October 17, 2007

Dear Family and Friends back home,

Well, it's another week and some days since my last update. We’re still in Latvia but not for much longer. This Friday we’re taking a trip to Vilnius for a few days to avoid running out of days on our tourist visa here in Latvia. In the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) you can only live in a country for 90 days without a visa/work permit/etc. So, we’re going down to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. I’m excited about this. It means that we will have had opportunity to explore the capitals of all the Baltic States.

Upon our return we are vacating the cabin and moving into a hostel in Riga. We’ll stay in the hostel until we run out of days in Latvia and we will return to Estonia to spend our last two weeks abroad there. Kris and I are both looking forward to our time in Estonia. There we will be able to see our supervisor and his family daily. Tom (our supervisor) is one of the more amazing men that either Kris or I have met. He’s a good man.

Three days ago Kris and I were sitting out in the cold at the bus station. As always happens, a homeless person wandered up to Kris and me and began talking to us. Often times it is for money but sometimes it is simply to talk. The man began talking to me in Russian (to no avail)… then Latvian (still no good)… and finally Russian (nope, not that either). The whole time I shook my head saying, “I don’t know. I don’t know.” Finally I patted the bench next to me and motioned for him to set down.

He had hair like Harry Potter. If that doesn’t mean anything, it was dark hair going in every direction but the right one. He had a on a sweater woven of different blues, and white worn out (formerly) white jeans. And boots.

As little as we could talk, he told me he was from the Ukraine. I told him I was from America. As we’ve learned in our communications with Igor, our landlord, charades is the name of the game. Through several thumbs ups and “OH! YEAH’s!!” we learned about each other and Latvia. America is very good (two thumbs up and an ‘OH YEAH’). Latvia is good (just a thumbs up). The Ukraine was in the same bracket as Latvia.

I told him through hand motions that I come from America to Latvia for God, for church. When I asked him about church his hand motions were something like this: he landed a plane (his left hand flat) onto his right hand and then rocked his hand left to right. He coordinated the hand gesture with his head which was wobbling left and right. I think he was saying, “Eh… its okay, sort of, I really don’t know what I think.” I think that’s what he was going for.

We sat in silence for a little while longer. Then he started to count imaginary coins in his hand. This one I understood. I pulled out one Lat and fifty cents ($3). I put those in his hand and his eyes flew open in astonishment. He gaped at me as his eyes watered. He stood up and began bowing from the waist, his hands in a prayer position. I told him not to thank me, to thank God.

He put his hands on my shoulder and looked me in the eyes. Then he started to move in for the kiss. I’m not ready for the cross cultural experience. I learned forward and our foreheads met. I sat and he stood there forehead to forehead… almost like he was blessing me. He removed his hands and resumed his bowing, prayer hands stance. I told him its okay. His eyes were still watering.

I stood up and gave the man a big hug; a really big hug. When I released the hug, he didn’t. He wasn’t ready. So, I kept hugging. I could feel him choking back the sobs in his throat.

All of this for three dollars…

Wow.

That man has been on my heart since. And I do desperately wish I could speak the language here. But perhaps, here, it was better that I couldn’t. We were only able to convey the simplest truths.

Yeah. God is good.

On another note-

They found a cancerous mass in one of my grandma’s breasts. Please pray for her and the family as we try to figure out where to go from here. She’s happy and not in any non-normal pain.

Thanks guys, keep praying and emailing.

Love you-

Chris