Corona Virus

Things have changed rapidly this past week.  On Saturday we thought the young elders were taking the car to Zagreb for a meeting.  Saturday afternoon Sister Melonakos and Liz were talking and she asked us to come along and take a relaxing tour day.  She suggested we take a walking tour of old-town Zagreb.  So we tagged along.
   Sunday there was lots of talk of Corona Virus and how it is spreading.  It has taken hold of northern Italy in a bad way, and that is not so far away.  But we are healthy and in good shape, and we are happy where we are and with what we are doing.  So we aren't worrying about it.
  Monday morning we drove to Zagreb.  As the day goes on, Sister M. and Liz plan a phone conference with the sister who has been the Mission Health Advisor.  Liz is taking her place, and needs to learn a lot about the whole process before Sister W. goes home - in about three weeks.
  We got to Zagreb just in time to drop the elders off and get down to our walking tour, which was great.  It was advertised as costing one kuna (15 kuna make one dollar), but it is really where you tip whatever you want.  The guide was a youngish lady who had the tour chatter down pat.  She told us if we have any questions to ask her as we walk - and then she took of and was way ahead of everybody before we could inhale.
  Zagreb started out as two cities on adjoining hilltops - one was the government town where everybody paid taxes to the government leader, and other was the church town where they paid taxes to the priest.  The path between them was known as the bridge of blood because when there was a dispute they'd meet there to discuss it and often end up fighting.  Each town had its own wall and fortification, but they decided to merge when Gengkis Kahn was threatening them.  They built a wall around the whole place and decided to be one town.  So she told us this as we stood at what is left of the church town wall.  Then we entered the old town through the stone gate, which is a Catholic shrine.  We got a lecture on witches and witch defense, on the old church there, and finally came out on top of the hill.

This is the view from the top.  The big Catholic church, the smaller but more ornate Eastern Orthodox church, and an ordinary steel fence where lovebirds leave pairs of padlocks to show their love is locked up tight.  Ideally there should be a river beyond the fence so they can throw the keys into it, but here they have to settle for throwing them into the bushes.
  A lot of Zagreb architecture comes from the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  Ornate!
We walked along the top to a tower where there used to be bells, but for the past hundred or so years they've fired a cannon at the stroke of twelve each day so the churches will know when to ring their bells.  It was fun.
  Then we walked around a corner and saw this.

This is an otherwise ordinary church where they had to repair the roof about a hundred years ago and decided to make a statement.  On the right is the symbol of Zagreb - a castle.  On the left is the symbol of Croatia.  It has a mink on the red stripe at the bottom of the shield.  The mink used to be big business when mink coats were big business.  Mink are even found on Croatia money, the kuna literally means the mink.  Above the mink are two symbolds.  On the right is a blue field with three lion heads.  They look more like teddy bear heads, but the tiles are big and so the resolution is low.  Liz offered 100 kuna to the first of our grandchildren to make a lego model of this building with the symbols.  And the shield on the left has a checkerboard.  The story is the Italians had an army and sent it to conquer Croatia.  The Croats had their own army and sent it out to meet them and change their minds.  The battle goes for three days and they kill a lot of each other, but neither side gains an advantage, so the generals meet in the middle and agree to play chess to see who wins.  The Croatian general wins three games in a row so he wins and everybody goes home happy.  And the Croatian flag got a checkerboard on it.  Nice!

  We both have sore feet and the hill was rough on our old knees, so we dropped out of the tour after this.  

  Later, at the Mission Home, Liz had her meeting with Sister M. and Sister W. who is leaving in a few weeks.  The corona virus was the big point of discussion.  During the meeting we got some instruction.  First, senior missionaries who feel at all threatened by it are free to return home with an honorable release.  Second, all missionary apartments are to be stocked immediately with a two-week supply of non-perishable food and water in case we get quarantined.  Third, any missionary with lung impairment, or immune impairment is asked to return home with an honorable release.  The meeting lasted for a couple of hours or more and Liz got lots of good info from sister W. on how to be the Mission Health Advisor.

  We did some shopping and picked up the elders to return home.  At an intersection I noticed a man standing in the crosswalk in front of the car next to us.

He was good.  He juggled.  He talked with pedestrians.  I assume people gave him something for his effort.   Later we saw another one who was not nearly as good as this guy.

  Here is a photo of a building in the center of Zagreb.

The magnificent old, next to the modern chic.  And then this is a photo of the elders' apartment.

Lack of maintenance aside, this is a building from the socialism era.  

  After we got back home, we settled into our routine.  We taught an English Conversation class Wednesday night, which is fun.  All the elders we are assigned to watch over, have their two-week supply of food.  General Conference will be presented to an empty Conference Center as it is broadcast around the World virus-free.

Thursday morning at about 3:00 am, Brother and Sister W. got a phone call saying that President Trump is suspending all travel from Europe to the USA.  They called the church travel department, packed their bags, and caught a 6:30 flight home this morning, before it went into effect.  So Liz has the Health Advisor ball early.  Yeah!

  We've been looking forward to a conference in Sarajevo next week, but I've been expecting something to happen to it.  This afternoon we learned it has been cancelled.  Later we heard that the church is calling all senior missionaries home from Europe.  This was a miscommunication.  First, it applies to 22 missions, but not ours.  Second it is for seniors with underlying health conditions.

  And of course, this evening the news is all about sports, parks, and other events being cancelled in the states.  And to top it off, we got word tonight that if we want to, we should feel free to impose self-quarantine on ourselves for the foreseeable future.  We don't plan on doing that, because we have yet to see a single person sneeze, cough, have red eyes, or grow horns.  We still feel safe.

Go home, C.V!  We don't like you!