Our Driving Nightmare

Call a Helicopter!

The minute we drove into Sarajevo, I had two worrisome premonitions. One occurred immediately after I was told that Bosnia uses speed control radar boxes and that I would lose my driving privileges if I received two traffic citations. Erica (aka "lead foot") and Brayden worked the summer in Maryland where they have speed trap radar and we received notifications almost every week of their vehicular transgressions (to be fair, I also received one myself from the 2 days that we visited them!). The speed limits vary from road to road. If you miss a posted sign, you can easily find yourself going too fast completely unawares. And here is the kicker. You find out that you have a ticket 6 months after it occurs. The police just showed up at the church today with two tickets from this summer...a few months before we got here. So I have no idea if I have 20 outstanding tickets already, or not. But we have been driving all over Bosnia these past four months so I am assuming that I will have to pay the piper soon.

Our sweet ride here in Sarajevo!!!

But my real driving fear involves the roads in and around Sarajevo. To understand this fear, you have to understand Sarajevo. The city is located in a valley surrounded by mountains. So the city is built up into those mountains. The roads are windy and go up very, very steep hills. Anyone that lives in the U.S. has never seen a road like this.

The view from our backyard. Tiny roads go straight up these hills.

And Sarajevo is an old town. This means that there are many streets which wind in and out of tight houses. The second day in Sarajevo we went down a road in our little Hyundai (thank goodness we have a small automatic car here) which unexpectedly dead ended. I was able to turn the car around and drive out. But I realized that there would probably be a day when I would not be able to turn around and I would have to reverse out of one of these long, windy roads. Getting stuck on one of these windy hills and having to back out a quarter mile or so is my second driving fear!

This street is straight and flat but it is a good example of the width of the streets.

Despite these fears, driving has been quite enjoyable here in the Balkans. There are a number of small roads that wind in and out of mountainous valleys. I have already posted about a favorite drive between Jayce and Banja Luka. We found another world class drive in the Julian Alps in Slovenia. Since I have not been pulled over (although we were "booted" once) and have avoided getting stuck on a dead road, I have been feeling quite confident about driving here.

Snapped this picture along the side of the road in Slovenia. What a fun drive this is.

We have monthly district meetings with all of the missionaries in Bosnia. In November we were excited to also get to meet with the missionaries in Serbia; a two-zone conference. This meant that we would travel to Beograd Serbia. Because there are 6 missionaries here in Sarajevo, we got special permission to rent a van so that we could all travel together.

We thought we were parked in a free lot at a grocery store. Ooops. Fortunately it was only 20 BAM to get the boot off.

The mission tries to equip its missionaries with automatic vehicles whenever possible. This is not the norm, however, in the Balkans. Most cars are manual. Since I have been driving manual most of my life, it was not a big deal to me to rent a manual van. In fact, I kind of prefer driving manual vehicles.

Our big 9-passenger van for the trip to Beograd. I nicknamed it the "bus" because that it what it felt like driving it.

In the words of the great Will Smith, "pay attention, here's the thick of the plot." Driving this van away from the rental lot and to our apartment, I realized that it was very different driving a bus around Sarajevo. I was a little agitated when Dionne insisted that I pick up the missionaries at the church; which is on a tight road with cars lined on one side. And then I worried more about getting out of town from there. There are a lot of small one-way streets in old Sarajevo. Google Maps seemed to have a pretty easy way to get us out of town but Google Maps has been wrong many times in the past here in Bosnia.

This is an illustration of a Sarajevo Google Maps problem. On Google Maps, this stairway is actually listed as a through road. I guess if I had a dirt bike it could be considered a road!

We picked up the missionaries and headed out of town. Google Maps tried to take us right next to "Pigeon Square" and then out of town. Unfortunately, the road next to Pigeon Square is one-way the wrong way. Which means that when we got there we could not pull onto the main road out of town. So we made a quick turn left and Google Maps recalculated another route for us to get onto the road out of town. I began to be a little concerned as the road started to narrow and we began to drive up some pretty steep hills. But Dionne was reading Google Maps and was pretty certain that we had a way out of town. Google doesn't tell you anything about going up and down hills, road conditions, or road size. We took a few turns that were pretty harrowing. I had to slow down to 10 kph and had less than 6 inches of clearance on either side. But we were things were going well enough. Besides, Elder Rasmussen had prayed that we might have "fun" on this trip. So what could go wrong?

