lest you think it all glamorous....

These are just ordinary pictures of the house where our son and daughter-in-law's family is living. It can be adventurous to live in a different country every couple of years and have opportunities not available to most people. I want to open your minds to some of the aspects of this life you may not have thought about. The house they are living in is huge, especially by Lithuanian standards. The ceilings on the main floor are 11 1/2 feet high! The house is rented furnished so the furnishings are also higher quality than most Lithuanians could afford. The catch is- none of it belongs to our son. When he retires from the foreign service, he will own their car and personal goods. That's what Russ and I had back in 1970 when we got married. James
and Susanne will have to purchase a home and all of their furnishings at a time when their contemporaries will probably have their home, complete with furnishings and lawn mowers, etc., all paid off. In addition, they feel awkward here inviting anyone from church over because their dwelling is far above what anyone in the ward here could afford. They would appear to be much more wealthy than they really are. It's difficult for James to visit ward members in their homes and see that their standard of life is so different. Even by American standards, this home would be very expensive- but it doesn't belong to James.

The pictures of their food storage are to show what things they stock up on that they can't get here. When you live in different countries it's rare to have access to foods that your family is accustomed to eating. Although their kids are far more adventurous in their eating habits than most American kids would be, they try to have available items that the kids are familiar with and like. They buy cases of cereal when they are in the US and have them shipped with their personal goods when they move to a new post. The down side of that is that sometimes the cereal can pass the expiration date before they eat it all. When they lived in Amman, Jordan, the embassy compound included a small commissary where Susanne could purchase some familiar foods, although the quality was sometimes lower after shipping or freezing or whatever happened in the process of getting it to Jordan, and the prices were sometimes high due to the nature of the effort involved in getting it there. There is no commissary here at the embassy. The nearest one is in Helsinki and they can order limited items from there about once a month- with some specialty items available at holiday times. Susanne is remarkable in her ability to provide food and clothing and other necessary items for her family in all kinds of places. She has learned enough Lithuanian to survive but not enough to carry on extended conversations. So with the aid of a city map, whatever hints she can glean from other English speakers at the embassy, church, or school, and her own abilities of observation, she manages to find stores to buy the kids new socks or places to purchase wheat to grind to make her family bread and pancakes. About the only food items that are easy to purchase anywhere here are potatoes, bread (mostly rye), mushrooms, yogurt (in more forms than I never knew existed!), butter, milk, and eggs. Certain spices and other items she has to just do without if she runs out of what she has. She tries to read the ingredients, in Lithuanian, Russian, or occasionally German, English, or French, on unfamiliar items in the stores and makes the best decisions she can.

things don't change

Once a fire fighter, always a fire fighter, and once a seamstress........... As you know, Mary and I have been helping out at the school. Most of the time we are there to assist the teacher with craft projects and to help the children (force?) learn English. In addition, we have taken up our roles of the last thirty years. Mary has been doing a lot of needle work on things like costumes for the plays etc. and I just did a fire safety talk for two classes. It was great doing what we have always done so well. We will also be providing the music for the Russian speaking branch of our church this Sunday. Mary will be playing the piano for all the hymns and I will be singing a special mucial number that she wrote called; "How Can I Say Amen?" It just proves you can be of use no matter where you are as long as you are willing. The weather is still "gray" but warmish for this time of year. We had a record high two days ago. I think it was nearly 50.

more on the park

The picture of the road signs is posted just as you approach the park. The red circle with the white bar means if you are in a car, do not enter. It is used also for one way streets if you are trying to go the wrong way. In this case it means no cars in the park. The lower one should be obvious. The funny thing about this one is the park seems to be everyone's first choice for a place to walk their dog. We pass several every morning. The leash laws must be fairly strict or people just feel responsible because the dogs are always under complete control. Some by voice, some by leash, and a few are even muzzled. I have never seen an aggressive dog here so I don't understand the need for the muzzles. The park has a variety of paths. The largest are lighted by street lamps. We are thankful for this because we would have to wait until eight thirty in the morning for it to be light enough to walk without them. There are various smaller paved paths that go every which way. In addition, it appears that many folks think there should be other paths because there are many dirt foot path "short cuts" going off into the woods. They all reconnect somewhere in the park but it is quite a labyrinth. Before this gets too long, the other picture is trash pick-up here in the city. Every three or four blocks you find a row of these dumpsters. Each household and business takes their trash here. These in the picture are emptied twice a week. Often there is more trash than they can hold so it gets piled up around them and the trash people fill an emptied one more than once and get it into the truck that way.

