Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Spring Comes To Montenego!





                                                                                        




  It's beginning to look a lot like Spring in Montenegro!  The trees that loose their leaves in the fall are starting to leaf out again.  Bushes are starting to blossom and daffodils are showing up everywhere.








Our early morning walks are full of different sights and sounds.  They are made more pleasant by beautiful Spring scenery.
                                                                                                

Speaking of sights and sounds on our early morning walks - this is a sidewalk / parking lot with cars parked wherever there is space.  It's not unusual to be walking down the sidewalk and have to step aside for a car trying to find a place to park.  Parking space in Podgorica is sometimes hard to find.







Spring has also brought a few storms to Podgorica.  One Sunday afternoon and evening, we watched a strong thunder and lightning storm pass through  the city.  With it came very strong winds, rain and hail.  This shows an accumulation of hail on our back balcony,












                                                                           The morning after this violent storm, we noticed thousands of little "gabonzo beans" that had blown off the trees onto the sidewalks.  They made walking on the sidewalks very interesting



The same storm brought so much water to the mountains that the Moraca River rose about twelve to fifteen feet in a twenty-four hour period. 



One project that we were able to close during the month of March was with Komanski Most, a center for adults with disabilities.  LDS Charities provided a greenhouse to be used for work therapy for some of the residents, and also for a fresh vegetable supply for the facility.



Another project that we closed during the month of March was with the Klinicki Center in Podgorica.  Stethoscopes for the some of the doctors and nurses were provided by LDS Charities.






In preparing for an upcoming wheelchair training to be held in Sutomore with our partner, the Red Cross, we enlisted the help of our elders to assemble needed toolkits and supply bags.




The exciting culmination to our month of March was the baptism of Sasa Markovic.  After our acquaintance with him for the past seventeen months, we were happy to see him baptized.