Monday,  July 2, 2007

So I am sitting in the airport right now and I am coming home!

Friday morning we got up early and went out to the camp grounds to do some work.  The camp is owned in part by three different churches and each has put certain amount of money into the up keep and improvement.  I was not looking forward to going at all.  Work days are always hot and sticky and tiresome.  Plus, I had been feeling bad and I just wanted to rest.  However, I couldn’t just not go, so I went.  It was great!  First the drive out there was beautiful.  It’s up in the mountains, and it’s surrounded by fields and fields of wild flowers.  Think cattle on a thousand hills.  There were even the fun shepherd men and women in their sweaters and boots and hats with staffs.  It was just such a peaceful drive.  It took about 2 hours to get there and the last 20 minutes was a one lane dirt road through fields and mountains.  The camp is near a government owned Bear Sanctuary so a lot of the land is now closed to private development.  The camp just bought another piece of land adjacent to theirs and then they close the land off to private buyers. 

Also, camp isn’t what I thought it would be.  They only have one main building that serves as the dorms, kitchen, dining hall, and even maybe some unfinished classrooms or more bed rooms, not sure.  It’s not finished yet on the inside, but the dorms are done and the rest is usable.  They have 3 rooms for boys and 3 for girls on opposite side on the house.  The rooms have really cool wrap around bunks and I bet each room can house 10-12 boys or girls by comfortable American standards with more by Romanian standards.  There are a few smaller buildings that now serve as storage buildings or cabins for adults, but really they are just big enough for a bed and a little walking/standing room.

The goal of the day was to do some yard work, weed eating, moving, and dirt moving as well as cleaning and getting ready for camp.  Well, the really important part was getting the new generator put in!  They have hard to do all kinds of prep work to get ready for the generator.  They had to put a new doorway in so it would fit.  They also had to get the old one out and get new security.  Bro. Jerry said it had been a long process, but they finally got it in.  The new one is quieter and more efficient then the last one.  They use it in the evening time and people are finishing supper and getting ready for bed.  It was a pretty big ordeal getting the new one put in.  There were about 20 men, Romanian and American out there helping.  It looked complicated.  

For most the day I helped clean.  Once it was clean, I grabbed Anita and we went down to the creek to take a nap.  Okay, she took a nap.  I just sat there and watched the little girls splash in the water.  Fun times.

Saturday, we got up and went to Pelesh Castle.  What a cool place!  It was opened in 1883 as a summer home for Romanian’s first kind.  It was so ornate!  It’s nothing like Braun Castle.  They don’t allow you to take pictures inside, but I got a few outside to give you an  idea.  It’s probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.  Every surface was covered in some small detail.  The art work was really cool too and I recognized some of the names of the artists.  My two favorite rooms were the Arabic room with muslim decorations and words from the Koran and the library.  I think I was attracted to the Muslim room because of the colors and designs.  It was this great green color with different browns.  Also, the layout was very open and practical.  The library was also great for obvious reasons.  It can hold tens of thousands of books.  It was a small room but with two levels.  So fun!  It made me want to read a book. 

Our tour guide was nice, but I’m not sure I cared for her too much.  We did ask her later after the tour about something she had said.  She told us that the only room that had been modernized in the restoration in liked the 1990’s was the kitchen.  We asked her why the kitchen had been modernized if not one was living there.  She said that the dictator had wanted the castle destroyed and they refused.  She was unclear on who “they” were.  Well then he said, he wanted it restored so he could came and stay there.  Well, they had to make him think they were doing what he asked, so they modernized the kitchen.  I’m sure she wouldn’t lie, but I don’t know if I think she is telling the whole truth.  With all the spies during the communist era you would think he would have found out they were joshing him. 

Saturday night…Raluca went to a wedding Saturday so Florentina stayed the night with me.  First we went to the Chandler’s for dinner.  Soara Vica cooked dinner for us and it was amazing!  We had chicken snitchel and potatoes with ham and cheese and meatball soup.  She cooked last Monday night too.  We had pork, green beans, and some squash that was dipped in batter with powdered sugar on top.  It was like a funnel cake with squash inside.  Such good stuff!

So yeah, Florentine and I went home and watched a movie while I packed.  I had a hard time getting everything home because I was worried about breaking things.  I would have been fine otherwise with space and weight. 

Sunday was a hard day.  Church was fine but Bro. Jerry wanted me to say something to the congregation and I really didn’t want to, but I couldn’t really say no.  He wanted some group members to speak and no one wanted to, so he called them down.  Then he wanted some Romanians to speak and none of them wanted to.  It was kind of silly.  But oh well. I don’t really feel sad about leaving.  It is a beautiful country and I loved the kids, but I miss my home.  I was a great experience though.  I learned a lot about mission work.  I think though next time I travel I would like to take a friend with me.  I think I would like have one other person with me.  Not a group, but maybe just a partner.  This trip had really open my eyes to the world.  It is so bg and there are so many cool things to see, but home is good to.   This trip stretched my wings, but I don’t think I am called to Romania for anything.  I think I want to go to Africa next summer.  What do you think?