This is an accurate picture of the road we ended up on. The yellow is what the mapping software lead us to believe. What is not shown is that the road that we turned down is straight down hill! 

Once we were at the top of the hill, Google Maps indicated a left turn would take us down to the main road. We took that turn although the road was even smaller than the ones that we had been driving on. We were just ready to get out of Sarajevo; looking forward to a nice relaxing dinner in downtown Beograd.

Immediately after making the turn the road tightened even more. We down a small hill with buildings impossibly close on both sides. Made another turn and then saw a car parked along the side of the road. It would be impossible for us to go past this car. So we had to stop the van and investigate.

This is the "road" just beyond the parked car's rear bumper. Our "road" essentially turned into a walking path down the hill. 

Unbeknownst to us, we had turned onto a dead end. My driving nightmare was about to be fully realized. We had gone down a steep hill, we were 150 meters down a narrow dead-end road, we did not have enough space to turn the van around, I was driving a "bus", and it was a manual transmission. The gravity of our situation struck me as I got out and looked around. Not life or death mind you. But we had messed up big time! There is one great truth in life: Never Trust Google Maps!!!

Trying to figure out what to do. Our first attempt was to turn around. But we did not have enough room to do a thousand-point turn. (Pictured are Sisters Locey and Higley and Elders Isom and Rasmussen.)

We tried to turn around. There was not enough space. The residents of some of the houses emerged to kindly inform us that we were not supposed to drive on this road. The missionaries had a little chat with them and they were very friendly. One lady invited in for a quick drink, to eat, and maybe use the bathroom. Nobody had any suggestions about how we should get the van out of there though. They had never seen anyone do something quite this stupid before!

Preparing to back the van out.

We decided our only option was to back the van out. I walked up the road and determined that there was not a place where we would be able to turn the van around on this road. We would have to back out the entire way.

The first part was not too bad. As you can see by the pictures above, the initial hill is not that steep and the road not that curvy. We had several feet of space on both sides of the van. Dionne and the missionaries helped guide me as I reversed the van up the hill.

Slow work but we made reasonably good progress...at least initially.

After the first 50 meters or so, the road curved around a couple of fences. It was very tight driving forward through this section. Driving backward seemed like an impossible task. I had very little room to spare on either side of the van. And to complicate matters even more, the van did not like being back up such a steep grade. Because I had to inch my way along these roads, I had to ride the clutch. We started to notice some smoke coming from the engine. But there was no other way to get the van out of our predicament.

This was the toughest spot. I had to get as close to the driver side as I could because I was turning around this corner. You cannot tell from this picture but I am also going up a slope here. Every time that I would restart the van would lunge forward a few feet due to gravity. Thank goodness for my spotters helping me get out.

At this point we are at least an hour into our little sidebar. But if we can get around this one final tight corner, we knew that we could back the van out the rest of the way. Things were finally looking up. I was quite impressed by how well we worked together as a team to solve this problem. A small crowd of locals had gathered around us and were enjoying the "silly Americans" show that we were putting on for them.

This is what I was looking at on the other side of the van. Through this whole thing, the only damage we did to the van was a slight scratch on the drivers side mirror. Well, at least physical damage to the exterior.

Just as we were ascending this final tight hill shown in the pictures above, the clutch which I had been riding mercilessly, gave out. It dropped straight to the floor. At first I was not sure what had happened so I tried several times to get the van to reverse. It would not. We were stuck now with a broken van...just moments away from a triumphant driving victory. And, to make matters worse, one of the locals, a taxi driver, needed us to move our van so he could drive his taxi up the road.

Elder Rasmussen chilling...stuck with a dead van and nowhere to go.

So we had to pull the van back down to the original starting position. And call the rental car agency and ask for help. Dionne and I met the Enterprise rep at the top of the hill and walked him down to the car. On the way down he said that he liked to solve problems. We asked what the worst situation he had ever had was. He mentioned a car that had broken down along a small mountain road. And then he got a look at our little problem. We immediately jumped to the top of his "worst ever" list.

