wahh

Our staff meetings get pretty intense sometimes.. They usually end in tears.
















Just kidding.. My team didn't do this to me.. I blame the onions.

Say hello to my beautiful Croatian friends..

One thing I have been wanting to attempt to express to my friends and family at home, is the beautiful heart of the people of Croatia. Since arriving I have been taken back by the value people place on community and friendships, and their hospitality and willingness to bend over backwards to serve myself and my team.
When we first arrived in Croatia we were greeted by a student, Dario who picked us up at the bus station with our car, packed all of our luggage in the car, and then made multiple trips from the bus station to our apartment to help us get all our luggage in. Without him, we each would have had to carry our 5 bags, each weighing 50 or more pounds multiple block home.. If that weren't enough, he felt the need to treat our entire team out to lunch on him.
Zoran, the crazy man I wrote about above is one of the students who I have seen serve my team in so many ways, and he never does so in hopes for self recognition, which I admire and I think am learning a lot about. I joked above about how much he helped me with my computer, which seems like a small task, but without that help I would have been lost.
Two other students who have made similar impacts on myself and my team are actually sisters, Doda and Ines. Doda is a student our team developed a deep friendship with last year. She is so full of energy and life. She reminds me of friends from home.. Her sister Ines is amazing. She is like my Croatian little sister, she makes me laugh and she teaches me Croatian. She refuses to call my by my name, and refers to me only as Blondie, which I love.. I now have a nick name for her, Zvrki, it translates something
like a top that spins on a table, somewhat out of control ;)
Doda invited our team and Zoran to spend the weekend with her and her family in Novi Vinodolski and it was such a huge blessing to be invited home with a student and to have the opportunity to live with them.. Although our team wasn't able to communicate much with her parents (they don't speak English, and I'll speak for myself, I speak poor, if any Croatian) their joy and sincere love for our team were clearly expressed in the ways they welcomed our team into their home..
I think I am going to learn so much about true community here and I am just so excited to see the ways that God is going to use the deep relationships students have for one another for His purpose..

Drug Deals and Computer Technicians..

Zoran! I trusted the life of my computer
into the hands of this crazed Croatian.. ;)

One thing I love about the Croatian culture is how relational people here are. Everything I do seems to take much longer to get accomplished than it does back home, but that’s usually because so many more people are involved here.. One transaction that took no time at all to complete however was the transaction between the computer technician who was going to give my computer it’s life back and my Croatian friend Zoran. Zoran had a friend who works at a computer repair shop of some sort and agreed to work on my computer on his personal time so it would be less expensive for me. I was very grateful, as it was difficult to impossible to get some work done that was directly related to using a computer…

So Zoran and I pull up in his car to the parking lot of some shop, and about five minutes later his friend pulls up in a decked out black little European racer, with spoiler. I get out of the car, hand him my back-pack, unzip it quickly to show him the goods (my busted battery charger outlet) he nods, Zoran says something quickly and then we part our ways.. As I turned and walked away form this mystery man, I had the feeling I had just witnessed and participated in my first drug deal. I got back into Zoran’s car and had a few questions for him, who is that man, do I get any sort of receipt or proof showing that he will be working on my computer, a number to call him… Oh no, that’s not necessary. Zoran tells me, his friend will call him when he finds out what the problem is and how much it will cost. Things work out, the problem is and I give the technician, through Zoran, the approval to heal my Toshiba.. A few days later, we return to the same parking lot, get out of our car, this time we exchange money for my precious backpack, Zoran and his friend exchange a few words and we are off again. I open my back pack, hoping that it is actually my computer inside, and see my pretty little Toshiba smiling at me..

I love Croatia.

The whistle and the water...

So I originally wanted my first post to show beautiful pictures of Rijeka, of my wonderful team and roommates, and I will be sure to post something along those lines soon, but I have decided to use this first post to introduce you to my two nemeses in Rijeka. I was made aware to them both my first day in the city. The first being the stately gentlemen with the whistle in his mouth.. He made himself known to myself and my roommate Allison at let's say 6:00 a.m. I guess he wanted to welcome our team to the country. Apparently they turn off some stop lights in the city to help police in training direct traffic.. He's been whistling us good morning tunes ever sense..




The second is perhaps the most cruel and unkind object I have ever come across. I have come to know the sign to the right to mean death and destruction. Although I have only had the horror of coming across this frightening image twice since being in Rijeka, I would not wish it upon my worst enemy. The arrow in the picture is displaying the amount of hot water we have in our hot water heater.. The farther it is to the left, the more horrible the pain of ice-cold water running down my body is. I was going to take a picture of what I looked like after my shower, but I didn't want to scare you, perhaps another time, as I'm sure I will run into that horrible sign again with 4 girls sharing our bathroom.

trying to figure this out..