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

            I am going to start with yesterday because there is so much to say about the last two days.  I think it’s been just a crazy rollercoaster and honestly, I am glad it’s all happened.

            So Tuesday morning I woke up tired.  I didn’t really sleep well and VBS is just exhausting.  Tuesday morning we went to Harmon again to do VBS, we had about 60 kids I believe.  That is a good number, and it’s even more impressive when you see the two little room that we are working in.  The big room is about the size of one of our regular Sunday school classrooms and the small one is about the size of a large bathroom.   Plus, all of these kids smell…and not in a good way.  But they love VBS and they love having attention.  I got to use my Romanian a lot and it was good to realize how much I could say to them and have them understand.  They really liked that I was an American and was talking to them.  One of the biggest hits of the day was a relay game where the kids had to run with bowls of water and try and fill a empty coke bottle.  The game was okay, but when we were done the leaders just flung the water all over the kids.  They thought it was hilarious!  They were muddy and still smelly, but they were so happy.  I think my favorite part by far is the singing.  These kids loves to sing and they sing loudly.  I’ve been here long enough that I know the words to most of the kid songs and so I can sing to!  It’s really cool.  They just get so excited and want to keep singing.  I don’t think we get that from American kids much, at least not at my church.  These kids aren’t embarrassed to get up as a group and sing in front of people either.  They think it’s great.  I kind of think maybe we have the wrong philosophy on VBS songs in the states.  We always try and teach kids new songs, but we forget that it’s way more fun to sing the old ones because we already know them.  Just an idea, I think each group is different. 

            Tuesday evening we passed on tracks in Brasov and that was a lot of fun.  I went with Bro. Luchi, Savina, and a couple, Mark and Lorrie.  Mark is a high school Spanish teacher who is working on his school counseling licenses.  He has been really great to talk to and hang out with.  Plus, he is really good at magic tricks and he loves showing people.  The Romanian kids thought it was pretty cool, but then today he showed the Romanian adults, like the men that went with us form the church to VBS and they were just shocked.  They thought it was amazing! There faces were so priceless.  They had never seen anything like that.  So yeah, we were passing out tracks and at first was kind of weird because if you greet someone in Romanian they assume you speak Romanian and will ask you questions.  If you just stick your hand out there with a track they will sometimes take it, but often ignore you. Plus, to not say anything seems rude.  So…I opted for learning how to say a few key phrases and they I learned to say, “I understand a little Romanian, he understands a bunch of Romanian.” So if they asked me a question I couldn’t understand I just pointed to someone else, and they would smile at me  and ask someone else.  Yeah, but now I am really comfortable just walking up to someone and just saying, “Good evening” and then handing them the track and saying “Here’s an invitation, the address is on the back.”  Some would say, “to where” or “what for” and I would just say “Invitation to a Baptist church” and show them the address.  That’s when I a lot of  people, but I really was impressed with how many people would actually read what we gave them.  Especially the people who were sitting on park benches and stuff.  Most the time a Romanian was close by where we were handing people tracks, but at one time they had both stayed behind talking and Mark, Lorrie, and I walked ahead just handing them out to people who walked by.  Well, we came across a group of 6 boys were just sitting around talking and goofing off.  They were probably 12-14 and they looked nice enough. So Mark was like, “should we go up to them” and I was like “sure, what’s the worst that could happen.”  So I just barged in there and said, “hey what’s up” (in Romanian) and they were totally cool with it.  We gave them our tracks and I said the words I knew and pointed and then they were like “ you can speak English” so were just talked to them in English.  It was really cool.  The kids all have English in school so it’s cool.  We communicated and they said they would come on Sunday, so we’ll see. 

            Right, oh yeah, Tuesday afternoon we had the Piata service as usually, but the Piata wasn’t as full or busy that day.  We actually had a lot of people interested and we know for sure that one man was saved.  It was really cool.  Bro. Jerry said that because it wasn’t as busy people were more likely to stop and ask questions and listen.  The Americans sang some too which drew a lot of attention.  It was a fun piata day. 

