Change Is In the Air

It’s so frustrating! I think I went almost 2 years without really getting sick at all and now, here I am again. I hate it. We have a full weekend planned and I am determined not to back out this time.

 Last night we went to a Xenos & Valdis Indrisonoks concert. It was great. There’s a team here from YWAM Sweden/Norway and they’re doing their outreach here. It’s a different kind of school, where they’ve been learning to do sound, video, lights and everything else involved in setting up and running a concert. In a country like Latvia, this is HUGE! Xenos and Valdis are both YWAM Latvia bands but don’t have the money to have the gear to put on something like this, so this team being here was awesome. They’re in the middle of a 7 city tour here and so far they’ve gotten some really good reactions and heard from alot of people about how God has touched their lives through the concerts. We went to the local one last night and it was great to see and hang out with some of my students / Chris’ band-mates.

This weekend we’re on our way southwest to the city of Liepaja. The Baptist Youth Worship Band (that Chris plays with) is playing at a 3 day worship/evangelism event there, so we’re going down for that and also to finally see our friends Juris & Kristine.

So, I refuse (*sneeze*) to give in to this stupid cold/flu!

One of the activities that I do with my students is have them write journal entires. It’s good just for them to write, and put their English to work. I don’t grade them on how well they do, but on if they do it.

I’ve learned some interesting things through these journals. There’s been funny ones and serious ones. I thought I’d share some of my 12th grade journals I got today.

I like to do many things in my free time, but the biggest part of my free time I spend into the gym. I love weightlifting – especially powerlifting – bench press. If I have bad emotions, I kick them out also at gym – boxing bag is my target. These things helps me to be so calm in school. In school I am different than on street, because on street also the “rules” are different – people not the same as in school. On street if you are weak you loose, that is rule number one. Today you must be very careful on street, because you can’t know who is the person you are talking with - maybe he is a criminal, maybe he have a gun, knife and he wants to do some violent or nasty things. At all I can say that I better like street than silent school, because in school from the first grade I used to be kind, good and calm, but I changed when I started to learn, then out of school you must be nasty, powerful and cool – these are things that helps to survive on street.

Often they are shorter, but can give a lot of insight into the culture here, for example, this one:

I am dreaming about sun and little walk close to sea. That is very spiritual relaxing. Sometimes I need to be alone because of sunny weather – I want to get peace from nature. God speaks to us through winter and spring, sin and cloudy skys, stars and every tree. Thats is biggest gift for me as a human. But that would be very terrible if someone could not see that.

Latvians are very nature oriented. They love being outside and spring is a welcome time after the long, dark, cold days of winter.

More journals later!

I found an interesting article on CNN about Latvia and the other Baltic states. Check it out here.

Spring is truly, finally here! We haven’t had freezing temperatures in about a week (and even then it was just barely freezing), the sun has shown it’s face once again, there are bits of green grass popping up in the yards, as well as flowers and, the storks are back! Yes, the storks.

Latvia is the “maternity ward,” if you will, for the storks that fly here from Africa. The Latvians like to say that the storks want to start their children off right by being born in Latvia. They are very beautiful. Often, driving through the country, you will find large (LARGE) bird nests perched on top of many of the electric poles along the road. They’re all stork nets. As beautiful as they are, there is a bit of worry this year that they will be bringing the Bird Flu along with them. So far, so good, though.

This weekend was a good time for me to finish up the beginning of stages of my garden. While we live on the 3rd floor, I have managed to create a small container garden and I’m so excited! More than anything, I’m hopeful that I’ll actually get some veggies from it!

I have 3 tomato plants, as well as 2 window boxes of radishes, lettuce and spinach. I’ve started a box with green beans in it, and I’ve got 4 cucumber plants seeding, as well as a zucchini plant seeding. Hope it works!

Saturday evening’s time at Kaspars & Evelyn’s house was fun. We always have fun hanging out with them. And, her Swedish Applecake was wonderful!

I hate being sick! Especially those annoying sicknesses that are just bad enough to wipe you out of any and all energy and to keep you coughing and sneezing to the point that no one really wants to be around you. And yet, you’re not quite sick enough that you can stay home from work or anything. Grrr. Well, that’s been me that past week or so. I think I’m finally on the upswing, though when Chris was talking to Kaspars on the phone today and I coughed, Kaspars said I sounded like a tractor. Hmm… My nose is all raw, since there’s no really soft kleenex here… I look like Rudolph, though now it’s starting to dry out and crack and peel like it was sunburned. Yuck. (Note: Carmex does help this quite a bit, though!)

