Monday 17th October

We had a spell on our own this morning and people went in different directions to explore.  We found a number of impressive buildings on our own street housing the University, a military academy and the local prison.  We got a little braver and explored along a few street to find an amazing indoor / outdoor food market.  This was an experience of the senses!

There were many sweet and biscuit stalls, a beautiful array of vegetables and fruit, not all known to us, whole stalls of eggs, cheeses and honey.  Most of the the traders seemed pleased to see us and posed for photos.  After a little shopping for top up resources and coffee! we started back for the Panda Hotel through circus square where some miniature ponies gained a lot of attention. 

We met up with Katie and Ksucha, who were ready to show us their  version of Saratov, a city they are very proud of. We visited book shops and one of the team purchased a much sought after football shirt for her son.  At one book shop a lady brought her 8 year old son, Ilya, to us to ask if we could speak English with him, he had had 4 lessons so far but wanted the hear the real sounds of the language.  He was a delightful little boy and very willing to try out all he knew on us!

The bridge over the Volga at Saratov is very impressive at 2.8 K long and it was decided we should take a bus across, another new experience, the buses were pretty old as they had started life in Germany then Moscow before being sent “down” to Saratov.   Lace curtains in the windows was a quirky addition to the experience. We viewed the bridge from all sides before exploring another little cafe!

We returned to the hotel to review our notes for Tuesday’s sessions and pack the resources for our early start tomorrow.  This task takes some time, it is the equivalent of planning an in depth training at home to train and enthuse leaders, including sessions which give them an understanding of the ethos of the organisation, ways to work with the girls and have some fun at the same time.  We have been providing different taster sessions for leaders and girls and need to be prepared to adapt quickly when needed.

An early start tomorrow.!!