Category: Serbia

Remember how in the US when you’d see a dirty car, you’d want to write wash me all over the back windows? Yeah…come on…admit it. You know you always want to. Well, here the language is different, but the meaning is the same. I bet you a dollar you can figure out what опери ме means.

I wrote a bit a week or so ago about our water shortage here in Cacak. Well, there is an article on B92 giving some more detail about it. Just wanted to keep you up on current events here in Serbia.

[Update 08-24-2008 16:51:15] Here’s another article about the water shortage .

I was surfing last week when I came across the site tesladownunder.com. This guy has some really neat pictures on his website that he has made from messing around with Tesla Coils. What’s a tesla coil? Well, I don’t know much, but here is the wikipedia article on tesla coils.

Here are some interesting pictures:

Turns out they were invented by Nikola Tesla who was a Serb. Actually, the people here in Serbia talk about him quite often. He’s even on their money. I’d think that he was pretty important if he were from my country too. Turns out, he is the guy who invented AC Electricity (well, I guess he discovered it…not invented it). Thought that was Edison or someone else? Nope…turns out that Edison discovered DC electric, from what I think I understand.

So, next time you see one of those tesla coils at the next county fair you go to (or at the local science museum) think if Nikola Tesla. When you think of Nikola Tesla, think of the Serbs. When you think of the Serbs, pray for the Serbian people that they might have an opportunity to hear the Gospel and be saved.

…under water restrictions here in Cacak. Before you think “That’s not so bad” this isn’t your typical we have water restrictions but I’m still going to water the street type of restrictions we see so often in the US. Nope…this is a no water in the spiggot type restriction.

We think it started 2 days ago, but aren’t really sure. We started simply having bad water pressure yesterday…then it came back last night. Today, there were times of no water. We asked two friends and they both said the same thing. When will it end, we asked….no one knows. Probably once it starts raining.

To that end, we bought 20 liters of water today to have to drink. Tonight, we are going to run the tub full so we have a source of water to flush the toilet, etc… tomorrow.

I have updated my Serbian Quick Reference chart (it had a few mistakes).  I have also renamed the file so I can update it better in the future.  The updated (and newest) Serbian Quick Reference Chart can be found here.

[Updated 09-11-2008 09:43:19] The chart had a few errors.  I have updated it.  The URL above is valid for the new chart.

Last night it poked the rain down. This morning, it was raining off and on. I looked out the window and saw this:

I was working on some homework today when I came across a new case that I needed to add to my quick reference sheet.  I made the changes and I needed a break so I decided to blog about it.

 Serbian uses cases to indicate different things like where you are, where you are going, with what, who you are talking to, etc….  In some ways this is cool (instead of having to add new words, you can simply “tweak” an existing word) but very hard (it is totally not like English).  Here are a few example:

cheese is сир.
pizza with cheese is пица са сиром.

Cacak is the name of a town. 
To say in Cacak (if you are describing where you are ) у Чачаку
To say in Cacak (if you are describing where something is) you use у Чачака

 Names of people even change too (unless your name is too foreign then it doesn’t.  How do you know if your name is too foreign?  Well, if you add the ending, it just doesn’t sound right.  Big help when you are learning the language).

Click here if you want to take a look at my quick reference card in a pdf format (This one is missing the vocative case),

[Update 07-22-2008 07:06:08] See this post for more information (and an updated chart)

Well, I don’t even know where to begin, so I’ll start off by saying that you can take a look at all of the pictures we took last month in a calendar form (like to the right) by going to our Flickr Archive page.

 

 

 

 

I’m reading through the Bible right now. My original plan was to do it every 90 days; however, I have revised that a little. I think it will be more like twice per year (about 180 days). To track my progress, I started off simply using paper and guessing what to read (well, along with some math involved). However, I finally got my copy of Logos installed and licensed (thank you George for this gift at the West Virginia Evangelism Celebration) and saw it included a bible reading plan. I’m doing that right now, however, the next time, I would like to have it work chronologically. Does anyone know how to set Logos up to do a chronological reading plan.

In my readings, I came across Ps 61 where I read about David. In reading the passage, I had the impression he was feeling discouraged. While I wasn’t feeling particluarly discouraged then (and really not now either), the feeling comes and goes. At the time, I blogged this just in case anyone else out there was felling discouraged. But, in looking over the past month’s bloggs, I came across it and was again encouraged.

I know everyone likes humourous stories from people overseas so here is mine for this month. One thing I really liked in the US was a moca extra hot. Yes, I know…I don’t like paying $4 for a cup of coffee either, but I enjoyed my moca (or mocha?) once or twice a month. I hadn’t had one in a while (and the only place I have seen it on a menu is a coffee shop in Belgrade. BTW, I had one and it was good!). But, back to the story…I hadn’t had one in a while so I decided to make my own serb coffee moca. Let’s just say that I need to filter the coffee before I try it again.

We traveled to Greece to meet with other Americans working in our part of the world. This was a good time to get to meet others, see how God is working in their countries, and be encouraged by new friends from the US. Here is a picture out the back of the main building we were meeting in:

I know that most of you have never seen Cacak (Чачак) and don’t have any idea what it looks like. I took some pictures one day and did a short post of my trip to the English Club. It is a good representation of a resedential area in town. Cacak is also a city of great contrasts. Rich and poor. Rural and city. Modern and past.

Here are some links I didn’t know how to really write about:
Lydia is getting so big
I have learned things about living in Serbia I wish I had known before now.
We found a Gloria Jean’s Coffee in the Athen’s Airport (I was sick and wanted sprite to settle my stomach so I paid 2 Euro 90 for one. If I had been feeling better, I would have gotten a moca)
A friend gave us a gift subscription to Answers Magazine and we got our first issue
We got our first package from the US
My passport got washed and we took a trip to the US (actually the US Embassy in Belgrade)
We had a great time while we were there meeting friends and their friends. We also were able to worship with them. I cannot explain how good God is: the sermon he gave the pastor spoke to my heart (well, I guess it was really the passage because I didn’t understand much of the sermon).
Want a tux bathmat
We signed up for bookmooch to try and get some more english books.

I went for a walk last week and took a panorama showing some of the contrasts in the city. Here you see a very very nice house next to an older simpler house.

You also see tractors and gravleyesque things among the cars and SUVs in town.

We got our first package from the US last week.  It was awesome.  We thought we would share some pictures:

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