estoniaX

We have come to the end of another long but fun and enlightening day!

We started out today very much like yesterday: time on our own in the morning followed by team devotional time at 11:00 AM. Shannon S, Mark, and I went running again at 9:00 AM; that was great. It had rained a little overnight (and it proceeded to be cloudy all day but it never rained again) but the temperature wasn't too bad, probably somewhere in the 50s, which is plenty warm for running. The 3 of us hit breakfast after the run and some others joined us for that. If I haven't been clear about this so far, breakfast is a buffet here in the hotel and with a couple small exceptions, the offerings are the same every day. But it's breakfast and generally that's all about staples anyway so it's not like it's a problem that it's the same each day. I cleaned up then met KJ in the lobby at 10:30 AM for a run to Zepplin. We stocked up on water: it's much less humid here than in Atlanta and so it's easy to dehydrate and that was of course especially true when the weather was so warm but even now it's still the case. Yesterday we had found over there a brand of water for which a 1.5 liter bottle is about $0.50 which, while perhaps not the deal of the century for inexpensive bottled water in the USA, is nevertheless tremendously less expensive than most of the other brands of bottled water sold here (and let me just tell you, they have a tremendous number of brands of bottled water here). It's actually complicated to buy bottled water here because most of it has carbonation (I think the idea is that many people will simply drink tap water if they want water without carbonation) and it's often difficult to tell whether or not a particular brand is or is not carbonated. So anyway, we found this one brand that offers a non-carbonated option in the 1.5 liter size (true to form with the greater popularity of carbonated water, their carbonated offering comes in a variety of different sizes in addition to the 1.5 liter size) at a good price so we just bought a ton of them. Now, it does have a bit of an interesting taste that I for one am able to push through. But ask David what he thinks of the taste.... ;)

Renee led us in our devotional; her topic was pertinent and led to some great discussion. Thanks, Renee! By the way, we're doing these devotionals in the hotel lobby; few people may think much of it but for any that do, I hope there's a positive effect!

From devotional we headed back to our post outside the Tartu University library for Day 3 of the Free Pancake Extravaganza (my name for it). We set up the booth and got cranking a bit earlier than the last couple of days; this time, we were going at about noon. And though it was overcast and cool all day and perhaps threatening rain, the rain never seemed imminent and this kind of cool is certainly no big deal to Estonians. Still, I thought that perhaps it was the weather that was keeping them away when at the beginning we got off to a slow start. But I think it was just the timing because it wasn't long before we were really jamming. We had Corn Hole out with us this time and early on it wasn't gaining a lot of momentum: every now and then, one of the Risttee crew (which, incidentally if I haven't been clear about it, there have been a handful of out with us each day: Peep, Tarmo, and Katie are always there along with a couple others) or our team (and I hope it's been clear there are 8 of us: KJ, David, Mark, Chris, Renee, Shannon S, Shannon H, and me) would go toss a few beanbags, but that was about it. But towards the end of our time, David got out there and grabbed a few of the kids who'd come for the pancakes and he got them playing and they really seemed to take to it. At some point I asked him what was happening and his response was "I don't really know if they're keeping score but a while ago they declared a winner and it wasn't contested." We had a good laugh at that one! Perhaps our favorite Corn Holer was also our youngest: there was a toddler probably around a year old there and he was absolutely fascinated with the beanbags...well, at least he was fascinated with the idea of throwing them into the nearby fountain! His father patiently re-routed him time after time after time. Absolutely adorable! You'll see him at the point at which I'm able to get some pix online.

Today's best pancake stories revolved more around people returning than they did conversations with new people. On the returning side was one woman in particular (unfortunately, I can't remember her name). Shannon S felt we should pray for the site today (a great thought; wish we'd had it earlier!) and during that time she prayed for people to return and though she was particularly thinking of the guy with whom KJ spoke on Tuesday, God granted the request in regards to this woman. And even better than just coming back for pancakes, she said she would come tonight for sauna!

Sauna--what's that? Okay so let me get to that in a sec. Pancake Extravaganza ended at 2:00 today because our chef had to go so we had lunch out rather than having a sandwich run like David and Shannon H did with Katie on Tuesday. Lunch was a bit before 3:00 PM at a Chinese restaurant that I believe the team enjoyed quite a bit. It has been asked why we're having so little Estonian food; the answer to that is that we are having Estonian food a decent bit: Peep's cookout on Sunday night, lunch on Monday, dinner last night, dinner tonight at sauna. However, bear in mind that while for us Estonian food is new and different, for our hosts it's rather pedestrian so they enjoy taking us for some variety some of the time.

Anyway, after lunch ended around 4:30 PM we had a little break; I personally took it as an opportunity for a nap (when all was said and done I only got about 45 minutes and I woke up feeling like I'd been run over by a truck, but I certainly was glad I got the sleep!). :) I think we've all learned to sleep with sunlight, but we're still tired just from our busy schedule. The break for the guys ended at 6:30 when we gathered to go to sauna; the break for the ladies ended a little later when they met for another Prayer Walk, this time to a different area of town.

Okay, so what is sauna? Well, in our case it was a dinner event so after we met up with 5 Risttee guys (Peep and Tarmo plus 3 others), we stopped by supermarket Selver to buy food for grilling. Then we headed out of town to a spot on the river (upriver from Tartu I believe) where there was anchored this floating sauna. That's right: a floating sauna! It was a little house with a sauna in it surrounded by a little deck. See, sauna is a big part of the fabric of Estonian culture; it's a big deal. People generally sauna at home, but places like this one serve as sites for special sauna events. Although we grilled out and ate, the primary point of the event was sauna. Here's how sauna works: you go in and when you've had about all you can stand, you rush out and jump in the river (which, while cold at some 65ish degrees, is nothing compared to the snow into which Estonians jump in the winter)! So...it was a completely unique experience. And it's really one where it's true that you had to be there to get it. :)

When we left at about 10:00 PM, it was just starting to get dark (a little earlier today since the sky was so overcast) and the mosquitos were really getting crazy. The women were arriving as we left and I'm anxious to hear how they navigated the mosquitos and the whole event!

Another great day--thanks as always for all your support!