Day 3 in Latvija

We started the day with Janeks making us a traditional breakfast of Latvian sausage (actually more like American bologna, only smaller and lighter in color) on buttered bread with coffee. Elina Cernuka (Janeks' girlfriend) came along with us and Ina, and Janeks to visit the first orphanage. This was after Eric ran and had a cold shower, as half of the city of Cesis is without hot water. It gets light here at about 5 a.m. and stays light until about 10:30 p.m. because we are so far north!

Janeks introduced us to Ina his former Director of one of the orphanages he lived in. She now works for the town's cultural planning organization which plans and executes special cultural events for kids and teens. She was our chauffeur for the day and drove us to the town of Gaujienas. We were only 7 km from Estonia (another of the Baltic countries) and approximately 10 km from the Russian border.

Liga Cemjonova is the Director of the Gaujienas Children's Social Center (orphanage). She is also a teacher for the younger children in the orphanage school. We toured the building visiting bedrooms, common play rooms, kitchen, and dining areas as well as the bathrooms! She did not want us to see the classrooms for some reason. The building was old but pretty well maintained, considering very limited resources for maintenance. There was a residential boarding school next door for children who cannot live with their families but who are not yet considered orphans by the state.

Liga seemed very receptive to our plan to host a camp next summer for some of her children. There were 23 children ages 3-18, during the last school year living in the orphanage, 11 were still on site for the summer. The others had been placed with foster families for the summer. We met seven of the 11 children on site; Dagnis (11), Nikola (3), Elina (3), Viesturs (7), Sandra (16), Renate (6), and Juo (14). They loved the candy we brought eating piece after piece! We were very touched when several of the children took each of us by the hand and walked us outside to our car when leaving.

The four of us visited a very old Lutheran church building and went up to the very top of the bell tower and steeple through a winding narrow passage followed by very old wooden steps. Mark got a good shot of Eric's behind which he will not post. There was a fantastic view of Cesis from each side of the tower through tall narrow windows.

In the evening, Janeks, Elina, and the two of us met up with Janeks' sister Linda, who has been sick and may need some surgery to remove an abscess in her throat. It sounded like untreated strep throat to us. We walked through a park to eat at an outdoor restaurant and had pancakes (crepes) with ham and cheese or fruit and honey. Eric and Janeks did a little line dancing with the local ladies of the town. We even had three girls on horseback (in the middle of town!) come riding by while we ate. After dinner, we again walked through the park and saw the fountains illuminated by multicolored lights. This was a special treat considering that the city of Cesis has decided to turn off all streetlights at night to save money.

Janeks took us on a walking tour of old Cesis cobblestone streets where auto traffic is prohibited looking at some of the oldest buildings and architecture in town. While walking back to Janeks' apartment in the evening, we were stopped in our tracks by a procession of military recruits (like ROTC) marching out of the castle carrying torches. This really startled us in the dark cause there were no street lights!

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.

First Day In Latvia

We wanted you to know that we arrived safely in Latvia. The trip to the airport, parking the car, and shuttle to airport all went smoothly. The flight to Helsinki and then on to Riga were uneventful. We were able to see both the sun set and sun rise on the same flight within a couple of hours as we picked up several hours during the course of the flight. We are 7 hours ahead of you here. There was a stuffed reindeer in the Helsinki airport by where they were selling reindeer pelts in the airport.
Today, we toured Riga a little with Victor Barviks, the preacher here. We visited the Museum of Occupation which describes the occupation of Latvia by the Soviets, the Nazis, and then the Soviets again. Over 550,000 people died during this time. We went shopping to a local market buying locally grown berries. We also got to go to the 26th floor of the Hotel Latvia where we had a panoramic view of Riga. No skyscrapers. This evening Victor and his wife Sarmite and Anna (Sarmite''s mother) had us over for a wonderful dinner!
Tomorrow, we will visit a castle on the way to picking up Janeks and then on to visit Camp Ganchauskas! Keep us in your prayers that all of our communication with church members, Camp and orphanages will pave the way for an ongoing effort here next summer to assist Janeks in making a spiritual difference in his home country.

In Him,
Eric & Mark

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This blog will be used by Mark and Eric to keep everybody updated on their efforts in Latvia. Check back soon!