Doing what we can do

We had a fairly slow week.  Monday we took care of odds and ends here in Tuzla.  Tuesday we drove the 3 hours to Banja Luka to meet with the Rehabilitation Hospital regarding the upcoming wheelchair training and distribution in September.  Wednesday Susan taught another session of flower pin making at the Tuzla Elderly Center.  This is always an interesting challenge because of the language barrier.  By the time we are done, they are all saying "Susan, Susan."  They want her to help them finish their flower.  Some get ahead of themselves and we have to undo, but a good time is had by all.  

Thursday we drove 3 hours to Osijek, Croatia, to visit a group home that we might be able to do a service project with. We try to work with the senior couples that are assigned to the various cities in the mission.  The couple in Osijek is the Preston's from Centerville, Utah.  They have been in Croatia one month now and are just starting to adjust to things.  The group home is establishing a few apartments to teach their clients independent living skills.  They are trying to relocate some of their higher functioning clients to these new apartments.  The clients are taught how to take care of themselves.  They learn how to ride the bus or tram, visit the library, do their laundry, and care for themselves.  There is always people checking in on them, but the clients are learning survival skills.  We are hopeful that the local branch will be able to help furnish and decorate one of their apartments.

Friday and Saturday was spent taking care of finances and entering information on the computer.  It would be great if we could just drive around doing good, but there is quite a lot of paper work involved.  We have to develop a project, then submit it to Germany for approval.  If it is a what we call a major initiative, it is then sent to Salt Lake for approval as well.  After it is approved we then go back and visit the organization and let them know that the project has been approved and begin working with the organization.  We then enter information about the project into an electronic project journal.  Depending upon the type of project this can be a few paragraphs or pages of information.  When we make payments to vendors for materials or services rendered, we must record all the expenses as well.  Then when everything is completed and all the payments have posted to the project we can begin to close the project.   Finally there is a report that needs to be submitted along with pictures.  This is done in English and the native language. 

Anyway, we did what we could do this week.  Tomorrow we will begin our day early with a drive to Sarajevo to meet with the County Coordinator of  Muslim Aid in Bosnia and Herzegovina.