Going Home

This last week we took Ron and Wendy (Elder and Sister) Davison around Bosnia and introduced them to our various partners. 

On Tuesday we visited the town of Kalesija to sign water contracts at the Mayor's office.  While there we were admiring the Mayor's map of Bosnia.  The next things we knew, the Mayor had removed it from the wall and had it wrapped up so that we could have it.  Once again, this is why we love Bosnia and the people who we have met here.

    
Wednesday we stopped into the Tuzla Red Cross where we introduced E/S Davison to the Red Cross staff.  The Tuzla Red Cross has been invaluable in helping us with many of our projects.  We are going to miss them.

In the afternoon we went to the University Klinical Center (UKC) to visit with the opthamology staff.  As we have stated many times the vision screening project has probably been our favorite project.  We could not have done this project without the help of the wonderful staff in the Children's Ophthalmogy Clinic.  We hope to be able to come back some day to visit them all again.  They mentioned to us that the 62 outlying primary schools who were recently trained have begun initial vision screening in their schools.  The UKC are now receiving calls from parents to schedule appointments for their children.

Thursday we drove to Banja Luka to show the Davisons the city as we do quite a lot of work with the Banja Luka Red Cross and Banja Luka Rehabilitation hospital.  We are also looking into doing a vision screening project in Banja Luka as well..  Ron and Wendy quickly noticed the beautiful countryside and have fallen in love with this countryl.  While we were there we saw Elder Graham (a former Tuzla elder) and his companion, Elder Nielsen. 

Friday was a visit to the Tuzla Children's Home to see the finished work on a project we did there which replaced pipes and fixed leaks in the home.  The children who live in the home are delighted with the their new bathrooms.  The leaking plumbing had caused major damage to the floor.  It was nice to see the improvements.

 

Friday afternoon we went to a restaurant nearby and visited with the staff of UKC.  We had a delightful time. 

 

 

On Thursday we received information from the area office in Germany notifying us of a possible airline strike at the Zagreb airport beginning at 11pm on Monday, November 25th.  We were scheduled to fly out Tuesday, November 26th at 9am.  On Friday we felt prompted to call travel in Salt Lake and receive some guidance.  We are now flying out Monday, November 25th at 9am.  Hence Saturday was spent packing and getting everything in order.  We speak in church here in Tuzla at 11am Sunday and will depart for Zagreb after.  We will spend the night at the mission home and hopefully leave Monday morning.  We are not surprised at this new development, our whole mission has been a trail of our faith. 

 

Again, may we say that it has been a privilege to be able to come to the Adriatic North Mission as humanitarian missionaries.  We have loved living in Tuzla and have made many wonderful friends.  They will always be our friends.  It was not chance that we came here.  The Lord has been good to us and we will never forget our time here. 

 

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a blessing to the people here and we feel blessed to be God's servants.        

 



Media Interview

This was a full week!

Monday we went to Kalesija municipality to attend a closing ceremony for our water project in the village of Hrasno.  Actually we will be closing Phase One of the Hrasno project.  We are in the process of submitting Phase Two of this water project.  We went to the Mayor's office where we visited for a short time and then drove to the project site itself.  This has been a great project.  The local people did all the labor.  The Church helped to supply the materials - pipe, cement, connections, etc.  The local people located an underground spring and built a cement box to capture the spring water and laid pipe to bring the water to those in need.  

 

 

 

Tuesday we stopped by the visa immigration office here in Tuzla to inquire about our visas which will expire October 10th.  We received instructions on what to do, which means we will be able to stay through the end of November.  Check that off the list of "to do's''.

 

Early Wednesday morning we drove with our translator the 2 1/2 hours to Sarajevo for a meeting with the Canton Sarajevo Minister for Education, Science and Youth.  We would like to do a vision screening project in Sarajevo next year.  Hence we will need to meet with the same partners we worked with in Tuzla in order to begin a project in Sarajevo.  The Minister liked our proposal.  Now we will need to meet with the hospital, Institute of Public Health, outpatient clinic, and the Red Cross.

 

Thursday we had the opportunity to go the  Tuzla UKC Hospital where we had a media interview.  The sister missionaries were invited to go with us.  The Church provided some basic vision equipment to the hospital.  Much of their equipment was over 40 years old and in need of repair.  The staff at the hospital trained all the volunteers who did the vision screening in the schools.  This training was provided free of charge.  The UKC Department of Pediatric Ophthalmology has been an outstanding partner to work with.

 

 

Friday was our district meeting.  We have some wonderful missionaries serving in Tuzla at this time.  They are doing wonderful work with the members and investigators.  They have suggested that each member have a calling to help them feel a part of our group.  We are thankful to have these outstanding young people to serve with.

 

One final note.  We received a call from President Rowe asking if we would delay our travel home plans until November 26th.  Of course we said yes.  Therefore that is our departure date/arrival date - we even have an email confirmation of our flight plans.  It really does not seem real yet, but I guess we better start getting use to it.    

 

 

Stays from Frankfurt

On July 20th we drove to Sarajevo to pick up Elder Randy and Sister Rebecca Stay at the airport.  They are our Area Welfare Specialists in Frankfurt.  We had an uneventful (pleasant) return trip back to Tuzla.  We were able to have the Stays speak in church on Sunday and then spent an enjoyable afternoon together with the elders. 

Monday we drove to the mountain village of  Hrasno to show the Stays a clean water project which we have been working on there.  Phase 1 (one of our first projects) is just about done.  We are hopeful to get Phase 2 approved and on the books for next spring.
 

