Strike Two; Fall in Tarbes

Our Church Week—This week we welcomed Elder Gardner to Tarbes. Elder Scharman went to pick him up via train. It was a really long day for them so Marc went to the train station here to pick them up, take their bags home (3 blocks away) and brought them over for dinner (2 blocks away). We still thank the original Elders that got our apartment. The location is unbeatable. Elder Gardner hails from Virginia and his French is well beyond his stay in France. Stateside, he began playing some online games with native French speakers. How motivated of him. And his accent, très bien!

After getting to know him over dinner, we talked shop talk. These missionaries are ready to work and after a long day, they were up for their “marching orders” as Elder Scharman put it. We’ve been in contact several days this week and met them one day at the Church. They are “house-cleaning” the lists, making a map of current members and those interested in taking the lessons and have set up a very nice plan. We are VERY impressed with the level of motivation and how proactive they both are. We couldn’t be happier.

As for us, this week we have worked 12, 14 hour and one 16 hour day. Today, Sunday, is our 16 hour day and we are still at itJ We are working on the Christmas Program. Meg spent 2 days writing it; Marc approved it and off it goes to the Music Leader and First Counselor to distribute parts. We’ve traveled 7 hrs. Our physical batteries are running a bit low this week; but our spiritual batteries are charged and to spare. That is what carries us through.

This week, we had Gisèle and Floraline over. They are our new neighbors. It’s taken us several weeks to get together as they were in upheaval with their move, then we have been traveling, then Gisèle got sick for several weeks. Alas she is better and just in time for Floraline’s birthday, the 9^th. Meg’s was the 14^th so we had a little celebration. We played some ping-pong, visited and ate snickerdoodles. They LOVE snickerdoodles! They are really quite German; but since we make them, they consider them “American cookies”.

We are getting ready to travel this week again, first to Toulouse (2 hrs) early Sunday morning for Stake Conference, then on to Lyon (another 5 hrs) for a special meeting with the First Counselor in the Area Presidency for Europe. We are looking forward to both.

This trip comes with so challenges…..if you’ve been watching the international news, the people (“yellow vest”) are protesting the high gas prices. Taxes are high all over France; this just seems to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. Yellow vest represents those who drive. It is French law to have a yellow vest in your vehicle in case you have an accident or need to be out of your car on a highway to fix a tire, etc. Smartly, everyone that has a vehicle has a yellow vest and are representative of those paying higher gas tax. The first demonstration was last Saturday and was at the local level. People in trucks filled with people drove up and down the streets with cars following and their megaphones blaring. We live on a main drag so they of course came down Victor Hugo. “Tore open the shutters; threw up the sash” is not just for Christmas time. Several were peering out the same time we were and that poem came to mindJ. (Opening and closing shutters is a morning and evening ritual we are going to miss). Then this past week, the “yellow vests” started blocking the refineries. Now it hit the food line. We stocked up, just in case this goes south and goes on for a while. Shelves were getting empty fairly fast in some areas.

This will hit harder than the train strikes which lasted for MONTHS. The one day demonstration has mushroomed into this week and its impact will affect many more directly than the train strikes. Venders can’t get their foods into towns that depend on open-air markets weekly. That is their livelihood and consumers buy fresh and LOVE their market day. That touches French fabric at its very core. Only time will tell. President Macron said there will be heavy fines if they stop cars or blockade streets. Our neighbor is keeping us posted, sending us texts to keep us updated. We bought a gas can to carry with us in case we are stalled on the freeway. We’ll also carry our extra wool long winter coats as a precaution. There were several semi-blocked lanes and the toll booths are littered with “yellow vested” protestors. They have fires burning in some areas on the highways. Some of it has undertones of Bastille Day but everything we’ve seen so far is calm protesting.

Other than the inconvenience, it’s business as usual.

Our “town of the week” is Tarbes in fall colors. We walked along the river and just in time. Rain has arrived along with a 20+ degree drop in temperature overnight so it won’t be long until all the leaves are gone. We sure have enjoyed fall here.

A la prochaine!