Author: janclaus

Where am I?

janclaus English As A Second Language, Russia ,

That was my question on one of my trips. I was scheduled to go to Moldova. Not a famous country, but I knew where it was. When the plane landed, we went through passport control. We were met by our guides. We had quite a bus ride ahead of us.

About an hour later we were at another border crossing. We had to get out, fill out paper work and talk to more guards. Of course our guides helped us because we didn’t speak Russian or Moldovan. Soon we got a paper stamped with an official seal and was told we had to keep that paper with us at all times and wouldn’t be allowed out of the country without it. Continue reading →

Grocery Shopping in Jericho

janclaus Jericho ,

Going to the grocery store usually is not an adventure. Living in a different country and learning how to shop is quite an adventure

A vegetable market in Jericho
A vegetable market in Jericho

I was living in Jericho and I will tell you there are no super markets there. Most of the grocery stores are like a one car garage with groceries on each side. Vegetables and fruit were sold in a different store. However, I could not find where to buy meat.

Our friend Kahlil stopped by and I asked him where I could get meat. Did I want meat or chicken? I didn’t realize there was a difference. I said chicken, so we got in his car to go buy chicken. Continue reading →

Bibles for Russia

janclaus Handing out Bibles, Russia ,

When we first went to Russia, we had a lot of different reactions but no one ever rejected a copy of the New Testament. We handed them out in market places. Nothing is more humbling than having people kiss your hands as you handed them the Book. Many people looked at us with tears in their eyes and thanked us over and over. We enjoyed every thing we did, but the thing we enjoyed most was handing New Testaments to the people. Continue reading →

Apparently Manners are not Universal

janclaus manners, Public transportation, Russia, Zelenograd , ,

I was born and raised in the Midwest. As I was growing up, I learned several sayings I was told were polite to say: “Please”, “Thank you”, “I’m sorry” and the one I want to talk about today “excuse me”.

I was taught to say excuse me if I walked in front of any one or wanted to get by someone or touched someone accidently. I was and still am a polite person, but there are countries where you cannot be polite.UA 62 Continue reading →