His initial response to the question of "How are we going to get this van out of here?" was classic: "Call a helicopter." From where I stood, it looked like that was about the only way to get the van out. We talked for a few minutes before taxied back to the rental agency to pick up a different car. He tried to call a tow truck but no trucks would come down this little road. It was starting to get dark as we left and he did not have a solution. So we left him on the road, talking on his cellphone, trying to figure out how to extract the van.

This is our friend from Enterprise. We happened to be renting another car from him tonight and he let me take his picture as he was inspecting the car. 

When we returned a few days later from Beograd, we asked what had happened to the van. They had to call a 4-wheel drive jeep that back down the road, attached to the van, and drove it out. It took about 3 hours in the pitch dark for them to get the van out. They had to fix the clutch, repair a few things in the engine, and fix the scratch on the mirror. Since the "incident" was driver negligence (thanks to Google), Dionne and I had to cover all of these repairs. Thank goodness for Bosnia prices!

And at least we have a fun story to tell.

December Already?

This week will mark 4 months into our mission. Last week we also received a tentative "release date" in 2018... it seems so far away, yet to think that we have already finished nearly 1/4 of our missionary service is a little hard to believe. As I look back over the past four months it is thrilling to see how much we have already done and to consider the future and what it holds for humanitarian work here in Bosnia. We have now submitted our final project for 2016. This is the list of projects we were able to submit and have approved in the short time we've been here:

Water Projects:

• Sapna Schools - replace toilets, pipes and sinks
• Domaljevac Primary School - replace a complete septic tank and associated pipes
• Zivinice High School - replace toilets, pipes, tile and sinks in 6 school bathrooms
• Vlasenica Schools - replace 3km of water pipe to supply water to a rural school

Area Projects:

• Rijeka Homeless Project - provide blankets and personal care kits to 30 homeless persons
• Mala Sirena - provide tablets and software for communication and educational purposes for individuals with disabilities
• Los Rosales - provide kitchen appliances, cabinets and flooring to complete their food production vocational training center for individuals with disabilities

As Denny discussed in our last blog post, we have chosen to focus our Area Projects on improving the quality of life for those with disabilities. Our most recently approved project continues along that path. Los Rosales is a center in Mostar, BiH that serves about 140 individuals with disabilities in a variety of programs. They have an integrated kindergarten providing care for children 2-6 with and without disabilities and a primary school that serves children in grades 1-9 and includes an autism center as well as a sensory integration room and a relaxation room. All students are fed breakfast and lunch each day and are able to attend the school and receive all meals and necessary services such as occupational, speech or physical therapy free of charge.

High school students

Special class for those with only physical disabilities

Art therapy - making Christmas decorations

Ready for the tree!

Playing in the sensory integration room

 Additionally, they also have 5 vocational training programs established for adults. They offer workshops in woodworking, clay and ceramics, textiles (sewing, knitting, jewelry making), picture framing and horticulture. They have had great success with these programs and even have a small shop in the Old Town tourist area of Mostar that sells their handicrafts. These workshops have also provided some of their students with the skills to find employment in the community.

They are very engaged in their work!

She is knitting a scarf to be sold in the Old Town shop

Jewelry ready to go to the shop

Some of their handiwork

This is the kitchen that they are currently using to
prepare meals for 140 students twice a day

This is their current "cafeteria" that only seats 12 people 

Our cooperative project with Los Rosales is an expansion of their vocational training program. Their current kitchen is very small and inadequate and their dining area can only accommodate 12 students at once. They rotate the students in and out all day long. Their vision is to create a cafeteria to prepare and serve meals where the food production can become part of the vocational training for adults in their program to learn to cook, clean and serve. Ultimately, they will open a small community restaurant as part of this project. With the help of a Norwegian NGO they were able to complete the remodeling of the building and have also received a grant for a greenhouse which will provide additional vocational training as well as fresh vegetables to be used in the cafeteria. LDS Charities will provide important equipment such as the freezer, convection oven, and industrial dishwasher to complete the project. This is a perfect example of LDS Charities goal of promoting self-reliance and sustainability, not just "giving things" away. 

