Called To Serve

Next chapter in the continuing saga, Shopping: It has become quite an experience here as you really don't know where things are. Of course there are the basics, but they are just not always the way you're used to them...like the breads. Yea, voll-korn(whole wheat) means something to us, but here it could mean 25 different breads with literally whole kernels of what could easily be construed as bird seed and cattle fodder. Tastes good and lasts about two weeks on the shelf and two days in your stomach, but the taste...just not what you're used to. And the brötchen, those little football shaped breakfast and lunch rolls, we've discovered there are more varieties of those than children at a Brigham Young Reunion. Regular Brötchen, Milch Brötchen, Voll-Korn Brötchen, Weissmehl Brötchen on and on. And some don't last in the house for longer than 6 hours, so you better eat it when you buy it.

Then there is the milk...which we buy a liter just about every day as that is the biggest carton it comes in. And, they only have two varieties, "full milk" which is 3.5% fat, and then "fett arme milch" which means it is "fat poor", but only at 1.5%, so even the poor get a little fat to drink. We've scoured high and low, far and wide to find and ask for "non-fat" milk, it just doesn't sell here. Alas, where do we shop? We have the local mini-markets that would sustain us in a national snowstorm for a few days, and then there is the open markets that operate from their trailers 3 days a week from the city park areas, but we have found a couple of larger stores in the area we like , Ratio, for one, part of the IKEA store complex and they have a wide variety of foods we have liked and can find comfort in. But of course, if you buy basics, they are priced right. If you want variety and flavor, you pay dearly for it.

Then last night as we drove to Oldenburg for the Branch Institute instruction and delivery of some mail and packages to the Elders there, we have a few moments to kill before the drive and we stop by a huge new store, METRO, that is brimming with holiday activity and stretches for acres. We grab a grocery cart and head into the store. A word about the carts, Bruce knows, we must first detach it from the chain of other basket carts by inserting a coin, in fact a Euro ($1.30 value) into a slot and we have the cart. This insures that you wont run off with the cart, or more precisely, you'll return it to the cart drop off area and plug the chain back into the handle and retrieve your Euro ($1.30) back--good idea. Well, we move through the doors and find we've entered the EXIT and there is no way through this area, so we are directed, just like tourists, to go around the corner, twice,(this IS a big building) and enter from the other side. OK, we hike and push the cart the half mile and enter the store. STOP, we must first show our membership card to enter, and we don't have one. Yes, this is METRO, a membership store and we can't go in. We can't even join, because it is only for those working in businesses...and being a testifier of the Gospel was not on the list. So, normally you'd just say, "Oh well..." and leave the cart in the entry, but NO, we need to take it back and get my Euro coin($1.30) out of the slot by snapping in the chain plug and releasing it to my possession. So we roll the cart back around the corner and I plug in the chain and the Euro ($1.30) pops straight into the air like pop-goes-the-weasel and that stupid little Euro ($1.30) hits the concrete and flips on its side and rolls away from me and under 4 rows of shopping carts all chained together waiting for someone to donate a Euro. We leave, no shopping, no membership, no Euro.

But today, I was redeemed. I was made alive and have found Shangri-La. It is the biggest and baddest store I have ever seen, and it is called the Wal-Mart-Superstore. Yes, Virginia, there is a Wal-Mart! It has just about everything--well most everything. And I promise to make it my very best friend to shop at, why? We found marshmallows, real, white and fluffy marshmallows. We found rice crispies...so you know what that means for the young adults here. And food coloring, powdered sugar and sprinkles...are we in marketing heaven or what. However, the best find of all (and I think when I plan a weekend visit for a few days there I will discover more special items) we discovered a "new item" in the store---MILK at 0.1% fat...Hey, that is not 1.5%, not 1%, but a measly 0.1%...it is by all accounts, "non-fat milk" and it comes in a 1 1/2 liter container. Oh the things we are happy about in life: Marshmallows, Rice Crispies and Non-Fat Milk. Dave, you've got to get a life!