Day Fifteen

Our last day was a long and sad one. In order to make our 6:30 am departure from Zagreb we needed to be on the road by 4:15 am so that meant either not taking a shower and sleeping in until 3:45 or getting up REAL early. Of course not many of us got much sleep to begin with due to all of the goodbye's the night before.

Our transportation to the airport consisted of Ivan and his Volkswagen van and a Ladislav driving another church member's station wagon. After careful packing of people, luggage and guitars we left at 4:15 and had an uneventful trip to Zagreb. Once there we checked in, cleared customs for the 90 flight to Munich, Germany. Here we had a brief layover after which most of us boarded a flight to Washington Dulles. Mark and Lona had a very brief layover and left together for Chicago. Guess they had enough of us for 2 weeks. ;-)

After about 9 1/2 hours of flying we landed in Washington Dulles and then cleared customs, rechecked our bags and had a few minutes to get a bite to eat before boarding our 3 hour flight to Denver.

What a trip!

Day Fourteen

Graduation day for our ESL students! Also our last full day in Croatia so we had lots of last minute things we wanted to do like shopping, visiting with kids from the orphanage, risking our lives, you know, things like that.


This is probably a little unfair to Kyle because he was not the only member of our group who had trouble with his "space" but I couldn't resist. I promise this was not a staged photo but I thought if nothing else it would be of future value to George and Kathy.


Some kids from the local orphanage we saw as we were headed to the market to pickup some last minute things.


Yes, after lots of hype, 3 of our group actually did it. This diving platform is reported to be 10 meters tall and safe to use. In all fairness we did see others throughout our time in Karlovac using this. This is David enjoying the free fall. (Make sure and ask him about his trunks.)


This is Kyle, no doubt spurred on with David's story and success.


Jacob, of course not wanting to be out done.


This was the big finale, all 4 jumping at the same time, from different platforms and in different directions.


Kids at the orphanage. We opened the front door and they practically fell on us!














Mark thanking the church for having us and hoping we get to come back soon.






Tally talking about her students and the week they shared together.






ESL Beginner Class, 2008






Andrew and Heidi announcing their class.






ESL Intermediate Class, 2008


Lona and Danielle announcing their class.






ESL Advanced Class, 2008














Probably one of my favorite pictures from the whole trip.






Melanija outdid herself on this our last night. Incredible food, special china, the whole works!




2 kinds of Palachenka's!


We miss you too!!

Day Thirteen

This is the room adjacent to where we slept. Due to our room also being one of the classrooms each night, we kept our luggage here. The biggest challenge was the "closeness" we were forced to have with each other.




We were treated once again by going to Ivan and Lilly's for both lunch and breakfast. We ate both meals outside and got to help with the preparation. We also were taken to the river again.






























Lunch consisted of gypsy stew (as Ivan called it). Kyle cut up the sausage for us all to enjoy.












Alex giving his testimony. Thursday is the regular mid-week service for the church so ESL classes were only 1 hour.


Lona sang for the service.


Ladislav asked for an interpreter so he could thank us for coming to their church and country.




After church we went to the park and played for those heading to an evening concert (part of a jazz festival). A rather diverse and attentive crowd quickly showed up.


One group of young people, each carrying a cigarette and a bottle of beer, listened the entire time we played. Afterwards they stayed around to talk.