The new "cafeteria" completed by a Norwegian NGO
We love this floor!

The area that we will help transform into an industrial kitchen. 

Education, awareness and inclusion are life changing for all. Los Rosales is making great strides in improving the lives of these most vulnerable people and these projects will enable them to continue to pursue their goals. 

We are looking forward to starting our humanitarian project plan for 2017 and feel very blessed to have been given stewardship over Bosnia. We hope that we can make a small difference in the lives of those God leads us to on this journey. 

She longed for them all the more - Hans Christian Anderson

Because she could not go near all these wonderful things, she longed for them all the more. - Han Christian Anderson's Little Mermaid

Editor's Note: This is my first post about the humanitarian work that Dionne and I doing here in the Balkans. Hopefully it gives you an appreciation of what we are doing here in this beautiful part of the world. 

The Church of Jesus of Christ of Latter-Day Saints provides humanitarian aid across the world. Funding for this aid comes directly from member donations. The donation forms have a line item for "humanitarian aid." These monies go directly to the humanitarian budget which are then managed and distributed by local church leaders and volunteer missionaries like myself. There is not a large endowment which makes up the bulk of this fund. Rather, local members across the world make small donations ($5, $10, or $100) entrusting that this money will be used wisely for those in need. Dionne and I are stewards of these funds and we take the responsibility to use these funds "wisely" quite seriously.

This is a tithing form. Note the line item for "Humanitarian aid." I am ashamed to admit that I have never donated to this line item. In fact, I don't think I ever really noticed it before.

The church has sponsored several international major initiatives with a few of these active in Bosnia. Worldwide, we help meet needs like water, sanitation, food, vision care, emergency response, refugee care, immunization, disabled care, and newborn care. Local leaders and senior missionaries are also responsible for finding additional local needs. Dionne and I have a local budget with responsibility for Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia. Other senior missionaries are serving in Serbia and Montenegro.

Although our projects have to receive approval from our superiors, Dionne and I have considerable freedom with regards to the types of projects that we propose. Our charter is to look for the "poor and needy." We have also been counseled to be deep and focused vis-a-vis wide and shallow.

So after much prayer and evaluation of the situation within our countries, Dionne and I have decided to target our efforts towards helping people with disabilities.

A primary school classroom at Los Rosales, a partner in Mostar which serves 137 students ranging from ages 3 - 53. 

This was not surprising due to our joint background. Dionne teaches therapeutic horse back riding and has been working with individuals with disabilities for over 10 years now. I, like many people, was always a little "skittish" around people with disabilities. Just hesitant to fully engage. But that changed when so many members of my family were diagnosed with some form of disability or another. So it all started with this beautiful young lady; my niece, Brooklyn.

My sister, Marni, just did a wonderful photo shoot with Brooklyn. 

 I distinctly remember the moment when we found our first partner. We were meeting with a Sarajevo-based NGO, Muslim Aid. They help with the food work that LDS Charities does in Bosnia. We asked about organizations that help people with disabilities and they provided us with a list of 4 organizations that they strongly endorse. The name and description of one of those organizations, Mala Sirena, just grabbed both Dionne and I. We walked out of that meeting with spiritual confirmation that "Little Mermaid" was going to be our first project.

If you've got a tiny little dream, all you have to do is think about it, work on it every day, and you'll get it. - Sebastian 

Mala Sirena ("Little Mermaid") exists because of a motivated mother; Adisa Beganovič-Mahovac. Her son was born with disabilities and she was frustrated because he was facing the prospect of exclusion from a normal life; especially in rural Bosnia. So she did something about it. She started Mala Sirena, an organization that is promoting "inclusion" of those with disabilities. They run a kindergarten, fund personal assistants for children to attend school, run therapy programs, and continue to expand.

Adisa (on the right) in their "sensory integration" room. 

When we first met with Mala Sirena, we asked what their needs were. After we explained that we were not allowed to purchase vehicles (everyone in Bosnia needs a vehicle!), they mentioned an area that had us intrigued. They employ a speech therapist who works with children who have communication difficulties. Some are non-verbal and others have speech difficulties. Both Dionne and I were intrigued when they mentioned this area since we both have some personal experience in the area. Dionne's experience is professional. She has had a number of non-verbal students. She has helped some to verbalize and some have remained non-verbal. So Dionne was familiar with many of the technological advances which have changed so many lives.