Lithuania's last stand

I don't know if we have overused our space here or what but I don't seem to have the option of posting another picture. It might be only temporary so I'll check another day. In the last (next down) blog there is a picture of the ampitheater in the park. Behind it you can see a tower. That is a very special place here. That is the only tv transmission tower in Vilnius. For those who may not know Lithuanian history that is the site of the last stand against the Soviets. There was a protest of several thousand people again demanding Lithuanian independence. As in most of those conflicts they were unarmed and staring down Soviet tanks. Sixteen people were killed at the base of that tower but it opened the way for the Soviet withdrawal and Lithuanian independence. There is a revolving restaurant in the top which we intend to visit sometime for a meal but so far there hasn't been a day that you could see anything from there due to the fog and clouds. This picture was taken on one of the clearer days.

Vilnius Park

These are pictures of the park where we go for our 40-60 minute walk each morning. It is probably at least 100 acres of woods with lots of paved paths going through it. It is shaped like an arrow or sideways "v" with the amphitheater at the point. Behind the amphitheater is an area where there are some very rusty small amusement-park type kiddy rides. I can't tell if they're used still or not. The playground is all wood- including the slides! It is just along the main path. The street we are living on basically ends at this park then the buildings end and the path narrows a little to go into the wooded area. There are two rivers that meet in Vilnius and they run along the sides of the park. Maybe it's more pleasant in the spring and summer. We have never seen kids playing there. We see lots of people walking, jogging, bike riding, and even exercising. (They always bring a plastic bag or something to sit on even on the benches because it's always damp.) There are several small restaurants or cafes there, closed now. It's kept quite clean but sunshine would certainly be welcome...........

We saw the sun!

It may seem a strange comment, but we actually got to see the sun yesterday for the first time in at least a month. At noon time it sat in a mostly blue sky very near the horizon. The temperatures here have been quite moderate, other than the week at the beginning of the month when we took the trip to the coast and it snowed. It has hovered around 40 degrees. The street lights come on around 4 in the afternoon and go off around 8 in the morning. Most of the time it is totally overcast and fairly dreary. I would think seasonal depression would be a major problem here! It was also strange to see the sun so near the horizon knowing that it was the highest it would get until spring.
Russ and I will be spending the next two mornings being teacher assistants in the school here. The pre-K teacher for the 4-year olds is taking a personal leave. The teacher of the 3-year olds will leave her class in the charge of her assistant with Russ as a helper and go into the 4-year old class with me as a helper. We love working with the children but are nearly as frustrated as the kids with the language barrier. Over half of the kids in both classes speak mostly or entirely Lithuanian. We know they are trying to learn English, at least that's what their parents want, but they are so young and sometimes resent having to try to communicate in a way that is so inefficient for them. Unlike their regular teachers, we can't get any message they may try to communicate unless they use English. For the past several weeks, we have been going in for just an hour or so three days a week. This will be for 4 hours straight two days in a row. We'll just have to see how it goes................

Driving in Vilnius

It will be difficult to describe what driving is like here in just a few words. It really needs the support of personal experiences. These experiences only take one time on the road to gain. The first image is a crosswalk. You can see that it is clearly marked by both the lines on the pavement and the road sign on the post. As in many places, pedestrians have the right of way and all traffic is supposed to stop if anyone is in the crosswalk. This has not necessarily what we have experienced. It is more like, if a person in the crosswalk is not directly in front of you and you can get through the cross walk without hitting him then why not? Most of the crosswalks here are just the usual white stripes on the pavement but some are red and white like the one shown. These are indications that a pedestrian was killed in this crosswalk. I have not yet decided if the red is supposed to draw attention to this crosswalk for the drivers or the walkers. (Hmmmmm?) The second is a picture of just one of many streets. I took this in an effort to show how congested it can be even when traffic is light. You are looking at a two way street!!! It is obvious to even the most casual observer that there is not room enough here for two cars to bypass each other. Oh what to do? You play a game of chicken combined with leap frog. Basically, you charge ahead as far as you dare. In some cases the oncoming car will find a street, driveway,or empty parking place to pull over in. In others, you will climb the curb and park on the sidewalk until he passes. This sounds very polite and giving but it is not. It is much more like every man for himself. I have been at a stop sign turning left onto a two lane street and had a car on each side of me also turning left. This is because this particular intersection is flared to provide space for right turns. If a Lithuanian driver sees a space or a chance to go by you he will. Hence three cars all trying to turn left onto the same lane at the same time. I have other stories that are much worse but I only wanted to give you a flavor of what it is like to drive here.

INTERESTING FACTOID: There are more cell phone contracts here than there are people. Some folks have more than one phone but more often it is teens with several SIM cards. As services offer different rates if you call someone with the same service, they carry cards for the services of all their friends etc. and just use the one that gives them the best rate depending on who they are calling.