            So, here is where the drama starts.  Raluca and I have been having a rough time of it.  She is just very abrupt and kind of bossy.  She doesn’t mean to be mean, but sometimes she says things in a way that can be seen as rude.  So, twice on Tuesday she said something to me that really annoyed me.  It’s not the information she communicates, but the tone of voice and way she says it.  So Tuesday night we went to eat at the Chandler’s and she is as nice as can be with the Group. But then she calls a taxi and we get in and she doesn’t say anything for a while, then she just says suddenly “You have to pay half.”  Now, paying for the taxi isn’t a problem.  It’s a whole $2.50, but the way she said it was really like argumentative, as if I had been arguing with her about it.  It kind of annoyed me, but I was like whatever, she doesn’t mean it in a mean way.  So we pull up and she says it’s 3 lei, and I told her well I don’t think I have anything smaller than a 5 so I offer it to her and she acts really annoyed.  I’m not sure what I could have done differently, but whatever.  So as were getting out of the taxi she is just like, “well you owe me 3 lei” and it just really bothered me.  She was making a big deal over a dollar.  I said, “that’s fine” in as cheery a voice as I could muster. Then as we were walking up the stairs to her apartment she kept talking about “well it’s not fair for me to always pay.”  And I just said, “I never expected you too.”  Then I tried to explain to her that when I first got here Kim very clearly told me that she gives Raluca extra money for things like cab fair and that if I ever wanted to take a taxi to tell Raluca.  Ever since then anytime we take a taxi either Kim gives her money or she just pays.  I didn’t think anything about it.  We really havn’t taken a taxi that much so it’s not been an issue, but I guess last night Kim didn’t give her money.  Anyway, by this time I was getting choked up.  She was acting frustrated over cab fair and she was acting like I had purposely not paid for something that I owed her.  It’s just her way I guess.  She does it a lot.  She takes one thing and then acts like that is how it always is.  If this were the first time I would just ignore it but it was the third time in one day that she was doing this tone of voice and I was irritated.  Well she heard that I was getting choked up so when we got home she pressed me about it and I was like “fine you want to know what’s up, I’ll tell you.” So I tired, but as soon as I said, “when you said blah, blah, blah, I felt blah blah blah” she blew up. She was like a fly in a room.  She couldn’t stand still.  She was waving her hands and just kept talking about how all she said was this and she didn’t do anything and she never and I just and on and on.  She would ask me a question and I would try to answer and she would interrupt as soon as I said something she didn’t like.  I just stood there and let her go.  Finally, she was like you are so upset and you have no reason to be, and I just said, “stand still and listen” and I said that like 3 time before finally I said, “seriously Raluca shut your mouth a let me talk.”  So I explained to her that I wasn’t upset or annoyed or anything about cab fair and that I will pay for whatever is fair and I agree with her.  And then I tried to explain the tone of voice thing, but that wasn’t going to work so I just lied and told her I was tired and had a bad day and blah blah blah and I just need some time. So I went to my room and just prayed because I couldn’t do anything. She doesn’t understand and she’s not going to change.  I didn’t even want to talk about it to begin with.  She just kept having the last word.  She would say something and I would disagree and she would say well “you are going to take what I say wrong all the time” so I would say, “really, I do it all the time? Like once?”  She didn’t like that, but whatever.  Anyway, after about 30 minutes she came back and apologized and I apologized and was stayed up another hour talking about boys.  It was okay, but it was just at that blowing up point.  I wish I could just have video taped it all.  She just couldn’t handle the fact that I might be annoyed by something she did and I couldn’t handle the fact that she didn’t understand.  She still thinks it’s all about cab fair and it has nothing to do with cab fair it’s her attitude. 

            Anyway, we’ve moved on, but seriously I thought the world might be coming to an end. 

            However, we woke up this morning and things are great.  They have been all day.  I think we just got that out of our system and now we’re good.  At least, I’m good and she’s acting good.   We went out to Harman for the last VBS, but it was pouring rain all day.  When we got to the church, there were only about 25 kids and they were all soaking.  However, Bro. Petru took the van to Graupa and picked up a whole load of kids.  We ended up with 57 kids, the rain didn’t keep them away at all.   The most exciting part is that 19 teenagers were saved, 10 girls and 9 boys.  Everyone was pretty excited.  Raluca and I talked about it afterwards.  She is the one who counseled the girls and she feels pretty confident that they all understood what they were doing and that it was genuine.  When they came back through the big room where we were all waiting several of them had huge smiles on their faces.  It was really cool. 

            Then, we went back to the office and I took a 3 hour nap.  It was uncomfortable, but I couldn’t stay awake any longer.  Then we went to Zarnesti to do evangelistic services.  We handed out tracks and sang in 3 different locations and stopped to sing for different groups of kids we came across.  It was a lot of fun, but really tiring.  Plus the view was amazing!

            So yeah, it was a really good day.  After we got back into town Raluca and I walked to the store so we could buy something for dinner.  Romanian eating habits are weird, but I guess you get used to them after a while.  We stayed up pretty late just talking about stuff.  It has been fun, but I am really tired now so to bed for me! 

Later.