russian lady made her wrap a skirt around herself. This old babushka (grandma) was standing at the entrance to the church with a pile of skirts that she kept forcing on people. We entered while a service was going on - it was all in Russian, but I didn't understand most of it. People were singing and chanting alot and everyone was standing up (there were only a couple of benches in the back - and those were only for old ladies).
The priest gave a sermon, which I also didn't understand. He was yelling alot and some of the babushkas started to cry. And he was holding a large cross up to his mouth as if it were a microphone, which I found comically distracting. After a while our guy friend walked out and we tried to follow, but the babushka at the door wouldn't let us leave and shoved us back into the service. Apparently we didn't not look sufficiently saved. I think she expected us to be contrite and crying too - which we may have been, had we understood a single word of the message. We finally got out and my friend gave her borrowed skirt back.
Here's the other pictures I took of the church:
This one is a new section that is under construction:
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