While their husbands agreed to a historic arms-reduction pact, Barbara Bush and Naina Yeltsin slipped on plastic gloves and made bologna and cheese sandwiches for some of the city's homeless.
The first ladies did their good deed Tuesday, before a bevy of reporters, at Martha's Table, a non-profit soup kitchen and children's center."It's a great privilege to serve with you," Naina Yeltsin, speaking through an interpreter, told Olivia Ivy, director of the 11-year-old facility.
Barbara Bush and Naina Yeltsin went to the soup kitchen shortly after the Yeltsins arrived at the White House for a two-day U.S.-Russian summit, the first ever between the two nations.
On a whirlwind spring visit to Washington, Russian President Boris Yeltsin and his wife arranged to return to the White House late Tuesday for a state dinner.
On Wednesday, while her husband was to address a joint session of Congress, Naina Yeltsin and Barbara Bush were to have lunch together at nearby Mount Vernon, Va., the home of George Washington.
Also Wednesday, Naina Yeltsin was to attend a reception to raise funds for a new center in Moscow for orphans and disabled children.