Catching up

We have spent most of the week at home, catching up on paper work from our travels and submitting some new projects for approval.  In spite of all the fun we are having, sometimes being a missionary is just hard work.

I can't believe I forgot to write about my highlight of our trip to Bihać last week.  After our dinner at the restaurant on the river, we walked across the bridge to find a gelato.  We were looking in store windows as we strolled down the sidewalk.  One store had fabric draped around the mannequins to resemble clothing.  One of the "skirts" was a really pretty fabric so I stopped for a closer look.  I looked past the mannequin and thought I saw bolts of fabric inside.  I have been looking for fabric everywhere I go and have not been able to find any plain cotton fabric.  Lots of blends and drapery and upholstery type fabrics, but no cotton.  We stepped inside and I thought I was dreaming.

A real fabric store in Bihać

The woman did not speak English but she understood "cotton" and "baby" as I rocked a pretend baby in my arms.  She didn't have a large selection but I did buy a few meters of fabric.  I was so excited, I practically skipped back to the hotel with my bundle of fabric.  Unfortunately the store is 5 hours from Sarajevo so I won't be shopping there often.  One of our partners is having a baby in September and I thought it would be fun to make a quilt for her.  What to use for batting will be my next challenge.

Speaking of shopping, we thought you might be interested in how we shop here.  We do have lovely outdoor markets where we usually buy our produce, year round.  There are some nice, modern grocery stores here.  The biggest and nicest one we use is called Mercator.  The parking area is on the street level - we have to take a ticket to enter and if we shop longer than 2 hours, we will have to pay to get out.  The store is up one level, via a moving walkway like at the airports.

Escalator, only it is an uphill, flat moving walkway

When we enter the store, the shopping carts are all locked together.  You must insert a coin (a 1 or 2 mark denomination fits) to unlock one cart.  When you complete your shopping, you return the cart, insert the locking key and your coin is returned to you.

Shopping carts locked together

Closer look at the cart lock and coin slot

If you purchase produce in the store, you must weigh it and tag it yourself.  If you get to the check stand and haven't weighed anything, they are not very happy with you!  Or if you selected the incorrect code because you aren't sure what the item is called in Bosnian, we are scolded for that.  Of course, we're never really sure what they are saying so our feelings don't get too hurt.  We also take our own bags to the store or we pay about 5¢ per plastic shopping bag.

We ate the first tomatoes from our deck garden this week.  A few more are starting to turn but we wouldn't call it a bumper crop.

Fresh tomatoes from our deck garden

We have the most interesting neighbors.  We looked out the window one day last week to see the older gentleman (the one who offers us whiskey at 10 in the morning) lining 50-gallon drums with garbage bags, then filling them with plumbs from his trees.  We saw water go in but aren't sure if there was anything else added.

Barrels filled with whole plumbs and water

Every few days, he stirs the contents of the barrels.  Yesterday we noticed other people at the barrels and another container, probably 200-gallon size, was being lined with a large plastic tarp.  There have been several cars and people coming by to dump buckets of plumbs into the new barrel.

More plumbs into the barrels

Room for still more in there!

It must be a community effort now.  The Elders tell us they are making plumb brandy.  Not sure how they know that... But it makes sense I guess.  The barrels are tightly covered and secured with rocks and boards on top.

On Friday we looked out the kitchen window to see that neighbor building a fire in his back yard.  He has a metal trough looking thing filled with wood and creating lots of smoke.  The next thing we see is this:

Roasting meat next door

Not sure if they are roasting goat or lamb over the fire.  You can see a steering wheel contraption on the one end of the rod holding the meat.  They appear to be relaxed and enjoying themselves but do you want to be the one assigned to rotate that thing for the next six hours?

Dinner is served - shaving the meat off the spit

They had a nice crowd for dinner in the back yard.  We weren't invited.

Our zone is gathering in Sarajevo tonight for a super P-Day tomorrow and zone conference on Tuesday.  I'm sure we'll have stories to tell next week.