15 things I will miss about Romania

I have now been here in Romania for about ten weeks. I leave for home shortly and have started to realize how much I will miss it here. I will, of course, miss the friends I have made here the most and the work i have done will always call out to me across the world, but there are a few things that are simple enought to put in a list. So, here is my list of a 15 things I will miss about Romania.

1. The Language. I love hearing another language spoken all around me. It is an experience unto it's own. When you live in a country so different from your own you start to realize how small you think the world is and how big it actually is. I love hearing my friends chatter on in Romanian and a sense of wonderful joy fills me when I realize I know what they are saying and can respond without hesitation, which is very rare.

2. The people. By this I mean the people I don't even know that well like the few older ladies from our apartment building who sit outside on the benches in the evening and great us as we come home. We say -out of respect- "Buna" and they respond "Ceau" or "Ceau, ceau".  One lady in particular takes time to stop and chat with us even though often it is a struggle to understand one another. The first time we met her she was waiting for the elevator and all four of us had just tumbled forth from the tiny space, talking and laughing. She said to us "Un chet, un chet" basically "Slow down" or more connotatively "Where's the fire?" We smiled and introduced ourselves and from then on she has always greeted us with a rather grandmotherly smile. 

3. The small shops. And by small I mean itty bitty, where things are stacked on every surface and even  on the floor so that you feel that at any moment things may come crashing down on your head.The counter is crowded with foriegn candies and snacks. Hardly any of these shops give out exact change since 1 bani (cent) is worth less than a third of an american penny. Since being here I have only received two such coins and keep them as mementos seeing as they are somewhat rare.

4. The street merchants. There are quite a few people from town who sell veggies or fresh milk on the street -literally- they set out their wares on the pavement and sell right from the street. the veggies bundled up with string and laid out on a blanket and the milk in water bottles. This is the same milk I see Brother Sandu using to make his potent Romanian cheese every few weeks.

5.Fresh baked bread for 1.89 Leu. Right now the exchange rates is about 3.73 lei for $1 which means that a loaf of bread from the 24 hour (or as they say here- Non stop) bakery across the street is approximately 50 cents. And it is so wonderfully delicious spread with double cream feta!

6. The Piata- All the fresh organic fruit and vegetables you could ever want, hand picked blueberries for about $1.50/lb or 1 lb of raspberries for $1? don't mind if I do. Also there are plenty fun and quirky souvenirs, hats, clothes, and much, much more. Definitely an experience.

7. A Sound. One very specific one that took us a while to figure out and sounds like someone banging on a pot every morning (slightly more melodious). This is actually a propane merchant. Everyone here buys tanks of gas for their stoves so this man goes around town every day and when he stops he hits a stick against the tanks to let anyone who needs gas know that he is there and then people can buy gas if they have run out.

8. The Food. I will explain with a few pictures.

 Zuchini fritters. Sort of a Salted Zucchini pancake. 

 Gogosi- Romanian Donuts, with fresh cherries

Carnați- garlicky sausage with  fresh bread and tomato and cucumbers salad

The dressing on the salad is double cream feta. Yum!

And here is a picture of us making Sarmale -cabbage rolls.
From the left- Rivana, Corina, Emily, Brittany, Me, and  Soya Eva- who teaches the girls cooking.

9. The relaxed atmosphere. Seriously, everyone seems a lot more relaxed here. Often the girls and staff will tell us to go take an afternoon nap and each of the girls will insist that we can rest in their bed.. They all call us Harnica -hard working- and tell us to rest or slow down. 

10. Sunday Lunch. As with many European on Sunday there is one large meal in the afternoon and maybe a snack in the evening. These meals last for a while since they are so large.We start out with eggplant spread, chicken salad, bread and other such appetizers. Next is a soup (or two) also with bread. Then onto the main course which usually consists of meat, potatoes and a side. And lastly dessert with coffee or tea. A few times I didn't think I would be able to walk home afterwards, luckily the rest of the day is devoted to rest.

11. Christian songs and hearing people pray in Romanian- A wonderful way to learn new words in Romanian and wonderful experience in realizing that God knows and understands every language. I hope the day comes when I can speak Romanian well enough to speak, pray, and sing in it well.

