A Bed Time Story

Friday night was the first night spent at the Mission Center in Ajhe (pronounced ahe-ah) We are sleeping dormitory style with the six men in one room and the 5 women in the other. For you married ladies out there, I AM SORRY! my gosh I don't know how you sleep with us. Though I promised in my last post that I would ach not use any more song analogies i simply can't resist. If it was nothing else the night was tuneful with at least 4 snorers and a sleep talker. ( I can't speak to my late night performances since when I am aware of the concert I am wide awake in the audience. Each performer has his own style. Maurice provides the beat with has a steady low vibrato. Javier is the winds with a vibrating inhale with a long hissing exhale. Wayne the strings, has a broken vibrato; one with each inhale and one with exhale. Gregg is intermittent woodwinds with a very intermittent usually quiet with tenored snort inserted occasionally. Larry adds the vocals. You might compare this to performance to the song "You Wanna Kiss the Girl" from the little Mermaid.

Bass: Hmmboogah..Hmmboogah..Hmmboogah..Hmmboogah
Strings: Zzzzzzzzzzzzz..Zzzzzzzzzzzzz...Zzzzzzzzzzzzz...Zzz
Winds: Ach..sss...Ach...sss...Ach..sss...Ach...sss...Ach..sss...
Horns: ....................snort...............snort..................snort
Vocals: Hey!.............Where you goin?.............wait for me.

The best advice I received before coming on this trip was to bring earplugs. Although I could not block out the performance completely I was able to muffle it somewhat.

Their were occasional intermissions when one or more of the instruments would leave the room momentarily but would resume shortly after his return. It ended for good about 5:30 when all performers had left the room.

Breakfast was a serve a server yourself buffet that consisted of cereal, granola, yogurt, cheese, tomatos. cucumber, several types of juice and coffee. While some of these items might not appear on an American breakfast table it was actually quite good. With everyone up except Becca, Callie and Casi we had an hour or so to explore Ahja village. The storks are amazing. New babies must be very common in Estonia because the storks love to nest on the chimneys. Many homes try to avoid these new babies by building ladders to the chimney so they can remove the stork nest.

We had a meeting at 10:00 to develop a gemeral plan for the week. Rein told us what projects we will work on during the week and then he and Larry went to the store to buy some materials.
After their return we had lunch.

I had expected to lose some weight while we are here but the food is amazzing. All of the produce is fresh from the garden. For lunch we had a soup with small sausage balls and fresh vegetables in a lovely broth.

We then formed a 3 car convoy and took a road trip to the Folk festival about 45 minutes away in Voru. The folk festival compared very easily to Sunfest in Bartlesville. Lots of booths to sell lots of stuff that you can buy at any other festival. Apparently they had performers as well but we missed them.

A short walk away from the festival we found Tomula Lake where they were having a sand sculpture contest on the beach. Yes, Estonia has a beach complete with sand and swimmers in ill-fitting bikinis. A liitle sand and a little sun we were off to Suure Munamae Vaatetorn (Big Egg Mountain) The highest point in the Baltic states at approximately 400 feet above sea level. At the summit is a tower that allows you to look out over about 30 miles. The 6 of us that actually made the trek up the hill and asended the tower could see points in Russia and Latvia from the top.


Dinner was waiting for us when we returned to the mission at about 7:30. Another feat with potatoes and pork and sausage gravy, fresh produce and ice cream. Following dinner Rein explained tomorrows church services and our participation in the services in Karsa and Rapina.

Estonia is far enough north that it does not get completely dark at night. At nearly 11:00 it appears as dusk and will until morning. So even though it is light it is time for the nightly concert. Check out the pictures labeled Saturday July 12 at the bottom of this post.

Randy Mazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.