Month: October 2008

First off, I didn’t get any pictures from today.

We had some friends over from the US.  Today was a day for them to spend around Cacak helping people.  One of our other American friends here goes to a gym and had talked to them about helping them out with some work they needed done.  Well, we show up today only to find out they didn’t have supplies.  Our friends hung out in the gym and I had a cup of coffee next door.  I was able to spend some time talking to people…and I even ended up and got my coffee for free.

Then, we went and had lunch.  A chicken Sandwitch.  Very good!

Later on, we went back and helped a friend’s neighbor with some wood.  While we were working (there was about 8 of us) another neighbor came out and started working on his wood.  Well, after I tried to remember how to ask if I could help him–I got it all wrong if you were wondering, but he spoke some english–I went over and asked.  We then, instead of working, we went back to his place and had coffee.  And cheese.  And Kymak.  And bread.  And Aivar.  And eggs.  And juice.  And coffee.  And garlic.  And water.  We didn’t get any work done on his woodpile; however, we had a good coversation.

Tomorrow, I’m going back to see him in the afternoon.  Pray that I’d have the words to say.

Picture from claudecf

Over the past few weeks, I had met this guy who lived in our building.  I had met him outside and in the stairs; however, I didn’t know what apartment he lived in.  I asked him and I thought he said 35.  Awesome!

Yesterday, Cyndi made some chocolate chip cookies–try saying that in Serbian.  I put some in a ziploc bag and went to apartment 35.  Well, he wasn’t there.  In fact, that was the wrong apartment.  In apartment 35, there was an older lady and her daughter–about my age.  Well, I couldn’t back down, so I told them that cyndi had made the cookies and we wanted to give them to them.

They invited me in and we sat and talked for about an hour and a half.  In Serbian.  Mostly.  Her daughter spoke english; however, I only had to look to her a few times for a translation.  They were very very patient.  And very nice (they told me that my Serbian was good…and also that my падаже–cases–were very good.  I told them they weren’t but that they were nice).  It was a good time.

One story then I must go.  The older lady was talking about people around the world.  I was following the conversation (that means catching about 1/2 of it and it looked like I was guessing the other 1/2 mostly right).  About 1/2 way throught that, my brain just…well, it rebooted.  All of a sudden, I had lost the conversation, where I thought she was going, etc….  It was a very strange and surreal experience.

In the end, I heard lydia coming up the stairs and so I told them that I had to go help Cyndi with Lydia.

Thank you for your language prayers.  Keep them coming.

 Kvas Label from Serbia from Petrovic

I wrote yesterday about Cyndi trying Kvas for the first time.  Today, she pointed out that it looked like she was drinking beer and that I had better write something about it.  No, Cyndi hasn’t turned into an alcoholic (nor have I).  No, we don’t drink alcohol…or beer (Serbs seem to think of Alcoholic drinks only being hard liquor….for the most part, they don’t seem to lump beer into that category.).  Firstly, our company forbids it and, secondly, we don’t see how that honors Christ. Moving on….

I can’t really describe how it tastes.  Kind of malty.  Kinda like a flat pop but with a bit of carbonation left.  Kida heavy.  Kinda bready.  It tastes about like it looks…very dark brown…darker than the bear in the picture above.  Almost black.  It has tons of vitamins and most people drink it like a vitamin supplement.  In fact, according to this article, the Russians–it’s a Russian drink originally–used it exactly that way.  They would drink it in the winter when they couldn’t get sufficient vitamins from their diet.

How does kvas compare with pop?  Well, let me say that I doubt in the US it will be a hit.  Well, let me take that back…perhaps it will be a hit with the healthfood nuts (the same people who brew twigs and dirt as some kind of coffee substitute).  However, with the huge sweet-tooth we have in the US, I doubt it will go anywhere.  But, this article talks about how the makers of Kvas made a comeback after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Here in Serbia, we have 1 choice for kvas.  However, according to the Wikipiedia article on Kvas, in Ukrane, they sell the stuff out of water buffalo type containers.  We have some friends there who have tried it and said they like it (although one of them falls into the health-food nut category.  I won’t mention names, but they know who they are.).  They tell us that there is a wide range of kinds and flavors (probabaly depending on who made it, when, how they like it, what they think it should be like, etc….

Want to try your hand at making kvas.  Here’s a recipe I found online.  I don’t know what it tastes like or anything about it.  But, feel free to give it a go if you want to try it.

Full-disclosure:  I know that the wikipedia article says that kvas has alcohol.  If you do a generic search for kvas on the internet, you’ll find about 1/2 of the articles saying it does…and 1/2 saying it doesn’t.  Our supervisors have told us that it does not…and, everyone I’ve talked to here says it is alcohol free.  (Note from Cyndi…I just double-checked the label on the brand available here and it says “bezalkoholno”-which means without alcohol.)  Now, I understand that isn’t a fool-proof test–see the discussion of the local view on beer above. This actually proposes an interesting question:  should we or shouldn’t we drink kvas.  What do you think?  Leave a comment and we’ll see where it goes.  Right now, I’m leaning towards the there’s nothing wrong with it end of the spectrum; however, for anyone that knows me knows I am consistant.  What position do you think I ought to take on kvas?  Why?

Well, tonight, I helped a few of my friends learn a bit more about this Bible…in Serbian mostly in Serbian. I’ll post my notes shortly; however, I wanted to get this post up. Here are a few things I learned:

1) Doing it with friends was great. They helped me with some words and pronunciation. They were also very patient.
2) Make sure everyone has the same copy of the Bible. We had a few times where someone read and the other person would say something to the effect of…mine is different. Next time, that isn’t happening. We are all using the same.
3) My notes helped…but I needed to explain tons more things that I ever thought I would have to. Even after having some other friends help me with my notes to make sure it said what I wanted.

But, in the end, it was ok….добро је.