While we were sitting on the bench, across the park road a woman with 4 goats came walking by. She was dressed in a nice looking blue 'house dress' and was carrying a long stick. One of the bigger goats had a mind of it's own and she spent quite a bit of time smacking it with the stick and chasing it through the dried out weeds and grasses. I wish they had come a bit closer because all of my photos turned out slightly unfocused.
I'm not sure why it still surprises me to see goats in the very center of town, out grazing in parks and along side roads where there is grass available, but it does. I like seeing them. Why? Probably for the same reason I always moo at cows when we drive by them in the pastures of Colorado and Wyoming. :):)
One of the other notible things about our time at that particular place was the couple sitting across from us, mostly behind a brick wall and around a corner (sounds complicated, but wasn't). We could see their head. Well, I guess they had two heads, really they must have. Sometimes we could actually see that the two heads almost parted from each other. We spent some time wondering if you can get blisters on your lips from kissing that much and that long and that passionately. I don't think I've ever actually seen anyone really kiss for that long of a time. Half an hour? No. And hour? No. Seriously - they kissed for most of 2 hours. Without coming up for air.
The kids discovered that in front of this couple was a non-working fountain. The square 'cement pond' (remember the Beverly Hillbillies?) was full of murky dirty water, but was a lot of fun to throw sticks into. It took the kids a while to realize the couple was there and then they cast a few questioning glances toward them. I'm not sure the couple knew anyone else existed in the whole world. At that point, papa and mama decided it was time to go check out the amusement park section of the park.
We ended up walking over to another park, Park Lenin, where there is a fairly nice amusement park area for kids. Several different rides were working - all of which would have been shut down in an instant in the States. However, they look 100 times better than they did 5 or 6 years ago ... so that was good. Tickets were bought and the kids got to choose what they wanted to ride on. Even the smallest got to go with papa on one and with mama on another.
Melinda got into the spirit as well and had a blast in a bumper car. Of course 'bumper' is just a word we used to give a general description because they were all strickly forbidden to bump into anyone else. Ab-so-lute-ly forbidden. Interesting concept...bumper forbidden to bump. But they had fun anyway, trying to miss each other in the small space, and that's what counts.
After cotton candy for the kids and papa and ice cream bars for Melinda, Mel and me, it was time to head home. Mel and I had talked about going out for dinner but ended up coming straight home. I'm glad we did. We were pretty tuckered out.
So, the evening progressed. No fireworks - at least not that we heard! There are usually fireworks just down the street every night. Mel put on Independence Day, which has become our traditional 4th of July movie. :):)
About 10:15 Julia called and asked me for advice on a situation they are having with their landlord. Not an easy one to deal with, unfortunately. Almost immediately after we hung up, the phone rang again. It was my sister in Alaska calling to wish us a happy 4th of July! She knew I was down over not being home today and called to cheer me up. I was very cheered! Thank you, thank you!
We hung up. About 15 minutes later the doorbell rang! What? At 11pm at night?? Mel went to the door, asked who is it, listened to the reply and opened the door. I expected to see one of our friends out there in the stairwell, but instead it was someone I didn't know at all. He asked her to repeat her request, she did, he turned to me and said, "Skora pamoshe is here." Skora means 'fast' and pamoshe (long o sound) means 'help' and the joke is, skora pamoshe is neither fast nor helpful. I thought maybe one of our neighbors was having a problem and needed help down the stairs (we have no elevator), but instead, they were trying to bring someone back in.
I went out on the balcony to see what was happening and when they carried the elderly woman in on the stretcher, I could see that her arms were crossed over her chest, that her dress was up farther than was modest for her and that she was lying perfectly still. I honestly thought, "oh no! our neighbor downstairs and two apartments over died!" And I was just talking to her two days ago! She asked me what was wrong with my knee and I told her it was 'sick' and she responded that hers were too and that we both had knee problems because of our weight. I said to myself, "you never talked to that woman about Christ! And now it is too late!!" I felt terrible.
I went out in the stairwell and listened to the guys bring her up the stairs. Since funerals happen in the yard where the person lived, I figured they were bringing her body back and that we would have a funeral tomorrow to attend. This woman was about my size so it took the ambulance guys, Mel and a man from upstairs to carry her up two flights of stairs. Once they had her back into her flat, I heard Mel say, "If you need more help, come and get me" and he came back upstairs.
I asked him as we came in the door, almost in a whisper full of dread, "Is she dead?"
"NO!" he responded, "In fact, she's very alert and was trying to help us all she could by squishing her shoulders together as we came around corners so she wouldn't bump against the walls, and so forth. No, she is very much alive!" I was so relieved! Now, I feel like I have a mandate - I need to see if I can talk to this woman about Christ ... before it IS too late.
This has been quite a 4th of July.
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