12. Church Bells- There is a nearby church whose bells ring every 15 to 30 mins in the morning- luckily we are far enough away that they don't wake us up but are enjoyable to listen to after we wake up. They keep me happy as I make my morning coffee and get ready for the day.
13. My apartment and all its quirks. See post.
Post from: June 10th, 2012
Our Apartment

Definitely one of the funniest things about our time here has been learning the quirks of our apartment.
First of all our windows both open from one side and vent open from the bottom. We also have a door that does the same so the first time someone found that out they thought the door was literally going to fall out of it frame and onto them. Slightly terrifying and then very funny.
Next is out Refrigerator, which liked to make its presence loudly known by humming every thirty minutes or so. Then one night when our friend, Geta, was over she "fixed' it the Romanian way- she wedged a deck of cards under one side tilting it slightly and therefore stopping the noise, only in the morning did we realize that that also made it stop working altogether so we took the card out and now I don't think it ever stops humming. We'll see if we get used to it...
Also, we have a washing machine. A three hour cycle washing machine. Not kidding-THREE HOURS. And every once in a while it goes on a spin cycle that makes it sound as if it will take off like a rocket ship. That part is still a bit frightening every time.
One of my favorites is what we affectionately call our 'bower" it's sort of like a shower minus a curtain and the shower head has no place to stay put so you have to hold it. With no curtain one can't really stand to shower so you have to sit in the tub. Hence bath+ shower= bower.
And just in case anyone was worried about my safety here just know that my front door has not one, not two, but three deadbolts. It's quite inventive really three deadbolts in one lock, to lock or unlock it you just turn the same key in the same lock three times. I really doubt that anyone could easily break in.
Last but not least is our elevator. (Thank the Lord we have one since we are on the eighth floor, our dear friend Andreea has no elevator and is, I believe, 10 floors up) This elevator has a maximum capacity of four people and maybe three with groceries. It is tiny and yet it still manages to serve all ten floors of our building. Though it works quite well we are all a little frightened at the possibility that one day this changing room sized elevator may plummet and that the diamond like pointed lights in the ceiling might kill us. However nothing has led me to believe that this is actually possible...yet.
So that is our apartment in a nut shell. It is an ongoing adventure.

14. The view from my apartment. All of the buildings have red clay shingles and trees pop out all over the place. When I look out the window there is laundry hanging out from the windows, people walking on the streets below, child laugh and play, and everywhere everyone is talking and shouting in Romanian. Gorgeous. Again a few pictures to explain

Yeah.

15. Walking everywhere. I love to walk, I think I could walk everywhere for the rest of my life if i sold my car. A bonus to walking to and from work and all the stores is that it is 80-90 degrees Fahrenheit every day I have a killer tan (at least for me).

So that's the short list. I will miss so much more that I cannot even rightly express in words. But I know in my heart what they are and I look forward to the day I will return and experience all of this again.

This week

This last week has been quite busy for all of us here.

Last Sunday one of the girls from California found out about a very sudden and tragic death in her family. It was a very difficult day for her and we are all still very much in prayer for her and her family. It was later decided that she and her travelling buddy would leave early so that she be with her family. They left Wednesday and are definitely missed. We all shared a two bedroom apartment and now with only two of us left here it feels very empty and quiet. Both Jenny and Brittany contributed so much to the dynamic of our group and both are missed greatly. I know the work they did at the center was a big help and I can think of specific devotions and testimonies they shared that meant a lot to me and, I think, to the girls and staff here at the Beauty from Ashes center.

The other busy part of our week has been finishing up packaging hair accessories. I am happy to announce that we packaged the last one on Friday afternoon. Yay! They are all quite lovely and Nadia is doing all the creating and packaging now. I hope to start selling some of the cards and accessories when I get back to the States. They are all very well made and I think will sell quite nicely in Idaho. The girls are in the middle of making Christmas cards and we are now working on three more card models for Christmas and then we are done for that holiday.

Amid all of this Emily and I are getting to know the girls here better and they are helping us a lot with our Romanian. We are learning more everyday and I hope that by the time I leave I can have a halfway decent conversation. But, of course, then I won't use it as much. Oh well, I am still enjoying it very much and am so happy that I am finally here.

Sometimes I look around and think "Wow, I am actually in Romania". It has been a long time coming and I am so glad it finally happened. It brings so much joy to my heart to be here, learning the language, getting to know the staff and girls, and learning just how faithful and trustworthy Jesus really is.

Thanks again for reading! I will try to post again soon.

