Status Updates From The Storks' Nest: Life and ...

While the turkey was baking and delicious smells filled the kitchen, I thought about how we had sacrificed a life to uphold an American tradition. I hoped that we were doing the right thing and that this bird had not died in vain.

The other women begged her to stay, saying it was too early and planes could still fly overhead. She paid no heed and ran across the field to Chukhrai, taking her four-year-old son by the hand and holding her infant on her arm. She made it halfway across the field when she saw the plane.

"The next day the old poacher came back with the thermometer wrapped in a white handkerchief. This thing works wonders, he exclaimed as he walked in the door. Igor asked what he meant. He said that he went home and put it under his arm and held it there all night. By morning he was cured."

"I held the poacher from the safety of my steed until Igor returned. Igor had taken the rifle from the other man and led him to where I stood."

...the older brother of one of the pupils came running into the school & yelled, The water's coming, the water's coming! Get out of here!

"It bothered me that I was famous just because I was American and not for some good deed or accomplishment."

"A Russian banya (steam bath) is a family affair, & even Kisa joined us. He lay sprawled on the floor with his tongue hanging out."

"I asked one of them for a knife, but at that very moment, the cord detached from inside the mother."