If it's not baroque...

...then don't fix it. Go ahead, I can't hear your dry laughter over the Internet.

'Quality' takes a special definition in the Russian Federation. Perhaps it's so close to China (ouch).

In general, I find that Russians are pretty resourceful. Living in a new apartment complex in DC, I was pretty pampered. Whenever there was a problem (e.g. plumbing, ventilation, electrical, etc.), we just had to report it online and maintenance would resolve the issue within hours. That doesn't happen here so people act on their own. My friend, Oksana, has been living on her own for years and learned to tackle almost every household problem. Many people know what to do.

A few months back, another volunteer was preparing kidney beans from a new, sealed bag. It was labeled, 'high quality.' She was pleased when she thought that the beans were pre-spiced. Unfortunately, these 'spices' crawled up her arm.

In another friend's flat, the handle to her drawer was broken. It only required a simple tool to fix it--a screwdriver. How was it fixed? With tape.

Last week, the pipe (made of plastic) under my sink fell down (that was quite a mess). What was our temporary fix? Yep, tape. We knew it wouldn't last for more than a few days. And it didn't. It fell again, but I found a long(er)-term solution.

I put an inverted bucket underneath it for structural support. There's NO WAY that this could fail. Right??

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Note: If you haven't noticed, I put a counter on the bottom of my blog. It also shows me the location of my readers. Actually, it's a little scary how much information I can retrieve...I feel like a voyeur...ack.

I just want to say, THANK YOU for your support!!!!! Knowing that you read this gives me purpose to my posts. I'm aware that I don't personally know all of my readers, but that doesn't bother me at all. Thank you!!!