One Month Left

I now have officially one month left here in Romania and I have posted only three time on my blog. I can tell you for certain that is not a reflection of a lack of anything happening. Quite the opposite actually. In the last three weeks we were able to do some sightseeing around Transylvania and spend five days in the Mountains with the staff and girls from the Beauty from Ashes center. In between that we have been working on packaging hair accessories. And this is no small feat seeing as there are several hundred of them, but the three girls from California and I are working hard to package them and hopefully help Diana find a simple way to package them so that, in the future, they will be made and packaged in the same day.
As for our trips they were both lovely and we got the chance to spend time with people relaxing without the stress from work.
Our time sight seeing in Transylvania was blessed as we were able to get to know Andreea who runs the Romanian side of the ministry (ROM in the states is Associatia Agape in Romania) and learn some more Romanian with her help. The first day we travelled from Oradea to Sibiu and enjoyed the evening there. The old cities here are quite beautiful and Sibiu did not disappoint us. The next day we took a tram in the Transfagarasean Mountains up to Bales Lake and Waterfall. The view was amazing and we climbed around for a bit and threw a few snowballs next to the lake. We then headed off to Bran Castle (aka Dracula's castle) which was absolutely charming. (Unfortunately it is a bit difficult to post pictures on here but feel free to check them out on my Facebook) We spent that evening and the next at a beautiful B&B called Rem's right a the base of the Raşnov Fortress- a city on a hill. The day after Bran we visited Pelus Castle which is much more like the Fairy Tale castle we all dream of.Lastly, on our way back to Oradea we stopped in Sighisoara, another city on a hill and walked up to the top through some lovely winding cobblestones roads.
When we arrived back at the center we were welcomed back with lots of hugs. We definitely feel loved and cared for by all the staff and girls and will miss them all when we are gone. Upon our arrival back we dove in to the process of packing up the hair accessories and will hopefully finish that up in the next few days.
This last week we left for the mountains on Tuesday morning and relaxed with the girls and the staff for five days. We took a few short hikes, gathered wild blueberries and mushrooms (!), and even introduced one of our team members and one of the center's girls to the world of Lord of the Rings.   We were especially blessed by this time by getting to get to know one of the newest additions to the center, Edith. She is currently working in a factory and living at the center and seems like a lovely girl, we hope that she stinks with the program and would appreciate prayer for her as well as all the girls.   Among much fun and lots of hard work have been a few bumps. A few weeks back one of the girls decided she wanted to leave the program and packed a backpack and walked out the door. We were told she came back the next day with a man to pick up the rest of her belongings. By the next Tuesday she had come back asking for her job back however it had already been given to another girl. She was told that they would like to have her back and asked her to look for a job in the city and found a place for her to stay. We are all praying that she is now safe and sound and that she will be able to find a job or get hired on back at the center. There have been a few other things like this happening and it has been a trying month for the staff at the center who invest so much time in the girls and are sometimes discouraged. We have tried and are hoping that we can continue to encourage the staff there. We are here only temporarily but they have invested their lives in this ministry and face a lot of discouragement from all sides. We are truly privileged to serve alongside them and do what we can to lighten they load for a short time.
I appreciate all of you who are reading this and praying for all of us here. Until next time, Larevedere!

A Few Stories..

Fishing

The second week we were here we had to say good bye to one of our room mates. Shellie came for a week and then had to go back home to her Husband and young son but before she left she wanted to   get a taste of Romania outside the city. And so, Sandy offered to take us all fishing. We talked about it on the weekend and planned the trip for Monday afternoon.
We were all looking forward to some nice relaxing time at the lake and Monday morning went by quickly. Sandy arranged to borrow the church van so we could all drive out to the lake. Our first adventure was the drive. Yet again, the drivers here made us all a little nervous but to top it of most of the seats in the van didn't have working seatbelts, so as we made our way through the city we prayed that God would watch over us. Soon we were speeding away down a bumpy country lane. As the drive got longer we all started to fell the effects of mid afternoon and began to doze. Some of us woke as we turned onto a dirt road that then turned into a sheep pasture with no road... As we drove through this seemingly private property we once again found a dirt road. Down a rather step hill. In a van. It felt very much like four wheeling, as we came up a steep incline and on to flat land some one said "step on it" as if we were on an ATV not in a 9 passenger church van. This was the point where it seemed quite possible that we would all tumble out of our non-seatbelted seats and over the ledge on our right only to get stuck in the pit next to us. It must be that God wanted our trip to continue because that didn't happen.
We arrived safely at the lake and set out to find a nice spot to fish after talking a few pictures of the cows and goats that were grazing quite freely by our parked cars. Our small hike through the woods was delightful and we found a beautiful spot to fish. We cast our poles and waited. The last surprise came when we got our first bite. We reeled it in and at the end of the line was.. A catfish? Yup, an American Catfish. That's what they stock the lake with apparently.

All in all it was a lovely time and we drove back to Oradea into a beautiful sunset.