After our visit to Hrasno we headed to the town of Sapna in Eastern Bosnia.  On the way to Sapna we stopped in Kalesija to visit the greenhouse to see how the greenhouse garden was doing.  This is the same garden which the young elders helped to plant back in April.  It is also the one that the tomatoes came from (last week's post).  You can see how the garden "grows".  The crop is only tomatoes and paprika (bell peppers).

 

 

After the Kalesija sidetrack, we continued to Sapna to evaluate the restroom situation.  School is out for the summer and the smell is not nearly as strong as it was the last time we were there.  The plan is to get the corrections made before school starts the end of August. 

  

We called it a day and drove back to Tuzla, where we had a delightful dinner out by the lake.  Tuesday morning we packed into the car and drove to Ljubovija, Serbia across the Drina River separating Bosnia from Serbia, where we met Elder and Sister Maughan (humanitarian couple for Serbia).  We met with the deputy mayor of Ljubovija where the Maughans discussed a potential water project.  Ljubovija is a small town with a population of about 4,000.  The town loves the Maughans as they were able to help the school children with boots last winter.  After visiting with the city officials we drove up into the mountains to a Roma village where we viewed the potential water project and picked blackberries. 

About 6:00pm we started our trek to Novi Sad where the Maughans live.  On the way we passed several roadside markets with wagons loaded with cantaloupes and watermelons.  Agriculture is an extremely large business in Balkans.   As you can see, they grow their produce big.  This is a cantaloupe.

Wednesday we went to the market, did some sightseeing, and had lunch.  After we went to the Maughans apartment where we had some training from the Stays and discussed "words of wisdom" for the couples who will eventually follow ourselves and the Maughans on this mission.  The Maughans already have a couple called to replace them.  We do not yet.  We pray that a couple will be called and be able to overlap with us for some training before we go home in November.

 

 

 

 

The clock in the picture above was on the wall of the restuarant where we ate.  If you start at 4:00 you will understand how many people feel about time when they are eating or having a drink with friends. 

 

We left Novi Sad Wednesday about 5 PM and had a pleasant drive back to Tuzla.  The roadside is field upon field of sunflowers, corn, and hay.  We might also mention that the Serbian countryside is flat! You might think that you are in Kansas.

 

Water, Water, Everywhere

Our week started with a trip to the border crossing between Serbia and Bosnia to a town called Zvornik.  Here we met Elder and Sister Maughan (the humanitarian couple in Serbia) and Elder and Sister Petersen (our water specialist) from Gilbert, Arizona.  The Petersen's arrived from Arizona the first of the month and have been traveling in Montenegro and Serbia visiting possible water projects in those locations.  The water specialists come to help missionary couples with the technical aspects of developing clean water projects.  Last week we were able to have them visit our potential projects.  After meeting at the border we went to the Bosnian town of Srebrenica.  Here we visited a memorial and cemetery dedicated to war victims. 

We all returned to Tuzla for a good night's rest and made plans to visit two potential projects the next day.  We had to rent a larger car to be able to fit the Petersen's, our translator and ourselves into the vehicle.  Tuesday morning we met early and traveled to the town of Kalesija.  We also took our young elders who helped with the planting of tomatoes and peppers in a greenhouse which the Church donated a few years ago to the Agricultural School in Kalesija.

 

 

 

   

We left our elders at the greenhouse and went to the mayor's office to meet with the city engineer. We are helping the village of Hrasno with phase 1 of a clean water project.  We met to discuss helping with phase 2 of the same project.   After our meeting at the Kalesija mayor's office we drove south to the town of Zavidovići (2 hours).  We again visited the mayor's office to talk about a possible project in the nearby town of Vocuza.

Then it was back to Tuzla.  Wednesday morning we drove about 1 1/2 hours northeast to town of Brćko.  Here we met with engineers and town officials to discuss the needs of a village called Brezovo Polje. 

 

After driving around, looking into wells, taking pictures of the insides of wells and discussing possibilities for clean water we returned again to Tuzla.

Thursday morning we again drove north 1 1/2 hours to the town of Orasje.  Both Orasje and Brćko are close to the Croatian border. The problem in Orasje is that they have 40 year old asbestos pipe lines which can cause serious health problems when they begin to break down.  We again met at the mayor's office and then visited a kindergarten which needs clean water for the children. While in Orasje, someone asked how the LDS Church was different from the Catholic or other churches.  We had a nice discussion centered around the Articles of Faith. After visiting the kindergarten we went back to Tuzla.

     Nap time at the kindergarten

 

Friday morning began bright and early as we drove to Vinkovci, Croatia.  We went to the local Red Cross in Vinkovci were we discussed renewing a well-cleaning project which the Church has been helping with the past three years.  We drove out to an area where the crew was waiting for us to clean out a well.  Some wells have not been used since the war as many of the people had to leave their homes during the war.  After returning they found their wells were contaminated.  The project involves cleaning and sanitizing wells to make them usable for families again.

 

 

 

  

  

  

  

 

 

 

After several trips up and down the well, debris was removed and chlorine was added.  The well was finally declared clean and we departed for Zagreb (3 hours) where we spent the night.  We took the Petersen's to the airport Saturday morning where they caught a flight to Frankfurt.  After reporting to the area office they will return home to Arizona.

 

We enjoyed having the Petersen's visit.  They brought us "hugs" from our granddaughter, Coco.  They also brought us a few other things from our daughter, Reachel.  There are not many adult members of the Church in Bosnia  so having someone to visit with is great.  The Petersen's lived in Maryland years ago and know many of the people we know from our days in Calvert County.  While we have been working on water projects the elders have also been busy helping with the vision screening in the Tuzla schools.  This week we will need to catch up on what we missed last week.

 

Our thoughts and prayers are with the many people affected by the events in Boston.  Till next week.