Things you don't see in America

This past couple of weeks has been Super Saturday week ends for us. Yesterday we just had a spiritual feast at Zone Conference. These meetings boost our spirits and fill us with renewed enthusiasm for our job. We love SIR work. Please note this is an anachronism for Seminary and Institute of Religion, which is a name change from CES throughout the world. After our last list we noticed things we have not seen in America ever, or at least for a very long time. This, for us, has been interesting to think of things we don't see and thought you might be interested in this as well. Some of these are enjoyable, some outright disgusting.

Grape arbors in every yard where there is a single family home.

Billboards with half naked women. All this since the Communists left. The communists at least did one thing right and had strict moral conduct.

Piles of coal being shoveled into a house. Reminds us of our grandparents homes because coal is the major source of heat here in Bulgaria.

Horse drawn carts going up and down city streets all over Plovdiv, Sofia, and smaller cities and villages. Note the red tassel in front of the horses' face. This is a symbol of the gypsies. They use their horse drawn carts to pick up anything of value that has been thrown away or lost on the road side.

Men and women digging through garbage cans in any neighborhood, any time. These are gypsies looking for saleable or recyclable items. These are not homeless people, though, we do have some who find their food from the cans.

Policemen with Lollipops, This is our description of the stick, with a little round reflector on the end. Policemen, standing at the side of the road, hold out their "Lollipops" and point the stick at an errant driver. They never use their vehicles to chase speeders or for other violations. And yes, we have been waved over several times. After they tell us what we have done wrong in their Bulgarian tongue, we smile and ask them if they speak English; to that, they just yell at us a little more in Bulgarian, and then motion for us to be on our way.

No regard for emergency vehicles with flashing lights: we have yet to see a car pull over when one goes by with its lights flashing.

Emergency landing area on freeways. Right in the middle of a freeway, the speed limits lower and the barrier down the middle disappears. Purpose: so an airplane has a safe landing strip in case of an emergency.

The worst thing of all, try to visualize this, driving down the road, and in your lane right in front of you a car stops and puts on his hazard blinkers, gets out of the car and runs into a store close by. You have to dart to the left, when you can) and so do all the cars and buses behind you. Common event seen anyplace in the city!

Thoughts from Bulgaria.

Our activities have been rather mundane for the past several weeks as we have prepared for a new Seminary/Institute year. So here are some mental pictures for you to eschew; this is what we see as we have been traveling around the country.

Bulgarian Chicken - road game. Take a one lane road, cars parked on the sidewalks on each side and 2 cars heading for each other on streets no more that nine feet wide. Which one will slip into whatever space available at the last moment looses. (or wins). Only rule: if you don't yield, you should wave your thanks to the one who does.

Our Bulgarian "Oh, How I Wish" list. Oh How I Wish:
1. women would wear slips.
2. people use deodorant
3. they used bottles for their pills rather than the push out aluminum packets.
4. husbands and wives sat together in church, ( a few do.)
5. men did not relieve themselves on the side of the road in plain view.
6. there was a liter law.

SUPER SATURDAY
With the beginning of the new school year, Seminary and Institute also begins. We are holding Super Saturdays in order to get the students excited and to pass out materials for the new year. The assigned course of study is the New Testament. Each of our zones have few students, but each one is important. We teach, involve the students, provide lunch, teach some more, and then we play games at our Saturday events.

Teachers, Missionaries who will also teach, and students listening to the lesson.

Elder Mattinson, with Svetislav, Daria, Dida, and Ivan deciding how the NT was organized.

Dida, our Area Supervisor, a YSA with good English language skills is helping

Elder Andersen with translation with his lesson.

Where is the ring? Elder Anderson, in the center, is trying to find the one hiding it.

Here, students and teachers are playing Bible Bingo.

Enjoy your week; we love hearing from you.

E/S Andersen; John and Peggy