Thursday, September 30, 2010

No more tiny toes...we got a big fat foot in the door!

I love this picture! Remember my blog, Turn Right on trail? This is one of Sister Coltons pictures that she took on that adventure and shared with me.  The lady with the basket on her back is very typical of the farm country. Baskets are used for everything here, On our way to Bosnia we see stands along the way that people are making and selling them.
Our meeting Monday morning was wonderful! We still didn't meet with "the Bishop", but we did meet with the manager or principle over all of Caritas here in this region. He is a paid employee that had been managing Caritas for the last 10 years. Such a good hearted individual with goals that are to help the people become more self sufficient, relieve suffering and to feed the hungry. Even though talking through a translator is very difficult, he took the time to hear us out, discuss our goals, and he took us very seriously. Next week we are going to meet again and he is going to take us on a tour to see the facilities that are around this area. They include a rest home, vision clinic or hospital, (not sure how big it is) , the soup kitchen, a day care center for disabled children so their parents can go to work to support their family, and a pharmacy facility that gets medications to about 50,000 indigent people a year. Pretty amazing organization. Now do you see why we wanted to get in there to see what we could do to help?  We are very excited to have had that door open to us. Next we will go into these individual places, work with their directors directly and see what good we can accomplish..
   We have had a little bit of a slow week because our translator Tihana has been down in bed with a back injury. We were lucky to have had her on Monday, but the doctor told her to stay in bed so we have tried not to bother her, It has made it abundantly clear to us however that we need a back-up translator, We have one in Bosnia that meets us at the boarder when we need him. So it's here in Croatia that we might need another.
   I took the opportunity of a little down time to clean and file things in our office. I now have an organized system going here. We have also been trying to set up other appts. for next week so we are going to be pretty busy Tues.-Friday. Hope our Tihana is better by then!
   Monday we are going to go on a little sight-seeing jaunt with the Elders. It's their prep day and we are switching our normal prep day on Saturday to Monday so we can go with them to see the city of waterfalls. I will get pictures.
   Thought you might like to see my list of things I've learned about Croatia.
1. They have very small families...we are used to lots of kids. Not so much here. Parents are older when they  have children and they usually only have one.
2. Teachers make more money than doctors or nurses.
3. They weigh everything...they do not use spoon measurements, They have little scales that they just weigh stuff.
4. Clothes dryers are a luxury, and even then they are a combination washer/dryer. And they are extremely small.
5.No one likes gypsies or Roma's....they are such a sad people.
6. They are crazy drivers, very reckless, but I have yet to see an accident, so they must be doing something right!
7. It rains constantly..at least every other day.
8.Cobblestone is hard on the feet.
9.It is so beautiful here.This is one of our walking paths.
10. It's very safe, really low crime rate.

  Just one last thing.. I think we actually made a friend today! Most people when they see us try to be really sneaky and read our badges without looking at us. If we say Hello to them they hurry and look away and pretend we aren't really talking to them. But a few weeks ago we met a cute little mom on the elevator. She had a boy about 4years old with her and when I tried to hi five him he jumped up to get my hand and bonked his head a hard one on the back of the elevator! I felt so bad!!! The next day I saw her and asked if he was okay..ya, ya, not to worry...and she was off. I haven't seen them until today. She held the front door for us and got onto the elevator, she was just delightful, told us she was a single mom, husband died 2 years ago and that her job is going to be over in 2 weeks. The store she works at is closing. I think she just needed a listening ear. The 5th floor, her stop, came all too soon. But I'm going to watch more closely for them. Oh did I tell you she speaks ENGLISH!!!!! Gotta love that!

3 comments:

laurie said...

I love it! If anyone can move mountains its you and Jim! Just the love that you show to all will get you in doors. Keep up the great work ! We miss you and pray for you always!

Unknown said...

I just get all teary eyed when I read your blog! thanks for sharing:) love you guys:)

cynphil6 said...

Love your blog. Sounds like you have met your back up translator?
Love to you both!