Our village Genthod, Switzerland

This is our village in Switzerland. Yesterday morning I went on a wonderful walk down the lane. This place is called Villa le Saugy. I took a little video so you could see it. It overlooks Lake Geneva and is a place where they bring Presidents and Heads of State when they visit Geneva. I have never seen anyone important there, just peace and quiet. If you listen closely, you can hear the water in the fountain and the birds chirping. It was a glorious morning for a little walk.

Welcoming Home Laura

For ski break, Laura took a fun trip to visit friends in Germany. She has become quite the traveler. Once again, we sent her off to negotiate another airport in Europe, solo. She did it! Today, was her arrival home and we were so excited to pick her up at the Geneva airport. We usually take the train there, but today we drove the car and parked in "COW", (only in Switzerland)...ten minutes later it was huge smiles and big hugs. Welcome home, Laura!!!

A Morning Walk Around our Village

This morning, Paul, and I, took a pleasant walk in the woods near our village. It was nice to hear the birds and see buds on a few of the trees. I wished that I had brought my good camera, but we did get a few shots of the walk from my iphone. The yellow sign, with the man walking on it, shows pedestrians where the trails are. These signs are all over Switzerland, and we hear that they connect all the trails, one way or the other. We even passed a man with a back-pack. Perhaps he was heading for Zermatt? We were not that adventurous, but we did shuffle through the leaves for a good mile or more and then headed back, because we needed to pick up Laura from the airport. What a great start to a Saturday!

Our Mongolian Friends

Saturday, we had a great opportunity to invite some of the Mongolian members of our church over for dinner. Three months previously, the Mongolian members of our church put on a festival for the members. We learned about their country and tried their food. It was a great cultural evening. Since then, Paul and I, have wanted to get together with them to say, thank you. For our dinner we had American food and shared a few of our customs with them. After dinner,we chatted, put together a U.S.A puzzle and watched some Mongolian singing on you tube. Above is a picture of all of us in our living room, after the dinner.

GOT ICE?

We had a wonderful snow this last week, but 3/4 of a mile down to the lake they were hit with uber-ice. Ice was wrapped around trees, benches, cars, the dock, jetty....well just about everything. Even the sidewalks were covered in ripped ice patterns. It was AMAZING! We bundled up with hats, scarves, warm coats and ice clamps on our shoes to brave the cold and to keep from falling. Here are a few pictures of Laura and I enjoying a morning down at the lake.

A wonderful day of remembrance at the U.N. with Laura

Today, after school, Laura and I took the bus down to the U.N. Today was the Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust. The large program took place at the Assembly Hall, Palais des Nations (U.N.) First there was a moving video shown from actual filming of prisoners by the germans. After the movie was shown, the Director General of the U.N. spoke and was followed by the ambassadors of Israel, Poland, Hungary and Switzerland. Then the keynote speaker was Ms. Agnes Hirschi. She is the daughter of Carl Lutz. She told of life during the war and many people that passed through their home, hidden from the Nazi's. Afterwards, Laura talked with Ms. Hirschi and got a picture with her.

In America, we are familiar with the story of Oskar Schindler, whom the film, Schindler's list was based on. He is credited with saving over 1,100 Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his enamelware and ammunitions factories. We do not hear so much about Carl Lunz.

Carl, Ms. Hirschi's father, is credited with saving over 62,000 Jews! In 1944, the Nazi's began deporting Jews to the death camps. Lutz negotiated a special deal with the Hungarian government and the Nazis. He gained permission to issue protective letters to 8,000 Hungarian Jews for emigration to Palestine. NOW HERE IS THE HEROCICS....
Lutz deliberately used his permission for 8,000 as applying to families rather than individuals, and proceeded to issue tens of thousands of additional protective letters, all of them bearing a number between one and 8,000.

At the end of the night, they played the haunting theme from Schindler's list as they showed picture after picture of those that were unable to be saved. We stood and had a minute of silence.

It was a sobering night. We walked out of the Great Assembly Hall with hundreds of others, to a room full of pictures and names of those who were lost during the Holocaust.

Do not Urinate Here

I keep forgetting to take photos of some of the signs here in Suisse. Today, as I passed a preschool, this was the sign posted on the fence. Under the picture, it translates to: "Respect the yards places to live for always"

When we first moved here we wondered about such weird things to put on signs, such as no urinating. Interestingly enough, we have seen a lot of men, open trousers and urinate along the road or in a bush right next to a store.....maybe they do need this sign, but it is still sort of funny to see.