Being Easter weekend, I finished school yesterday at noon and came home and crashed. We’d had plans to have Arta and Nauris over for dinner, but I just felt way too badly for that, though I felt just as bad canceling. We’ll have to try again soon.

This morning I woke up feeling alot better, but still not great. Today’s plans had us going south to the coast. We were going to go to Liepaja and spend the day with some fellow staff out there, Juris & Kristine and their family. While I did feel better, to the point where I would have gotten together with Arta and Nauris if I had felt like this last night, I didn’t think it would be wise going to Liepaja since they have 2 small kids. Noone wants sick kids. So, we called and canceled that too, with plans for possibly May Day weekend. A little later Kristine SMSed me (um… that would be “text-ing” for my American friends) and said “Katrina (their 4 year old) is asking if you’re ill because you ran around naked?” Kids. Hmm… nope. Let’s blame it on spring weather mixed with jetlag.

A few days ago at the store Chris had found some fish steaks and decided to get them. They were fairly cheap, so I thought, why not. Let’s try them. Since Latvia has water on 2 sides, seafood and fish, specifically, is very popular here. I am not much of a fish eater, but I would try it. Chris decided to cook it up tonight. First we tried to figure out what it was. It said “Zubatka” on it. Russian. Doesn’t help much when we ask our Latvian friends. Next step – internet. No luck. Next, Skype your Russian speaking staff-mates in Riga. They came up with “Wolffish.” Huh? Never heard of it. Then they sent a website link saying it was also known as an Atlantic Catfish. Ok. Then I searched the net – the whole point was to figure out how to cook this stuff. I found this:

Yuck!!! Ugly things, aren’t they! If you want to check out the site I found it at go to Scandanavian Cooking. Well, Chris cooked it, covered in flour and bread crumbs. I tried it. No thanks. It was very, very soft. Almost like a slimy jelly - a consistency I just can’t handle. He seemed to like it and ate most of it. There’s 2 pieces left in my fridge.

So, it’s been an interesting start to the holiday weekend. Tomorrow evening we’re off to Kaspar & Evelyn’s place. She’s making a Swedish/Estonian Apple Easter cake of some sort. Sounds good to me!

 Monday we have an all staff, all day staff meeting. I’m a little excited, mostly because 3 of my students & Chris’ band friends (Ieva, Andis & Peteris) are going to come and assist him in leading worship. Yeah!

Until next time, we wish you a very happy, blessed and joyous Easter as we celebrate the reason for joy - the resurrection of our Savior, rescuing us from damnation and adopting us as His own! Thank you Jesus!!!

I’ve always loved airports. I think they are some of the best places to learn about people. I love people watching and love travel, so airports have become a very familiar thing for me. As I sit here in the Akron-Canton Airport (one of the few airports with free wireless internet) I have a few minutes to reflect on the last two weeks.

I have been back in Ohio spending some time with my family. My youngest brother, Nate, is a US Marine and has been in Iraq until recently, so, in an effort to actually get the whole family together, my parents flew me home for a quick visit. It’s been an interesting time… some of the quick highlights (in no particular order):

* visiting friends in the Millersburg area

* seeing old friends that I haven’t seen since my high school days

* hanging out with my family – which was a bit different since all of us kids are somewhat mature adults now

* seeing my cat – which has been a mixed blessing. I was planning to bring him back to Latvia with me, but at the last minute (Wednesday, I think) I was told by the airline that there’s already another animal booked on my flight, so I couldn’t bring him. Grrr. So, last night Simon was installed into my parents’ home and will stay there until I can try again to bring him home (if my Dad doesn’t get too attached to him).

I’ve been doing some shopping which is always fun, as well. In spite of having a generally good time, I am anxious to get home and see my wonderful husband, Chris. Two weeks is about as long as we usually like to stay apart, so it’s time.   

And I do want to go home… this time back has been good, but I realized that Latvia is becoming more and more like home to me. I miss my apartment and my bed. I can’t wait to see how my little tomato seedlings are doing and I am actually starting to miss my students. I have no idea what I’m going to teach on this week (I’m back in class on Tuesday morning!!!), but I’m looking forward to it.

So, that’s it from the road. Next post… back in Latvia! (I’ll try to get some pics up soon… and I know I should write an update on the plagiarism fiasco… for now, know that it turned out well in the end.)

Picture - clockwise from front right: Nephew Mathew; Mom; Sis-in-law Bev; me; Grandma Marilyn; Grandpa Poppy; Bro Nate; Bro Adam (Bev’s husband); Dad; Bro Josh (Mathew’s Dad)