LAST WEEKEND:  on saturdays, our church has a radio program going on a local station.  a young woman in our church is the announcer and dh is funding it and finding interesting christian speakers.  topics have been:      

(1) an international mish couple that adopted 2 handicapped albanian children.  (2) national pastor from the capital, a doctorate, discussed the christian history of the area.  (3) some national christian couples and a single discussed the christian view of LOVE and what it means from a Biblical perspective.  this was the most popular show, so far...  (4) medical doctor discussed the physical effects of unforgiveness (5) another pastor discussed the supposed grave of Jesus that was found

it's kind of funny because the islam#c community has "islam#c lecture" on friday afternoons.  they READ a lecture.  mark is hearing jokes in the community about people "voting" for which program they like best...

here's a photo of luke at the microphone inside the sound box.  he went with dad to the station this last sat.

on sunday, we took a bus load of people from our small town to the capital for a joint easter service.  it was completely packed out.  we did our "family" easter celebration, that included an egg hunt, the day before.  the neighbor kids came out when we were finishing, so we re-filled the plastic eggs with candy and hid them again for the neighbor kids to find. 

monday, we went to a wedding. the high school principal of a nearby town is a good friend of mark's.  his brother was visiting from germany to get married to a local girl (yes, an arranged marriage).  mark's friend wanted him to be the "flag bearer" which is the first car that leads a whole procession that goes to pick up the bride from where her family is having a party.  here's our jeep with the large flag on a pole that is held out the window by the front side passenger.  the cars are just starting to line up behind us for the procession.  

every year the locals (in villages and small towns) with enough money, even those that don't raise cows, buy a cow to slaughter.  trick is, it's got to be cold enough to do it outdoors.  this is last year's photo of our landlord's pick.  hubby took some photos of the slaughtering, as well, but i'll spare you those.  there's a fabulous open-sided gazebo in the back yard and they did all the cutting there on the cement floor.    how convenient! 

this year, the record-breaking warm temps have kept people from the feast.  when they do it, they have to invite all the family men and neighbors over for fresh meat. our very generous landlords always send us a plateful of different meat dish samplings. the rest they keep in a deep freeze to enjoy little by little until the next year's cow.  there were some snow flurries this morning, so the neighbor boy came over saying, "yeah! time to slaughter a cow!". 

people here are spoiled for FRESH beef.  even if you buy at the local butcher's, it looks like the conditions from 100 yrs ago in the US.  huge cuts hanging in the window (you might hear another cow mooing in the back) and bone chips flying when they chop. some local friends that have been in the west tell me, "where do you find fresh meat over there in the u.s.?  the supermarket beef is SO tasteless." LOL.  i'm too much a city girl.  i still get excited to see clean meat on styrofoam wrapped in plastic, nice and tender without TOO much flavor. 

mark took this photo of a local funeral. it was the re-burial of alb#nian massacre victims sent home from mass graves found in serb#a

since nato troops entered kos#va in 1999, the u.n. has administered the serb#an province.  but, according to a u.n. resolution, it is still, technically, a part of serb#a.  as time went on, alb#nians became increasingly incensed over u.n. strictures that were believed to be strangling the economy and enforcing fair treatment of small serb minority communities. in march 2004, there was a province-wide response to an incident where alb#nian children were purportedly cruelly attacked by a serb neighbor's dog in the divided city of mitrov#ca.  alb#nians took out their anger on the u.n. and serb#an enclaves across the country. 19 people died. 

in our small town, (with about 90% unemployment and where most houses had been burned by serb military) u.n. white jeeps were burned in the center of town and int'l u.n. police beat up. a mob threatened to attack a local 15th c serb monastery under nato protection.

in order to appease alb#nian anger, the u.n. promised a speedy resolution to the issue of final status.  an announcement was supposed to be made by the end of this year.  it was put off until after serb elections this last weekend in which the ultra-nationalists won.  status could be announced in the next few weeks.  if the decision is delayed further, or if it is unfavorable to one side or another, violence could easily erupt.  news reports say both sides are secretly armed.  there you have it.  hth, mary

this is the view from the back of our house looking west to the "accursed mountains".  in the local language, curses & wishes are very important--there is even a verb case just to show you mean something as a curse or wish.  (ie., we would usually translate it "may you be..." but in english, we don't conjugate verbs to show we mean it as a wish).  parents and children curse each other frequently, which i still find a bit shocking.  ("may you die and ...")   there are very nice wishes, too, that we wouldn't use in english:

(when you go for a visit:) may your feet rejoice that they have brought you here

(when you buy something new:) may you use it with health

(when you say your child's age:) may he live to be a 100

(when you say your name:) may it be honored

(when someone feeds you a meal:) may the Lord give you a harvest

(when you give someone food:) may it be good for you

(when someone says something nicely/speech/song:) may your lips rejoice

several years back, when our church was brand new, we took several believers to visit another church in a neighboring country.  in that church, there was a special time in the worship service to give each other the "sign of peace".  our believers loved having a wish in the service! so now, in church every week we shake hands and wish each other "may the peace of God be with you".

