Montenegro Medical

I know it's been over month since my last post. One major reason has been dealing with health issues. While always a bummer, it has given us a first-hand look at some of the differences (both good and bad) between health care here versus in the USA.

 

Good news, healthcare is much cheaper here. In the course of two weeks there was a visit to a hemotologist, neurologist (with eeg), pulmonary specialist, and chest x-ray and the total cost for all of this was about what one regular check-up would be stateside. And this was the "private" sector. Public healthcare here is free to those with national insurance (read citizens), though not all forms of care are available, and usually the wait is significant.

On the darker side, at least to Western minds, the health provider community seems to be in the mindset of 20-30 years ago by American standards. Many seem to think that sickness is caused by exposure to draft as much if not more than by germs. The IV medication (and even most OTCs) still come in glass bottles, a mother who has a spinal before a c-section is required to lay flat on her back for the next 24 hours (we learned that from a friend). Some doctors prescribe tea as a medication. One aquaintance broke one finger and they casted his whole hand rather than just splinting it and taping it to a neighboring finger. I think as the "old guard" retire and younger doctors take their places there will be a modernization here. Of course many lay-people also believe some of the "old-wives tales".

Ruth did enjoy getting to use her doctor's kit on Daddy.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Ruth started preschool in November. She is the only native English speaker there.

Most days she is excited to go to school. She learns letters and numbers in both Serbian and English. She has also learned some other words like "majka" (pronounced like the English name Micah, it means "mother")and "tata" (daddy). She now addresses us this way :)

And sometimes she asks us what a word she heard in school means.

Here is a picture of the building her school, called a vrtić (little garden), is in. There is a small playground outside for when warm weather comes.

 

This past week she came home, very happy with her nails polished. She said the teacher had painted them. I thought this was cute, but wondered what might be the repercussions in America if a preschool teacher painted students' nails without parental consent.

All Through The Town

We feel fortunate to have a bus stop near our house. The route goes right by Ruth's pre-school and has a stop a few meters away from it. It also has a stop near one of the main shopping centers we frequent. So if our car's not working well, or we don't feel like driving, or we need to meet up somewhere, the bus is a viable option. The cost is 70 euro cents per adult, children ride free. The girls love to ride the bus, much more than a taxi, sometimes more than our car.

Esther is sitting by herself, but later moves to my lap.

Some of the bus tickets we get.

There are some differences between city buses here and those we've experienced elsewhere. Most of the buses we've ridden in are "hand-me-downs" from a German speaking country. They still have the instructional signs in German. The bus stops only have the schedule for when a bus starts from it's original station, not when it will reach that stop. If no one is waiting at a stop and no one is standing on the bus (to indicate they want to get off), the bus doesn't stop. It seems to ensure that the driver knows you want to get off, you should stand as soon as the bus leaves/passes the preceding stop. Sometimes the bus leaves the starting point early (the stop near our house is the starting point and once I was on a bus that left 10 minutes earlier than the stated time). Sometimes the driver will stop the bus for a personal errand (We have both experienced drivers stopping at a sports betting store to presumable place a wager on a sporting event).

Knock It Off

There are very few copyright or trademark infringement laws here, leading to many knock-offs of well known brands (we found house slippers branded "File" instead of "Fila"). But I was rather amused the other day when I found these dolls for the girls.

It's very obvious that they are to resemble Elsa and Anna from Disney's Frozen. But instead of being made of the sturdy rubber and plastic like the "real" ones, these are made from very thin, hollow, plastic. They sing, but instead of singing a song from the movie, they sing a high-speed, Chipmunk-style blurb from the late nineties song "I'm a Barbie Girl."

The packaging seems to have been a photocopy of the original Disney with words changed.

Please note that "Beautiful" is in the traditional Disney font, and Fashion is in the Frozen font. What cracks me up the most are the comments written under that. "I have a lovely doll, His name is 'small cute'. She has a pair of big eyes, Round face, A cherry small mouth, long legs, Clever" (Verbatim, capitalization and punctuation).
The girls don't know the difference and have had lots of fun playing with them. The only problems arise when limbs fall off (they just pop back on) and when the clothing needs mending (I needed to reattach something to both dresses on the first day!). The Elsa doll did have her signature braid, but Ruth likes to comb her dolls' hair, so that came out.
For the most part, actual Disney authorized Frozen toys are not available here. At Christmas we did find licensed plush of some of the characters, and a few figurines. It doesn't really bother us though. The girls are by no means hurting for playthings. :) And if the stores don't have it, we can't be pestered into buying it :)

 

Comparing Cultures

Most of the time, living in Montenegro is very much the same as living in America. Or the difference is minimal. But occasionally the contrasts stick are more noticeable. For instance, here yogurt is a drink and hot chocolate is thick enough you need to eat it with a spoon.

