Week in Review
Sunday was another hot day. The air conditioning at church felt very
nice! We had a great day at church and
then a nice evening together that evening.
The early part of the week was enjoyable. We didn’t have much planned, so we just went with
the flow! Monday we actually all went to
the grocery store with Jacque, and while she shopped I took the kids upstairs to
the play land. The kids had a great time
and it was nice to have AC! The early
part of the week continued to be warm, though it was a bit cooler than it was
last week. The kids spent some time at
the park and we played a lot in the apartment.
We also went out to the shopping center and bought a few souvenirs.
Tuesday evening a Belarusian friend of mine
took me to the train station and helped me get tickets for our trip to Vilnius,
Lithuania (only took a pile of documents and about 45 minutes to get
tickets!).
Also, on Wednesday I had a
goodbye lunch with people at the university (they are mostly all going on
vacation the next two weeks, so they won’t be around for goodbyes when it is
actually time to leave), which was nice.
On Thursday I was picked up early by folks
from the Belarus High Tech Park to head out for a two-day trip to Grodno to do
a presentation at Grondo State University with IT/High Tech industry leaders
Thursday afternoon. Grodno is a smaller
city (around 350k population) about 4 hours from Minsk, near the Poland and
Lithuanian borders. When I arrived, I
was surprised by reporters wanting to interview me (one from a local and one
from a national TV station)... first time that has happened during our stay
here (I hope I didn't come across as too much of a fool!)... The presentation
went well (around 20 in attendance) and I think we had some good
discussions. After the session, I had a
chance to walk around the city a bit and then had a late dinner with the
academic director of the Belarus High Tech Park. Grodno is beautiful and the city has much more
of a European feel than Minsk… I wish Jacque and the kids were able to come
with me. See a lot of pictures here and here.
Friday morning I had a yummy breakfast at the
hotel and then I had a wonderful tour of the city with a member of the
Sociology faculty from Grodno State University.
He has lived in Grodno all his life and he took me to the most interesting
historical places, all with detailed explanations (and his English is very good). Around 12:30 we started the trek back to
Minsk and I was home in time for dinner.
Jacque was a trooper, as always, and stayed back with the kids while I
was gone. They did their own Olympics,
played at the park, made goodies, and by all reports had a great time without
me!
Today is another warm day and we hope to enjoy
the beautiful weather outside (cooler than our apartment!). It has been a good week. Now only 11 days to go until the trek home…
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