WISHING YOU a Blessed and Merry Christmas, Mary

how is our christmas different? let me count the ways...

well...you don't have to worry about the commercialization of christmas AT ALL!   there are no christmas lights or trees or santas or nativity scenes in our town--at least not until AFTER Christmas, to celebrate new year. then trees and father winters show up.  there's no busy shopping malls, no hustle-bustle.  that all seems a world away.

our little group of believers in our fellowship has no traditions of how to celebrate except the few that we have begun.  every year we go to the capital city together and have a service with others from around the country. (see below) it's good to feel a part of something "bigger" when you're a small group.  plus, it's always nice for the young people to meet other christian young people... we encourage lots of hanging out afterwards!

we'll have our own christmas party for the fellowship, as well.  sometimes there's a skit, maybe traditional dancing, always food, but never a HAM.  usually our mbbs (m*slim background believers) aren't used to eating pork and get grossed out by the very idea, plus it's hard to find.  they bring traditional local foods made with a phyllo-type dough.  if i can find a big piece of meat of any sort, i bring it.  last time it was a large hunk of smoked beef.  turned out pretty good with a bbq-ish sauce, if not exactly like a traditional christmas!  

this is how the local church party started out last year--without electricity. (very common) eventually, the landlord fired up a generator until the power came back on (power is usually out for a couple of hours at a time, always UNPREDICTABLY).   

year before last we did a big OUTREACH/COMING OUT PARTY at a local restaurant for the church. many local officials came.  many came because it is considered polite here in the former yugoslavia (ie. melting pot of faiths) to visit people of other faiths on their holiday and wish them happy....whatever.  plus, several groups were rep'd that had been receipients of aid from our NGO (schools, disabled vets, childrens group).  but, the cool thing that happened, is that the people from our church played host:  greeted, seated, etc.  everyone KNEW these people were believers.  many of our mbbs received greetings of "merry christmas" for the first time.  we had local musicians play folk music, local dancers danced, and my husband gave a presentation explaining The Holy Bridge, aka a local "redemptive analogy". 

and this year?  stay tuned...

this was behind our beautiful apartment when we moved in.  we have a modern bathroom inside our place.  however, there are stores below us in our building.  the stores don't have their own running water, so the landlords had this outhouse in the back for the workers there to use.  it's a common site in rural areas here. our driveway backs directly up to the outhouse, so i often backed into it trying to get out of the narrow drive.  i kept hitting it accidentally, until they finally took it away. 

i have to try not to completely FREAK when i see my kids playing in this same stream that has many similar outhouses en route between us and it's source up on the nearby mountains.    the local kids know better.

i had no desire to take a photo of the interior. we have used several of these, but i usually manage to avoid them.  we've been warned to try to not use them at people's houses, because the poorer people that have them are embarrassed if that is all they can offer us.  most homes have indoor plumbing. 

the photo below was taken by my husband, who named it, "thank God for indoor plumbing!"  it's the same outhouse, obviously a different season.

when we lived in another nearby country, we had a home where to go to the only bathroom, we had to go outside, down outdoor stairs, to a floor below and the bathroom stuck out from the house, though it was attached.  it was kind of a halfway outhouse.  inside it was fairly modern, but you weren't "in the house", and we often had deep snow to walk through to get into it.  you can imagine having to walk to an outdoor bath/shower and having a toddler to potty train through a very long winter.  we lived there for over a year. God was with us and we were able to do it with joy  (unlike my previous squatty story!!!). 

i was over at jimmie's fascinating blog and she had started the topic of squatty potties--with photos!  i started to comment on her entry and felt like i just had too much to share for a comment , so here goes...

our first real home on the mish field was a quaint, 2 room peach house with a large front garden filled with roses and covered with grape vines.  inside this affordable and conveniently-located little charmer was an ancient bathroom with a squatty-potty.  i didn't like the potty, but i did like the convenience of running water, something our first temp apartment with western toilet had not seen fit to provide on a regular basis. 

6 months into our first term, i was pregnant with our first child.  i promptly lost 20 lbs, mostly in the said location above.  i became different--i was in culture shock.  what had been such "interesting" and "culturally enlightening" learning experiences to me before, completely changed.  (can you see this coming???)

i gently told my husband, "GET ME A REAL TOILET OR GET ME A PLANE TICKET!"  MISH LESSON #1: PREGNANCY AND CULTURE SHOCK, IN COMBINATION, CAN BE LETHAL TO YOUR MISH EXPERIENCE.

