Russia - February 2007

In early February, my work took me to Moscow, Russia. Let's re-cap: Moscow . . . in February.

So this is me freezing my bum off in Red Square at midnight in front of St. Basil's Cathedral. As you can see, Red Square is gorgeous at night!

This was a work trip, though, so I didn't do too much touring. My company is partnering with Oxfam to promote small businesses in small towns outside the city. We spent 2 days outside Moscow visiting the people who are both running and benefiting from the programs that Oxfam is supporting.

The folks benefiting from the program are generally entrepreneurs who have limited access to loans and other services that would help them expand their small businesses - often small shops in local markets.

The woman shown here received a small loan to expand her shoe repair business. If you are interested in learning more about what Oxfam and Geneva Global are doing in Russia, you can go here.

Finally . . . you know I'm no light-weight, but there was no way that I could ever keep up the very Russian tradition of toasts! This is just one of many.