First of all...Hi Mozzer!!! Please check your hotmail account for mushy love notes...there are pics in your work email once you get there Monday!
Second of all...just thought I'd tell everyone else we made it safely to Latvia. My hotel has a business center where you can pay to use it's computers with internet access. Only 5 lats per hour...about $8 American currency. Expensive, but still cheaper than dialing up with my crappy modem.
We've been super busy...jetlagged...but keeping busy and not going to sleep when my body wants to is helping me get over the jetlag. Latvia is a beautiful country! Beautiful people (if you like tall and thin - there are model-like people everywhere!) (Harmony and Dana - there are GORGEOUS men here - you should come visit!), beautiful architecture (Latvian, not the buildings built by the Soviets during the occupation) and wonderful food (super healthy!).
Anyways...just wanted to let you know the 18 hour trip over here was successful. Out of 39 people, three transfers, and immigration, only one bag was lost. We had a total of two bags per every person. Pretty good odds I'd say. The owner saw it fall off the cart at JFK, but was in the plane and couldn't get the attention of the baggage handler to tell him. We're supposed to have it in a few days. Barring that, things have gone perfectly smooth. No delays, cancellations or any travel issues. One person missed his connection in London (he was travelling apart from the main group), but he got here just a few hours later than planned.
We met our sister church, who is full of gracious and loving people! We have a special service tomorrow where my future FIL (Mr. Weathersbee) is giving the sermon. I've known him for almost a year and a half and I've never heard him preach! So I'm very excited! I have a ton of pictures that are supposedly getting downloaded onto the website. But I can't seem to access the site from here...don't know why.
I didn't realize in the summer that Latvia only has 4 hours of night per day. It's almost midnight and I've just witnessed one of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen! I will wake up early to start my day and the sun will have been out for several hours. The weather is nice...mostly high 80's, which is especially warm here, but a wonderful reprieve from Texas heat! We've done a ton of walking, which is great. I feel healthy, especially along with the healthy Latvian food. Strange though since in Dallas you drive EVERYWHERE!!!
I can't tell you how wonderful it's been meeting all the people I've met. The Latvians are reserved, but very loving and so generous...even though they have very little. They are a very elegant people. They walk elegantly, talk elegantly and even joke elegantly. We barbaric Americans could learn so much from them. Haha! We were greeted at the Riga airport with flowers and gifts and smiles bigger than Texas. Which was wonderful to see since we were told that Latvians aren't really emotional people. They were truly happy to see us, even though we were bedraggled and jetlagged. Their faces spoke only a sliver of what we've discovered in their hearts! They were anxious for us to eat and rest so we could be 100%. We took a bit of a tour today and my group (the business development team) had a few meetings with some business owners. We got some great information from them...and have even found some ways to help them expand inexpensively and gain some new contacts.
I will have more later as I don't want to spend too much time on the net here. I have a presentation to give on Wednesday and I'm still working on it. That's another long story I'll share later...
Much love to my JW.com family! Talk to you soon!
Andi
Edited by - Billygoat on 6 July 2002 16:58:16