(i do have a photo of the infamous squatty before it was replaced, but it's stored back in the u.s. from the days before digital).

btw, i was quite nervous about what the landlady would say when i changed out the toilet. after all, as a gung-ho mish, you want to enculturate as much as possible and not appear like you think you're own way of doing things is "better". right?  i shouldn't have worried.  when she found out, she kissed me, she was so thrilled.  

i think that is probably as much as everyone can handle on the subject of our first, personal squatty potty.  stay tuned for another blog on outhouses, with photos, in the next installment of "all in a day's...work?" 

i got tagged by fiffi and now i'm supposed to tell 9 weird things about myself...at least, i think that's what i'm supposed to do. i told her it was already so boringly obvious to everyone, but i'll play her game, anyway, just to be a good sport.

1) today i gave a Bible to a muslim 

2) today i spoke to people around me in 5 different languages 

3) my fingernails are usually broken and a bit dirty

4) i live in a place that is not a country

5) i have crawfish in my freezer

6) military tanks frequently drive by my house

7) i enjoy wearing stilettos... occasionally (but i can't wear them walking on ice like the locals can)

8) the place i live is "the accursed mountains"

9) science is my favorite subject to teach 

how many people am i supposed to tag, anyway, fiffi?  OK, IF YOU READ THIS--YOU ARE TAGGED. that means you have to write up 9 weird things about yourself. for some of us, that's pretty easy. 

i was in budapest, hungary , by myself, for a board meeting this past weekend.  IMHO, this is what disney world wants to be.  btw, this is the famous river:"blue danube"

i've been in budapest and while i was gone, my family left for a conference in macedonia. here's some of our views.  these are my husband's photos. check out more of his by clicking on the link for his flickr site in my sidebar.  i'm home now and my family returns thursday, pm.

on the way back from the airport, i took a taxi for the 1 1/2 hour drive because everyone is gone to macedonia.  in the beginning the taxi driver was kind of bitter and angry.  turns out he was really interested in the Lord. he said he didn't like how islam made you pray in arabic. he wanted to pray and read the holy book in his own language, as well as many other things.  i told him when we reached my house i would give him a bible and some other literature in his language. his reply: "just don't forget!" needless to say, i didn't forget. 

i asked him for a receipt. after he left, i saw that he had made the receipt out for more than the true price of the ride, which is a common dishonest practice.  he thought he was returning my favor of giving him a Bible, i'm sure!!  

this is a view of macedonia's huge Lake Ohrid as seen from the medieval fortress above the town. 

here, in this area of the balkans, there are 2 big tasks each fall:  ajvar and wood.  ajvar, for the uninitiated, is a scrumptious red pepper paste.  it is served as a relish-type side dish after the early fall harvest, and then enjoyed through the winter. "it's a taste of summer all year," said a local friend. lucky for us, these veggies are sold in large quantity bags for a euro (=$1.20) per bag. the peppers are roasted, ground, and boiled all day, outdoors, in what we louisianians would call a gumbo pot for 50.  once you taste these red peppers, you will forever be put off the nasty dark green pretenders found in large US supermarkets.  nationals living abroad have relatives make extra for them so they can sneak it back in their luggage to whatever forlorn ajvarless place they come from.

whenever we get new ex-pat families in the area we explain how to spread this yummy stuff on bread with a knife on top of a smear of cream cheese and--voila! a yummy pimento cheese sandwich.    everyone eventually enjoys it their own way.

the picture above was taken in a field behind 3 of our homes.  i'm in the white t-shirt and the other 2 ladies are sisters-in-law that are also neighbors. the children are neighbors, as well. these 2 ladies kindly initiated me into the ajvar-making/bonding-neighbor time. this is a social event.  they also make many other pickled preserves around the same time of year, but ajvar is far and away the most important.

by now, early november, everyone's finished with their preserves (hopefully) because it has become extremely frigid here.  we had an inch or so of snow 2 days ago. it's still on the ground.  that brings me to my next topic--wood. 

rule #1 of living in the balkans is: be prepared for winter. this is more important than ajvar because, if you freeze to death you will be unable to enjoy the ajvar.  we try to drill this in to new colleagues coming this way.   if you're a really good planner, you'll have bought plenty of wood the winter before and have lots of leftover DRY wood to use for kindling. at least, that's what all the WOMEN i know like to do. if you're not stockpiled, there is a problem, because you can't buy DRY wood here. my dear hubby doesn't like to have a lot of old, dry wood around because that would make life so much more predictable and boring. he likes the green stuff because it's more of a masculine challenge to light it.  this proves that he has enculturated to an appalling extent.  men here greet each other in the fall with the question--do you have your wood?

why do we need to bother with wood, you might ask?  because, our electric power plant does not produce enough power, so there is a severe electric shortage, year around, but especially in the cold, dark months of winter when the system is used more. when there is a great snowstorm outside you can plan on having no power inside. BE READY!