Our Office and Poland

Here's some pictures of where we work. Our office is small (but we are accustomed to that!) but nice. The gal sitting at the computer is our Assistant/Translator Miigaa. She is really great! We feel fortunate to have her to help us. The gentlemen is one of the young men who we are helping with the Michigan English Language test and who is applying to the Church college in Hawaii. They have to pass the English test before they will be accepted to any of the Church's Universities or Colleges.


The next picture is of the hallway/room just outside the office door. If you look carefully behind that pillar, you can see the doorway we come through to get to the office and the big meeting room outside the office. So if we get feeling cramped, we just go out there. That is also where we hold many of our classes.

The girl you can just see sitting at the desk is someone looking for a job. We keep job postings available in this room and people come, check out the listings and then use a phone we also provide, to make calls inquiring about those jobs. There were about 20 or so people who came in during the day today.

Just outside the above referred to door (the behind the pillar), is this area. We come down a wide staircase which is just to around the corner to the far right in the picute. Lots of young people come and play ping pong during the day here. I've thought about playing a bit, but these guys would make me look pretty pathetic!

The final picture is another view of that big room that is just outside our office door. People come in and browse through the job listings at these tables and then wait their turn to use the phone.

We also use the tables for classes and instruction, as already mentioned. And, of course, the room is used for Sunday School classes on Sunday and/or whatever else we happen to need it for. Immediately to my back as I was taking the picture is a kitchen where we can prepare food. We will be holding a senior missionary potluck dinner there this Saturday night as we entertain the Area Employment Specialist and his wife who are coming in from Hong Kong. He will be here for five days and mom and I are in charge of his itinerary while he is here.

Yesterday (Monday our time), the President of Poland came to visit for a couple of days. We have already mentioned that we live across the street from the Chengis Khan Hotel (by the way, we pronounce that Genkis Khan but the correct pronounciation is Chengis Han) which is the nicest place in town. And, of course, that is where the Polish President stayed.

So all day yesteday and all day today, the street (all the way down to our office) was lined with uniformed police and there were police cars everywhere! And they would sometimes close the street entirely to automobile traffic. I came out of the office and was walking down the sidewalk at one point when I noticed I seemed to be the only one on that side of the street. It wasn't long until a somewhat excited officer let me know I had to be on the other side of the street -- immediately!

This evening (Tuesday our time) our visitor seems to be gone and everything is back to normal.