Thursday, July 30, 2009

Days 2 in Latvija - Wednesday

Today, we ate a lot of the Latvian food that we had bought yesterday at the Riga market. We ate some yogurt, hot cereal, rye bread with cheese and meat, pickled herring, caviar on thin cracker bread, and we could not eat any more.

Victor Barviks, the missionary in Riga, drove us to Siguldas, where we toured the Turaidas castle grounds. We went up in an old tower that was still standing and looked out over the Gauja River. It was a beautiful view of the river and surrounding country side.

Then we drove to Janeks' home town of Cesis (the town is celebrating its 802nd year!) where we picked him up to go to Camp Ganchuaskas. We were met by Lydia who is the director of the camp and she fed us a great lunch, of potato and cheese soup, meat gravy on potatoes, carrot salad, and rye bread (again!). Camp Ganchuaskas was everything we hoped it would be. Lydia gave us a thorough tour of the camp including the main building, which had a dining area on the first floor including bathrooms, camper rooms on the second floor and staff housing on the third floor. It will house about 60 campers plus staff. She also showed us a huge multi-purpose tent that had a stage in it as well as portable basketball hoops. Then we went down to the Gauja River where the kids can swim on hot days, no alligators. After that she showed us the camp fire area, playground, and climbing wall. Eric, Mark, and even Victor took turns jumping on the trampoline! We also saw the horses and the chapel. We were very pleased with the camp and look forward to using it next year.

After visiting the camp Victor dropped us off at Janeks' apartment. Janeks gave us a tour of Cesis. They have beautiful gardens, several monuments, and an old castle all in town. We met one of his friends Eva who Janeks refers to as his step sister since they were in the same orphanage together. We also met his very beautiful girlfriend Elina Cernuka and had dinner together outside in the town square by the fountains.

It was great to see Janeks in his home town. He was a very gracious host in allowing us to stay in his apartment and sleep on his bed while he slept on the floor. It was a very successful day. God has really blessed our trip.

1 comment:

  1. Glad to hear you arrived safely!! Keep posting! It's great to read your day to day experiences -- almost like we're there, too! Ask Janeks to make his crab salad for you! You'll love it!
    Give him a hug from the Wells family & enjoy your visit!

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