Dear All,
Two weeks ago we were in Bosnia visiting and training E/S Winters. They arrive in late June, and in early July they were transferred by the mission president from Croatia to Bosnia. This move has been very difficult and fraught with challenges, but they have persevered and made the move. They have one remaining hurdle to overcome before they will feel settled and can progress the humanitarian work. Part of our fast today is focused on them and their needs.
Fortunately they come with a wealth of knowledge and experience which will be extremely valuable as they travel throughout Bosnia. Bosnia is small country and poor like all the former Yugoslavia countries. We flew into the capital Sarajevo, rented a car and drove the 130 kilometers (about 80 miles) to Tuzla. This short distance required 2 1/2 hrs. the entire drive was on a 2 lane road through the mountains. Bosnia has almost no highways.
We felt good about the training and the time we spent with the Winters, the are a good humble couple. Returning to Sarajevo to fly back to Frankfurt was also an experience. We didn't have a GPS with us because only about 3% of the roads in Bosnia are mapped on the GPS, so a GPS really is of very little help.. Therefore we were depending on the airport being marked as we drove into town- it wasn't! But the Lord blessed us, two or three times as I was driving I could feel that we were headed in the wrong direction. We would pull over to the curb and ask if someone could speak German or English. Each time we found someone who could speak English - very rare in Bosnia. Long story short we made it to the airport just before our plane boarded (boarding was late), I turned in the car key while Susan checked us in, walked to the gate and walked on the plane. Without those promptings and English speakers on the street there is no way we would have found the airport. There were no signs until we were almost at the airport.
Back in the office on Tues. we met with a mountain of work in spite of working in the hotel each time until 11:30 or midnight. Thus this has been a very busy week requiring long, long days and working Sat. and 4-5 hours today before and after church. We did take Friday evening off so we could go to the temple, which was very refreshing and relaxing. I guess I should also admit it, we did sleep in until 8:00 on Sat.
Tomorrow we plan to drive off at 8:00 for Budapest Hungary. If we drive straight through stopping only for gas and at the borders to pay the rood tax we should arrive at the hotel between 6 - 6:30. If we hit any road construction, or there is an accident on the Autobahn then it will take longer. We are excited to be going, the new couple in Hungary is a very accomplished couple and will pick up the training quickly, and the work they will do will be wonderful. The next week we will be with the Pages in the Czech Republic working on wheelchair training.
We are standing here with the directory of the old folks home in Tuzla, Bosnia, our interrupter, and the Winters. We were looking at the needs of the old folks and if we could do something to help. An 86 yr. old man with a cane in the home asked us to help him find a wife - alas we were unsuccessful.
Here we have some local volunteers making cookies with some of the residents of the old folks home. You will notice the tags on the volunteers, here everybody is monitored all the time. The affects of communism is still quite ingrained in the people. Anyway it was nice to see the volunteers doing something nice for the older ladies in the home.
At the end of the week we took a P-day and went with E/S Winters to a restaurant for dinner. Bosnia depends on the rain to water everything, and you can see in the background how dry everything is after 2 months with very little rain. We have found the food in these Balkan countries enjoyable and especially the Balkans salad -Shopjeka, a combination of tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions. In Bosnia they eat a lot of meat especially beef, so the salad is light and refreshing especially when the temperature is close to 100 or above.We hope you all have a good week.
Love, Oma und Opa
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