General update for those who have prayed for me and supported me:
I have a new job with more hours and more money in a different city. My wife’s going to be making less money - the number of Russians in our town is shrinking, as they either move onto Western Europe or return to Russia, but I’ll be making more than before. A huge part of the question is, will my body be able to hold up under the increased workload at my age? Our younger daughter will be attending the new school I work at; the old school was a disaster, with only a few kids, her age who formed a clique and shut her out, leading to the catastrophe this last spring. That’ll suck some of my payback (€350-400), but at least we have an option for her.
I’m trying to hold on to my other online students, both so as not to have all my eggs in one basket, and to be able to make online payments both here and in Russia. but it’s liable to have me working full-time six days a week.
We still don’t have a path back to Russia, and my family wants to live there, I’m not at all sure that I do anymore, though I do have a few friends there. It seems like the sense of betrayal and break up of what had been a vibrant parish life is something I’d rather not deal with. And there’s the issue of ongoing sanctions, blocking me from taking my Russian registered car back.
I survived the summer, I’m still alone for another week or so, it’s been almost 3 months of complete loneliness and isolation. My family is returning soon. The new school HAS to work out for my daughter; if it doesn’t, we are basically agreeing that the women folk will return to Russia after the new year, leaving me alone again.
I have a 45-50 minute commute, I’m afraid of things like falling asleep at the wheel. I have trouble sleeping at night, and generally wake up in the middle of the night for 2 to 3 hours, and then desperately desire a nap in the afternoon, something I’m mostly not going to be able to get.
However, so far the new school is very welcoming and I’ve quickly become very popular among the middle school kids grades five, six, and seven that I’m teaching. Alas, I have a couple of children that look like girls that everyone affirms are boys, the influence of the Russian leftist community that fled Russia. Most of the kids are Russian, several Ukrainians, one local Montenegrin boy, and a girl from Turkey. I have to help them all develop academic skills, including things like translating, so I have to keep working on my Serbian and Turkish.
So we hope that things will be OK with cash here, my main problem is going to be getting money to convert into euros to send to my children in Germany. i’m going to try to squeeze in a couple of adult students I worked with this summer, but it won’t be enough. But at the moment, for now, we have enough to get by. Continued prayers appreciated, living in exile is no fun, and I can’t really recommend it.
Thank you all very much for your prayers and help!
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