I can sum up my familiarity with one word -- Cledi. She is my niece who has cerebral palsy. I remember seeing a video of Cledi "communicating" and it broke my heart. I can only imagine what Gene and Kori must have felt as Cledi became more communicative. So I knew the power of this technology and how it could change both the individuals' life as well as the lives of their families. So Dionne and I were both intrigued.

After our first meeting with Mala Sirena, Dionne immediately went to work. She knew that tablets have proven to be very therapeutic. On the drive home, she began to investigate apps and even downloaded some onto our iPad. She called Kori who talked to therapists in the U.S. We talked to other speech therapists including at the most advanced therapy center that we've seen in country (Banja Luka). Through online research, she learned that a conference on these types of therapy was held in Zagreb, Croatia just the month before so she reached out to some of the presenters. They invited us to Rijeka, Croatia so we spent a day (along with the therapists and the founder's daughter from Mala Sirena) looking at the technology options in language.

Professor demonstrating "eye movement" technology. You can just look at the image and it will select it.

Language is the big issue. There are so many applications available in English and other common languages. But there are much fewer in the local language. Banja Luka, for example, is just using a program that prints out pictures because they had not found anything else that works in Bosonski. But we found that our Northern neighbors, Slovenia and Croatia, are pioneering the use of this technology in language. So we became excited about the prospect of bringing this technology to Bosnia.

My understanding is that only 3 individuals in Bosnia are using the special technology for communication. I have that many using the technology in my family! And only 26 are currently using it in Croatia. The need is there. The therapists and parents are there ready to teach with the technology. The problem is language and cost. The western price tag puts this technology out of reach for both institutions and individuals here.

I need these buttons next time we play "Family Feud"

So we are excited to be able to help bring this technology to Bosnia. To help change the live's of children. Dionne has already begun to download free software onto our iPad. The last time we were at Mara Sirena she was able to demonstrate some of these applications with some of the kids. Although Dionne does not know the language, has never worked with these specific children, several of the kids interacted with her in very positive ways. It was clear that they were able to understand how to use the tablet.

Dionne and Adisa with a young student.

We are planning on taking this project slow. This project is not about simply "buying stuff" for Mala Sirena. Both Dionne and I have technology expertise which we will use to help them learn these new, strange techniques. Our goal is to maximize the $$$ we spend so have the greatest impact on these children.

We will let you know how it goes. Cheers.

Thanksgiving... more than the Turkey

The last couple of weeks have been full of blessings for us here in the mission. Today I spoke in sacrament meeting on gratitude and one of my favorite quotes I referenced this morning was from a talk given by President Monson, "feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it." So today I want to express the gratitude I have been feeling.

First, I was very grateful to Elder Rasmussen for translating for me this morning so I didn't inflict pain upon the Bosanski speakers in the congregation! I'm still not quite ready to give a talk in the local language, although we are progressing slowly! I appreciate those in our tiny branch whose testimonies shine brightly as they welcome visitors with open arms and strive to live the gospel in a country where it is not easy. I'm grateful to our young missionaries who serve day after day to share God's message of love and joy. Their perseverance amazes me! I'm also grateful for the opportunity to serve along side them for the next little while.

Because of a special mission conference on actual Thanksgiving, we got to spend an early Thanksgiving with 4 of these special young men and 2 incredible young ladies gathered in our small apartment for a makeshift Thanksgiving meal. It was so fun to watch them interact with one another, to see their personalities come out and to know that they are offering 18 - 24 months of their lives to serving their Heavenly Father and his children. They didn't care that we had boneless turkey breast, lousing stuffing and under cooked yams. They didn't care that they only had 5 hours of "free time" and they didn't care that we only have 5 chairs and some of them had to sit on the couch. They did care that they got to spend time together... and that they got to play basketball, football and well... some of us went to the spa. I did get a call from the mission president later that day, after we posted a few pictures on Facebook, just checking to make sure there were no injuries sustained during the Turkey Bowl. Fortunately, I was able to truthfully say no one ended up in the hospital!

