The Weather, etc.

Spring here is beautiful beyond expectation. The days are already hot and long, trees have bloomed and greened, and all this has the power to make me very happy. A chicken pox epidemic at the kindergarten has cut our numbers in half, so lately we have been a small group, spending our days outside in the sandbox and going home dusty every day.

Most of my working day is now spent chasing a new little boy named Aleksa. Because of birth defects and subsequent operations, Aleksa has half the physical and psychological functioning of other kids his age. Four years old, he can say only a handful of words. Usually the only option for such children in Serbia is to go into institution-type places for handicapped kids. Our kindergarten is one of the only places that sticks sick kids in with the healthy. This integration idea is not without its difficulties. Aleksa runs around the place headfirst, stick-thin legs pumping madly behind him, wet tongue hanging out the side of his mouth, and a grin of complete satisfaction with life spread across his face. He leaves phones off the hook, empties milk jugs on the floor, wets his pants every 15 minutes and tosses puzzles across the room. We can’t say anything when we see that smile, though. The only word that comes to mind is precious.

The very routine working life I’ve been living here is being broken up lately by exciting travel: a church youth conference in northern Serbia, an Easter weekend trip to visit some old friends in Albania, and an upcoming May-day break to be spent on Montenegro (the world’s newest country) beaches, followed by an MCC retreat in Egypt, of all places! After all that tomfoolery there will only be two months left for me in Serbia. There were times during this year when time trudged along, but now it's beginning to race, and I’m beginning to dread the loss I face in leaving.