Learning experience

---

Tomorrow the Iraqi people who are brave will be voting. How hard it is to imagine any of them will be willing to face death to vote. We have been thinking of them today and praying for their safety.

I am usually very competent with machines. This last two hours has tested my skill! I have been trying to wash our bed linen and our black clothing. The machines downstairs take 3 kilos of wash each. That was my first challenge. I don’t know a kilo from a hole in the ground. Bill assures me 3 kilos are a little over 6 pounds. Then again, I have no idea what 6 pounds of dry clothing feel like. I tried picking up the clothes in a plastic bag and holding a one pound jar of tomato sauce in the other. I gave up. I talked to another lady in the laundry room and she said, just pretty well fill up the machine. They are front loaders like the newer ones you have to buy in the USA and I know mine at home says to stuff it full. So, I put one large double bed sheet, two big white towels, a pair of undershorts and two wash clothes in one. Then in the other machine I put a pair of black slacks, one charcoal knit night gown, two pair of black tights and two pair of black socks. I really hope the slacks turn out ok. The other day Billy managed to get some of his chocolate (very gooey, very greasy) dessert on them. We have washed the spots by hand 4 times and all we got were bigger and bigger smears of grease. If this doesn’t work he will just have a weird spot on one leg of his new slacks he bought to wear here. Then the next challenge was to read the directions on the machines. I cheated. I asked a man who has lived here several times in the past and he helped me quite a lot. I decided my wash was a C not a B since a C takes two hours and 10 minutes. I don’t know how long a B took. I timed one hour and 15 minutes but then I called my mother and when I went back downstairs some kind person had taken my blacks out of the machine so he could wash his clothes. The whites were also finished but still in the machine. So, it is less than 2 hours when you do at least two things. First Choose C not B. Second dissolve your powered (brought from home non-scented laundry powder) with hot water in your room and put it in a liquid form in the washer. Then choose cold water. If you choose hot water, the water comes in cold and then heats up to the temperature you have chosen. Since most people choose 40C that takes a long time to heat up (I was told by an experienced laundry user.) When I went to try to learn how to use the dryer, I was on my own. Two young men about 20 came in but one said the dryer had shrunk all his clothes so much he could scarcely wear them and he recommended NOT using them. The other had never used a dryer and decided on his friend’s advice that the clothes line was a better option. I put my clothes in the two empty dryer machines and turned them on. I THINK the instructions are in German. They seem to also have some French on the knobs. At least the word I thought I remembered from 1955 and high school French as being the right word for starting the machine worked. The word mangle was also on the machine and I think I know what a mangle is but am not positive. There were also words in German that I imagine mean they will cause the machine not to dry but to spin out any remaining water and leave things more or less damp. I tried that button after the dryer button on one produced a lot of turning but no heat. I brought those things up to the room and they are on the towel dryer. I KNOW that will dry things since I have used it for undergarments all week. Tam=Push Sem=Pull Well I guess I am learning a few words as I run up and down the stairs. I have Tam(ed) the door going one way and Sem(ed) it the other until I should remember which is which in Czech. Don’t hold your breath that one day’s noticing will make those two words permanent. Well, the clothes in the dryer got slightly dry. But the REAL dryer that does get things dry in 120 minutes was done. So I put that lady’s clothes (purple) into her basket and stuffed my sheets and towels in. The good news is we have two sets of everything so if the dryer takes all night we are fine with our bed nicely made up already. I don’t think it was this hard to run the Chinese washing machine 5 years ago but then again I could read off and on, etc. in Chinese. These Slavic languages plus the German are WAY over my head. I never thought I would wish I had my nice clothes line from Xi’an back. As unglamorous as it was to have a laundry line running across your room, it was really convenient. Plus it made the air in the room nice and humid while you were sleeping. I could use some humidity here.

We had light snow again all day today. Not much accumulates but it keeps the top of the snow clean and white. The big black birds have been sitting under the bushes all day jumping up and down so they can eat the red berries. The paths are red and white with snow and fallen berries from the taller bushes. Right pretty!

We had our adventure today in the library. We sat out with keys and the security code in hand to open the library alone today for the first time. We stopped by the security office on our way and warned them the alarm probably would go off since we were not sure of our skill in disarming the alarm. Sure enough we set it off. They corrected it in the office. Then the alarm went off again about 15 minutes later. Bill returned to the security office but they said that was another building and someone else new to the routine. We got all the computers, the copier, etc. on and ready and the students came and came and came. It was a real treat for them to have the library open on Saturday for a change. I expect we will do this often since it is such a important service. The hours were posted from 10-13. But you know me. We stayed till 15:30 since people were so busy working. We got lots of the retrospective conversion work done since there is no need for reference help among the Masters and Ph.D. students. They are in good shape for their studies. So we just plowed away at our regular work. We did have some circulation but not much. I ended up with about 10 questions I need to have the regular library cataloger help me with. I am trying to add full records for each book we need to enter but the series and multi-volume sets are not going in according to the instructions I was given when I first worked with one of the library aides. I must have misunderstood something.! Another volunteer was doing some original cataloging today. Each of us had an office space in the librarian’s office, Bill at the circulation desk and the other lady in the regular cataloger’s office. We three had productive and pleasant work to do.

Since we had shared one of our two packed suppers last night, we shared the other for lunch with one at a time going to the guest lounge in the building across the quadrangle and relaxing for a short lunch break.

We were able to use our friend’s computer again to make a transAtlantic call to my mother with no charge. What a treat that is. She is a friend we know from California. She recently (10 days ago) had a book hit the book stores in the USA. It is called “We testify”. It is first hand accounts from Christians and Jews telling how God has done miraculous things in their lives. I finished reading it last night and Bill is finishing it right now. The book is good and I hope we can get some copies for friends at home. She is a very intelligent woman. That is an important thing about her but her genuine love of people and her friendly nature are even more important to many with whom she has worked. She was a social worker in the Hispanic communities in Kentucky and California. She is Bulgarian but came to the US multi-lingual with Spanish as one of her many ‘second’ languages. I don’t recall all the ones she speaks but suffice it to say she speaks all the languages she needs to go almost anywhere. She said it takes her form 6 to 9 months to become fluent in any language she decides to learn. Surrounded as I am with so many multi-lingual persons I realize again and again how poverty stricken most Americans are in the area of language. It’s embarrassing!

I think I will do some reading for fun or some silly computer game and relax a little for a change. No culture tonight. Golf solitaire, Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood, eye drops, tooth routine, sleep. How is that for an adventure?? njpl

Bill writes ---

I have been surprised at how many books are turned into the library and have to be shelved each day. I realize that books are the means of learning at a seminary. I have spent close to an hour each day shelving books. The only problem I had found when shelving books is I see so many interesting titles and I want to sit down and start reading. Sitting and reading in the library is not on the agenda ... at least not while I am working.

There are small recycle containers at the end of our hallway. Outside and across a parking lot there is a row of large containers to put recyclable materials in. Each container is labeled, i.e. plastic, metal, general refuse, etc. In this way materials are pre-sorted. A sign in the hallway states that 90% of metals used are recycled. Since the ground is covered with snow it is a bit hazardous walking to and from these containers

---