We had a wonderful time in Verona, Italy at the Fieracavalli. There were so many beautiful horses doing such amazing things. We had the opportunity to watch some of the top riders in the world compete in the Longines Jumping prelim rounds. Such amazing athletes, both horses and riders. I am grateful for our new friends here in Sarajevo for inviting us to join them for this once in a lifetime event! I'm also grateful for a husband who understands my passions and went above and beyond to make the trip happen. Funny enough, he was the one who bought the extra tickets for jumping after watching the first day for free! It really was like watching the Olympics, with many Olympic riders in the competition. I could write an entire post about this horse expo, but I will refrain from boring my non-horsey friends with the details. Needless to say, also on my list of things I am grateful for is the experience of Fieracavalli!

It was amazing to watch the competition live, up close and personal!

Anyone else ever had a cone of cheese?

A kiss for a Twister look-alike

Senada and Emin posing with top Italian FEI rider Lorenzo DeLuca

The opportunity to teach an occasional therapeutic riding lesson at Rider's of Hope is also on my list of things I am very grateful for. This week I had the pleasure of teaching a bright young woman who has mild physical challenges due to a stroke. Her determination is very impressive as she grooms, tacks and rides her favorite horse, Gypsy. She is full of joy and her smile brightens my day! Thank you, Rider's of Hope, for the opportunity and thank you to my special student who impresses me more and more each time I see her ride.

I am also grateful for being guided to an amazing group of individuals fighting for a cause close to my heart, inclusion for individuals with disabilities. Last week our project for Mala Sirena was approved! We had the pleasure of visiting them again this week to discus how they want to use their project budget. Lucky me, I got to play with the kids and test out some fun iPad educational apps with them. They were very excited with this new technology. In only a few minutes one little girl, who is nonverbal and rarely participates in activities, was reaching for the iPad and attempting to tap the barn doors along side her typically developing peers. It was amazing! Even her teachers were excited to see her intentionally engaged. We are very excited that this project has been approved and will contribute to many miracles in the future. I am grateful for the opportunity to play a very small part in making big things happen!











While we love the humanitarian role we play in the mission, we were blessed to have the opportunity to actually meet with and teach an individual who is interested in learning more about the gospel. He lives in a small village about 2 1/2 hours from Sarajevo. The young missionaries are not able to travel that far to meet with him, but Denny and I already had a humanitarian meeting scheduled about 30 minutes from him so we asked President Grant for permission to meet with him when we were in the area. This was the first time on the mission that we have had a full length gospel discussion with someone who wants to know more about God's love. He has a sincere desire to love others and do God's will. As Denny was sharing his feelings of a gospel principle with this individual, the man rubbed his arms and exclaimed, "I have chicken skin when you talk about that!" I have to admit, although we were having a fairly spiritual conversation, I almost burst out laughing at his reference. I have heard it called "goose bumps", but never before have I heard feeling the spirit referred to as "chicken skin".  I'm not sure if that is a Bosnian saying or if that was his English version of "goose bumps". Regardless of that brief moment, it was a very touching experience and I am grateful for the opportunity to share God's message with someone who is seeking after goodness in his life. Between our meeting with another wonderful potential project partner and sharing a message with our new friend, Denny declared it as "the best day of the mission, so far!"

There are so many more things I am grateful for... my husband who knows my many flaws, but loves me anyway, our children who are all kind, loving individuals, our grandchildren that make us smile with their funny antics during Skype sessions, parents that love and support us, my grandparents who send cards and words of love, our siblings who we cherish, my friends who keep in touch, who take care of my horses and let me know I'm missed but understand why I'm here.

I'm grateful for the tender mercies that have been granted to me while we have been in Bosnia. But most importantly, I'm grateful for a Heavenly Father and his son, Jesus Christ, who love me and bless me daily as I strive to follow their example. I pray that as you gather with your families this Thanksgiving, you will remember President Monson's quote,  "feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it." Give that wrapped present to those around you and thank God for having people in your life to thank.

Happy Thanksgiving!