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| Museum of the occupation |
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When you are on holiday in a foreign country there are many expectations including, new cultural experiences, great regional cuisine, travelling problems, awkward yet funny instances of languge misunderstanding, seeing historical buildings just to name a few. What you don't expect is to have your emotions rocked. Maybe at a museum like the Latvian Occupation Museum which chronicles the period of 1939-1990 when the land and people were occupied by either Soviet or Nazi forces you would expect to have emotions stirred. We only made it through the exhibit up to 1941 in our hour there, at that point our emotions were already quite affected. A beautiful land that was added to the Soviet regime in 1939, lost 1,000's to deportation, was then occupied by Nazi Germany in 1940. Out of the 70,000 Jews who lived in Latvia only 1,000 made it till the end of WWII. By the time we got to 1941 when Russia took control again we were tired and ready to think about something lighter.
We had gone on a tourist tram ride and seen some peculiar statues. We were very eager to get much closer to them and see what they commemorated, probably the number of children killed in the deportation or lost in the wars throughout the years. We strolled through Old Town on the way to the park which snakes along with the canal so that we could enjoy a boat ride through town and out on the Daugava River. The little monuments were those of babies but not ones whose parents had died in war or babies killed in occupation. They were 40 identical monuments of babies who were never born. A story was written beneath each one as told from a mother to the pregnancy crisis centre in Latvia. They were all stories of babies who were aborted for various reasons including unwanted pregnancy, to busy for a baby, not mature enough, too much abuse in the home, not the right time and a plethora of other excuses to abort. A chilling account of the guilt that mothers live with day in and day out.
We were rocked, not expecting to encounter something like this in a foreign land, one where abortion had been accecpted and at times encouraged throughout the years. What struck me were the many aspects of why this was such an effective exhibit. Firstly when was the last time you heard/read about pro-life/anti-abortion that was tasteful, not in your face yet very poignant and culturally relevant? This was it. The demonstration took place on one of the busiest squares in the city as we read each account at least 20-30 people were milling around us no doubt being affected at some level. Think about it, if one pregnant lady is passing by contemplating abortion how much effect could this exhibit have on the her life and the one in her womb?
Each little monument was exactly the same size, shape and colour. Each little life had been terminated and not given the opportunity to be endlessly varied from each other. One of the amazing aspects of our lives is the manifold differences that we each carry from one person to the next. Those little stones representing terminated lives were all repeats of each other, they never were really started in living out their lives. The Crisis Pregnancy Centre of Latvia protrayed this display so well, how great would it be to have this kind of statement in the town centre of Basingstoke or wherever you live? We were told recently by a doctor here in the UK that 1 in 3 pregnancies in the UK end up in termination of a baby. How hard is it to stomach that figure? If exhibits like this, adoptions of little ones and change of hearts/laws take place God willing that ratio will not be so bleak in the future. I trust that you are moved as we are looking at the pics from this exhibition, do also enjoy a few other shots from our great holiday to Lithuania and Latvia.
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| A picture frame in Cesis, a little town in Lavia |
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| Our apartment 9 Palasta |
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| The mighty Baltic Sea off the Curonian Spit in Lithuania |
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| Us in Klaepida, Lithuania |
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| Presidents of Latvia and Turkmenistan |
We had gone on a tourist tram ride and seen some peculiar statues. We were very eager to get much closer to them and see what they commemorated, probably the number of children killed in the deportation or lost in the wars throughout the years. We strolled through Old Town on the way to the park which snakes along with the canal so that we could enjoy a boat ride through town and out on the Daugava River. The little monuments were those of babies but not ones whose parents had died in war or babies killed in occupation. They were 40 identical monuments of babies who were never born. A story was written beneath each one as told from a mother to the pregnancy crisis centre in Latvia. They were all stories of babies who were aborted for various reasons including unwanted pregnancy, to busy for a baby, not mature enough, too much abuse in the home, not the right time and a plethora of other excuses to abort. A chilling account of the guilt that mothers live with day in and day out.
Each little monument was exactly the same size, shape and colour. Each little life had been terminated and not given the opportunity to be endlessly varied from each other. One of the amazing aspects of our lives is the manifold differences that we each carry from one person to the next. Those little stones representing terminated lives were all repeats of each other, they never were really started in living out their lives. The Crisis Pregnancy Centre of Latvia protrayed this display so well, how great would it be to have this kind of statement in the town centre of Basingstoke or wherever you live? We were told recently by a doctor here in the UK that 1 in 3 pregnancies in the UK end up in termination of a baby. How hard is it to stomach that figure? If exhibits like this, adoptions of little ones and change of hearts/laws take place God willing that ratio will not be so bleak in the future. I trust that you are moved as we are looking at the pics from this exhibition, do also enjoy a few other shots from our great holiday to Lithuania and Latvia. 
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