Tuesday morning we started out at 6:15am for our drive to Zadar, Croatia. We arrived in Zadar about 1:15 in the afternoon. We visited in Zadar with Elder Baldwin, Elder Proud, Sister Compare, and Sister Sturtevant. After joining them for district meeting Elder and Sister Matosić drove us around Zadar to see the sights. We were able to go to the Kresimir Čosić Sports Arena. Kresimir Čosić is responsible for bringing the church to this part of the world. If you would like to know more about Kresimir Čosić -
https://www.lds.org/church/news/print/church-members-in-croatia-celebrate-the-churchs-40-year-presence-in-the-country?lang=eng
After the sports arena we drove to a lookout point where we could see all the town of Zadar. This was followed by a trip to centar and a visit to water's edge. Sister Matosić had mentioned that they would take us to the sea organ. We could hear the organ before we saw it. The organ was built after World War II. Rather than build a boring wall, they made the sea organ which is played by the waves.
http://www.oddmusic.com/gallery/om24550.html
We also visited the market place via some Roman ruins. Susan purchased some handmade lace. Croatia is famous for their handmade lace. She did not purchase any of that kind (a bit pricey). But we were able to see some of this lace. We learned that the lace from Hvar is unique in that the thread is collected from the aloe leaves of agave plants that grow on a nearby island. The leaves are picked at a certain time of the year and are then specially processed to produce a thin, white thread. The Benedictine nuns in the town of Hvar are the only ones who make the Hvar lace, which is also called "aloe lace". There is also Lepoglava lace and Pag lace.
Notice the bench (piano keys)
Holes for the sea organ
Boy is that sun bright.
Agave plant flower
Meanwhile back in Bosnia Tuesday was Bajram (Eid-al-Fitr). Which means it was a holiday (4 days of holiday). On top of that, the Bosnian soccer team played Lithuania Tuesday night. They won the match 1-0. The win qualified Bosnia for the World Cup which will be in Brazil in 2014. They celebrated till the wee hours of the morning.
The reason for our trip to Zadar was to see about the possibility of doing a project there. We visited a school for troubled youth and the Zadar Red Cross. These are potential projects, but we will want till our replacements get here to decide whether they want to do any of these potential humanitarian projects.
After our meetings we visited the docks before we departed for a meeting in Karlovac.
While in Zadar we saw pomegranate trees, olive trees, and kiwi vines. Did you know that kiwi grows on a vine? They have large leaves and the vines are much like grapes. The drive to Zadar was beautiful. As we drove back we saw a huge mountain range - how we missed it on the drive in is beyond us. It is definitely autumn time and we enjoyed our drive.
Olive trees (you need to look close to see the olives)
We met with the Branch President in Karlovac, Croatia, regarding the branch garden project. While there we were able to see Elder Stuart.
Thursday we stopped at the mission office in Zagreb. We visited with two new senior couples. Elder and Sister Lambert and Elder and Sister Croft. We like to take the office couple out to lunch when we are in Zagreb. We do not have an office couple at this time, but we were able to take Elder Quinn and his companion Elder Brown to a new place that serves hamburgers.
Lunch over, we returned to Tuzla arriving in the evening. Friday we had district meeting with the sisters and elders. Saturday we use as our P-day which brings us back to Sunday.
That does it for the week. We are making prepartions for our vision specialists from Salt Lake and still making numerous lists for our replacements. We know that they will be overwhelmed just like we were, but the Lord will bless them just as he did us.
No comments:
Post a Comment