Greetings from Lithuania!

It is a rainy Valentine's Day here, and pretty windy.  The
weather this week has been a little rainy, and occasionally
sunny.  I am really looking forward to the twelve hours of
daylight on March 21 since I can share that with all of you.

It has been a good week here.  Thanks for all your prayers.
I've been a lot more patient with the students, and my
general outlook has been much brighter.  My friend Don
is doing better at last report, but is not out of the woods
yet.  He also was much worse than I had thought too.  So
thanks especially for your prayers for him.  I know that
though I cannot be there to help, the Holy Spirit is 
with him there, helping the doctors and nurses.

One of the hazards of walking the streets of Klaipeda is that
the drivers here seem to have a delight in splashing pedestrians
as they go by.  Monday, I was running to avoid being hit and
turned my left ankle pretty badly.  I had difficulty walking
on it for a couple days, but fortunately, I have a pair of
hightop sneakers and lacing them up to the top tightly helped
keep me going.

More serious potentially was the Vision Express incident.  
I was coming back from grocery shopping when I noticed
that the Vision Express outlet was taped off.  My normal
route back to Karklu takes me down that street but the
street was blocked off by a police car and a uniformed
officer was discouraging people from walking on the sidewalk.
I took a detour around some buildings and was trying to 
figure out what was up.  There was a fire truck sitting
half a block away, and an ambulance across the street.  That's
when I realized that the overall behavior fit a potential 
bombing more than a fire or crime scene.  I also realized
that I was waaaaay too close to the area for even a trivial
size bomb.  I left in a hurry.

I am pleased to report that there is hamburger in Lithuania.
I bought half a kilo at the Madi this week.  My original
plan was to put it into patties, but they have no hamburger
buns here, and the hamburger was still partly frozen.  I decided
to cook it loosely and mix it in with some noodles as an impromptu
Hamburger Helper.  When Lithuanians grind beef, they really do
not mess around.  What I had was beef so finely ground it resembled
paste.  It took quite a long time on the skillet before it 
became recognizable as ground beef.  I was beginning to be worried
about my translation skills.  It was delicious!

My ankle felt much better on Thursday so I joined in the
LCC floor hockey tournament.  I am on the staff team.  We
played our first game Thursday, outside, in the rain.  I arrived
a little late since I had to finish laundry (of which, more anon),
so I played a little defenseman for the first half.  Halftime
score was 3-3.  Then I volunteered to play goalie second half.
Final score was 8-4 Staff!  Everyone complimented me on my
skills, but it was really much better defense in front of
the net than defense in the net (since I wasn't in front anymore).
It was great fun, but I am still sore from the goalie stance. :-)

Thursday, I was on third floor at LCC getting some tea.  Not
very exciting, sorry.  Except that when I turned on the electric
teakettle, the outlet closest to me started sparking like a 
Fourth of July pyrotechnic display!  I rapidly turned off the
teakettle, but it made no difference to the outlet.   Soviet
style electrical outlets are waist high so it was right in
front of me.  I also realized that the outlet that was sparking
and starting to smoke did NOT have anything plugged into it.
Very confusing.  Fortunately, the resident handyman, Robertas,
was in the kitchen and sent Inga, also in the room, off to
shut off the circuit breaker which finally ended the festivities.
Apparently, there was a wire broken in the outlet, and when
current passed through the circuit on the way to another outlet,
the wire would short out.  It was fixed by Robertas that day,
but it is a little disquieting in a building without smoke
alarms or sprinklers that the outlets can spontaneously combust
like that.

The same is true at the Karklu dorm, but the wiring is more
modern and done by Canadians.  My room is on the second floor,
and is standard dorm room mostly.  The difference is that I
have a two place hot plate which the students do not get.  I
have a spectacularly noisy refrigerator.  It ends its normal
cooling cycle with all the racket of a train falling off a cliff.
It does work though, and I am thankful for that.  It also has
the sense to put its thermostat knob on the outside of the
refrigerator.  I can't turn my control at Auburn without
a screwdriver.  My room is set up for four students so I
have two sets of bunk beds, side-by-side closets (no doors
or anything), and a center room divider that serves to
separate the sets of bunk beds and doubles as desk space shelf
space.  The whole is about the same size as my old Neill House
efficiency.  My sink is a stainless steel kitchen sink, and
all the rooms have a separate shower.  The sanitary facility
design leaves a lot to be desired.  Dishes and utensils are
furnished by the school.

I also get free access to the staff washing machines on the
ground floor.  They are front loading, a design new to me.
They are also much smaller than the washing machines I am
used to.  I can only fit a weeks load into each one.  Less
than a week of colors since I can't fit all the sweaters and
jeans into a load.  Not even close.  Just as well.  It is
easy enough to find time to do an extra load.  Cycle time
is about an hour.  Thursday, I had to do an extra load after
the game since I had already washed two pair of jeans,
and got the last pair very dirty going down to block shots
in the hockey game.  There is no clothes dryer, so everything
gets hung up to dry in the laundry room.

Friday was payday!  We celebrated by going to Scandalas,
an American-style restaurant, for lunch.  I had the Canadian
platter--three chicken strips, two cheese sticks, and a potato
skin.  No, I don't get it either.  Friday night a group of us
went to Bobulis for Swedish pizza.  Pretty good pizza.  No
pepperoni though :-(

After I got rid of everybody Friday night it was time to
start the Valentines caper.  One of the local flower stores
was open until 10pm, so I went in there, bought a rose
for each of the single women on staff, and then delivered them
at midnight to their doors complete with a Happy Valentine's Day
note printed off Microsoft Publisher.  Color inkjet printers are
my friend.  I still don't think anybody has caught on as to 
who did it.  Either that or they'll get me for it later. :-)

Have a great week everybody!  Our God reigns!

In Christ,
David