springing forward

We finally sprung forward with daylight savings time last night. I don't really know why we were about 3 weeks behind the States, or the States 3 weeks ahead of us, but so it goes. And the weather here has been very spring-like which has been simply wonderful.

Today was independence day in Belarus, marking their original independence that was pre-Soviet Union. However, it has only come to light as a celebration in Minsk recently because of certain political groups (i.e. not the government). Thus, there were peaceful demonstrations around the city, of which you can probably read about at www.charter97.org
I experienced a bit of inconvenience thanks to these demonstrations, but of course, it also was a bit interesting for me to witness. As I tried to leave church with 2 friends (1 thankfully was Belarussian), our bus was not allowed to stop to pick us up… because the bus would be driving by the central square where the demonstrations were planned. The metro stop at the center of the city also was shut down…. For the entire day… creating havoc when I had to switch metro lines and was unable to later that evening… Also, there were human and fence blockades on the sidewalks in about a 2-4 block radius around the center. Therefore, I had the experience of walking through hundreds of people (while also managing to get a photograph or two) carrying the old Belarus flag around, then had to walk 4-5 blocks away from the center, and then make a loop back to the main road… a nice 30 minute detour, that normally would’ve been a 5-10 minute walk on the main road. Several times police kept us from walking up certain streets (hence why I was thankful to have a Belarussian escort to find out where we COULD walk to get on the other side of the main city center). Overall, the day seemed a bit uneventful, and I don’t think there was much momentum for this protest. ((update: after perusing the above site, it seems there was quite a bit of momentum later in the day, and at different parts of the city. I simply did not manage to see very much from my end. the only way I would have seen much would have been by pushing my way through human blockades, and well, I wasn't about to do that for sure!! It also appears it was not totally peaceful, as force was used to restrain protesters.)) I did however manage to pass all of the ambassadors to Belarus - EU and American - strolling TOWARD the main square, accompanied by many reporters and photographers, right smack in front of the kgb building. I wondered if they were going to make a statement or something on this day, or wave their own former Belarus flag … ((they are also mentioned at the above site))