Home Sweet Home

We arrived yesterday in Prilep, Macedonia, our new home!! Our friends Jeff, Amy, and Kyle picked us up at the airport in Skopje and drove us over the mountains to beautiful Prilep. A cross stands on the mountain directly above the town and can be seen from anywhere in Prilep. It is a great reminder of our task of telling how mankind's problem was solved on a cross so many years ago. We settled in our house, unpacked and met our landlords. Thankfully Jeff was still here to tell us we should invite them in for drinks. So, we did and they sat down while Jeff played the host so we could learn. Baba (the landlord's wife) gave me a box of chocolates and asked me to open them, so I did and offered everyone one, even Kate. Amy served as the translator for our conversation and mid-sentence broke into English to tell me the chocolates may have liquor in them. So, I carefully took Kate's away and discretely put mine back. As they were leaving they wished us happiness in our new home and Baba kissed me on both cheeks and they left. My mind was spinning after listening to so much Macedonian--and only caught two words: cat and good. Jeff gave us a key and told us to lock the door although it's very safe, the cat knows how to open the door if it isn't locked. So, we did. Later that afternoon Jeff and Amy brought us pizza as we continued to settle in. Sleeping was easy as we were so tired. We got a phone call at 11 this morning. It was Jeff saying we had 24 hours to get to the police station from the time we arrived in Macedonia to register, so we made the walk across town to the police station and a few other stops. Kate and I played at the park while Spencer and Jeff took care of legal matters. We ate dinner at Jeff and Amy's house. We walked about 20 minutes to a restaurant in the town center close to where Spencer and I live. We met Kristina, Turo, and Tomas who ate with us. We had a delicious dessert that is classic Macedonian called "palachinka" which tasted like banana pudding inside a flour tortilla with whipped cream and chocolate on top. I looked around as the center lit up at night with couples walking hand in hand, families with strollers, kids playing and others eating and the task ahead of me seemed so great. We were all at one time lost in the dark; someone once came along and helped us see the Light. That person is either like a bitter taste to those who are perishing or a sweet tasting lifesaver to those who chose to believe.