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Spreading knowledge, comfort SUBMITTED PHOTOS TRAVELS: Marion resident Denise Fisher spoke recently about her trips to Russia to help women and children.
By ERINN CAIN When Denise Fisher travels from Marion to Russia, she brings two suitcases one for herself, the other filled with Tshirts, sneakers, Beanie Babies and stickers to give to the children she visits at orphanages in Perm, a city of about 1.2 million in eastern Russia. Fisher, a registered nurse working for Lifetime Care in Newark, has traveled three times to Russia in 2003, 2004 and 2007 with groups of sociology students from Houghton College in Allegany County. They traveled to Perm, as well as Kotlas, a small town about 1,000 miles north of Perm, to visit children at orphanages and to host youth and women's retreats.
The message she said she hoped to convey was that humanity transcends language barriers, cultural differences and thousands of miles of land and ocean. 'Even though people are different culturally, we're actually all the same,' she said. 'We all have the same needs, the same desires.' She developed this understanding partly through retreats her groups held for Russian youth and women, in which they organized speakers and focused on a wide range of issues Russian youth and women deal with such as family and marriage from a Russian, Greek Orthodox perspective. Throughout each of the three-week trips Fisher took to Russia, the groups also visited orphanages often several a day to perform puppet shows and sing songs to the children. They brought with them items they had collected, including shoes, toys and stickers, to hand out to the children. With poverty levels high in the areas she visited, Fisher said it was often difficult to witness the conditions children lived in. Many children, afflicted with lice when they entered the orphanages, had their heads shaved, she said, and many wore clothes that did not match. She remembers one girl who was about 3. She had an alcoholic mother and had come to one of the orphanages after she had been found on the streets. Fisher, who does not speak Russian, said she sat down next to the girl and rubbed her back. This 'nonverbal communication,' she said, was the best form of comfort she could give the girl, who smiled up at her. Learning to communicate without words was a difficult - and often humorous - obstacle, said Fisher. One time, she and another member of the group went to an ice cream shop with a hankering for a sundae. After the ice cream server shook her head 'no,' meaning she did not speak English, they resorted to pointing to the ice cream they wanted, as well as the bowls and sprinkles. For the whipped cream to top off their desserts, they had to simulate the motion of squirting it from the bottle. The server could not help laughing, said Fisher, but they left with what they wanted. 'You may not know the language,' Fisher said, 'but you can do the actions, and you can kind of make them laugh.'
In addition to learning about the Russian culture, Fisher brought her expertise as a nurse to the orphanages, women's shelters and hospitals she visited. With medical supplies in hand, she taught workers how to care for wounds. And at a hospital burn unit, she instructed medical personnel how to perform skin grafts. Despite the lack of supplies, Fisher said she was impressed by how advanced the medical care was. 'It's surprising with the limited amount of medicine and facilities they have, they have surprising success,' she said. The people she met, she added, were gracious and appreciative of the help she and the other members of her groups provided. And her work, she added, may not yet be done. 'If I could go every year,' she said, 'I would.'
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Recently, Fisher spoke of her experiences at Together in Christ's annual dinner meeting at Park Presbyterian Church in Newark. 
To travel to Russia, she added, you have to be a quick learner. That includes everything from memorizing the appearance of common words like 'mayonnaise' at the grocery store to picking up on Russian customs, such as never placing items on the floor.