 

Or the French make car (Renault), you purchased in a Serbian speaking nation comes with instruction manuals in Italian.

But we recently attended a wedding here, and the differences to what we've experienced in America were quite interesting. First, religious leaders do not have the legal authority to marry people. Neither Orthodox or Catholic priests, Protestant pastors or Muslim Imams can formally join two people in the bonds of matrimony. A couple wishing to wed must go to the special government office created for that purpose.

The bride and groom get one attendant/witness each, called the kuma and kum respectively (this is also the title "godmother" and "godfather"). The official reads out the Montenegrin "laws of marriage" which include that the husband and wife are equal, and they must agree on where to live but are independent in choosing where they work. They promise to abide by these rules, "take" one another as spouse, exchange rings, kiss, and sign the marriage register.

If the couple chooses, they may then have a religious ceremony at the church or mosque of their faith. Our friends did, and the religious ceremony included the more familiar vows involving "in sickness and health", and" 'til death do us part." Then there was a reception with an amazing variety of wonderful food, singing, dancing (Balkan style line dances, not ballroom style), and blessings for the couple. With the two ceremonies and the reception, the wedding lasted about 6 hours.

 

 

 

History Mystery

 Very near our new house are the ruins of an ancient monastery built in the fifth and ninth centurys.

 There are intrically carved stones and remnants of pillars.

 But there is also a random metal structure over part of the ruins that we couldn't figure out. It is obviously recently added. As the place adjoins an area still in use by those monastically inclined, we don't know if it is an Orthodox or nonorthodox use :-)

There And Back Again

Admittedly it has been many months since I updated this blog. All apologies. But during that time, we were in America for two months, and upon our return we were without consistent internet for about a month.
The trip to the States was interesting. The first hitch was that the Montenegrin Airlines made us check the girls car seats all the way to Dulles (we had hoped to gate check them and then use them on the big flight). After our plane from Podgorica arrived in Frankfurt, we discovered that the flight from there to Dulles was cancelled. We also found out that while the girls and I were booked on the cancelled flight, Steve wasn't. And the airport wifi wasn't available for us to prove that indeed he was booked on our flight.
The airline is required by EU rules to provide meals and lodging during the layover period. So first we went by bus to a hotel for our supper. Then, because the hotels in Frankfurt were booked due to a conference, we went by another bus to Heidelberg (1 1/2 hours away) to spend the night. Our family was bumped in front of others because of our small children. Some people had to travel yet another 20 minutes to a third hotel.
Fortunately, at the hotel Steve was able to access wifi and pull up the needed proof that he had indeed booked and paid for a seat on the plane. Rather than taking the offered shuttle bus to the airport (which left at 5:30am when our make-up flight didn't leave until 5:00pm) we took a taxi to the train station and then two trains, the second of which goes right to the airport.
At the airport Steve convinced them that he was a ticketed passenger. We also received meal vouchers which could be used at the restaurants in the airport. For the flight, Steve and Ruth were near the back while Esther and I were at the front of economy class. The best thing was that both girls slept for most of the flight (and then also slept the whole night).
When we arrived at Dulles we discovered that the girls car seats were still in Frankfurt. So then we had to go through the hassle of getting the loaner seats from the airlines.

On the return flights there was a bit less drama. No cancelled flights. We did find that unbeknownst to us the flight was going as Austrian Air, even though it was United when we booked. So we had to move all our things from one check in counter to another. Also, we weren't allowed to use Ruth's car seat on the transatlantic flight, or either seat on the flight from Vienna to Podgorica. And Steve was not booked in the same aisle as the girls and I on either flight!
There was a long layover in Vienna, and I was so exhausted from the previous flight that I napped while Steve watched the girls play with all the toys in their Trunkis