Our Apartment

Definitely one of the funniest things about our time here has been learning the quirks of our apartment.
We also have a door and windows that open and vent (by leaning in from the top). So the first time someone found out that the door to our porch did that they thought the door was literally going to fall out of it frame and onto them.
Next is out Refrigerator, at distort like to make it's presence loudly known by humming every thirty minutes or so. Then one night when Gets was over she "fixed' it the Romanian way- she wedged a deck of cards under one side tilting it slightly and therefore stopping the noise, only in the morning did we realize that that also made it stop working altogether so we took the card out and now I don't think it ever shuts up. Oh well...
Thirdly we have our washing machine. Our three hour cycle washing machine. Not kidding-THREE HOURS. And every once in a while it goes on a spin cycle that makes it sound as if it will take off like a racket ship. That part is still a bit frightening every time.
And one of my favorites is what we affectionately call our 'bower" it's sort of like a shower minus a curtain and the shower head has no place to stay put so you have to hold it. With no curtain one can't really stand to shower so you have to sit in the tub. Hence bath+ shower= bower.
And just in case anyone was worried about my safety here just know that my front door has not one, not two, but three deadbolts. It's quite inventive really three deadbolts in one lock, to lock or unlock it you just turn the same key in the same lock three times.
Last but not least is our elevator. (Thank the Lord we have one since we are on the eighth floor!) This elevator has a maximum capacity of four people and maybe three with groceries. It is tiny and yet it still manages to serve all nine or ten floors of our building. Though it works quite well we are all a little frightened at the possibility that one day this changing room sized elevator may plummet and that the diamond like pointed lights in the ceiling might kill us. However nothing has led me to believe that this is actually possible...yet.
So that is our apartment in a nut shell.

Devotions

Something that has been a great encouragement to me here has been our devotional times. The girls I am staying with and I are reading a devotional nook called Jesus Calling which is written as Jesus speaking abou how he would have you lean on Him in each day. The other devotion time we have every day is with the girls at the home.
We are currently leading Devos there (and they find it very amusing when we say devos) ll had some great times in the last few weeks. It really started going somewhere two weeks ago when Brittany shared our of the first chapter of Ephesians. She talked about how we are all adopted as sons and daughters and that we can trust that God has a will and a good plan for our lives. One of the girls started talking about how she has a lot of dreams but she doesn't feel like anything is happening and she doesn't know if she can trust God to make things work out for her. The next day Emily was able to talk about her dream of coming to Romania and how that had been on her heart since she was 12. She was able to finally come last year and this year and God had brought it all together her. On Friday I shared out of Hebrews 4 about Jesus being able to sympathize with out Weakness es and that we can boldly approach the throne of grace in a time of need. Again she spoke up and said that she had felt confused and was having a hard time with sins in her own life. And then this last week Jenny talked to the throughout her relationship with her father, who recently got remarried, and reminded all of us that we have a heavenly father who loves us. This has all made an impact on this girl and we are praying that God would continue to woo her and show her His awesome plans for her life.

 That all for now. Thanks for all-out support and for reading my blog. Love you all and miss you lots

Week One and Two Update

Ceau from Oradea!  This is my first post from Romania. It is so amazing to actually be here, I still can't believe it sometimes. My first two weeks have been very busy and I want to tell you all about it.

                                                              View from the bridge over the Crisul Repede river.

Monday and Tuesday (May 14th and 15th) were the longest "day" of my life consisting of a total 36 hours of travel and lay-overs. But it was also the easiest international travel I could ever imagine. Not a single delayed flight, no annoying co-passengers, no problems anywhere... And really great service from all of the flight crews. Tuesday afternoon I met up with four girls from California (Emily, Jenny, Brittany, and Shellie) in the Budapest airport and from there travelled approximately 3 hours by car to Oradea. That was the first of  several interesting experiences here: the driving. You may think the tail-gaters where you live are bad but I am fairly certain that no one can hold a candle to the drivers here. But the scariest part was passing other cars in oncoming traffic, I was actually scared for my life at one point. But all in all I made it here alive.

Our first day at the Beauty from Ashes center was sort of an introduction day. We met all the staff and the girls who live and work there. Corey and his wife Diana live at the center with their two year old daughter, Evelyn (who is absolutely adorable and has a wonderful little Romanian accent) as well as 5 of the seven young women enrolled in their program. Their staff also includes Diana's parents, Eva and Sandu, Eva teaches the girls to cook and greets all of us with a kiss (or two) on the cheek every morning, and Sandu does the gardening and maintenance as well as making cheese and fishing (see my pictures on Facebook). Then there is Geta, who helps the girls and Diana with their craft projects and "charges" five dollars for everything from passing a piece of paper to helping with the Cricut and has a beautiful little 10 month old daughter, Rebecca. Last but not least are Andree, Ana, and Cosmina. From what I understand, Andree is the director of the Center and the Romania side of the ministry (whereas Corey is in charge of the US side of the ministry based out of Tennessee), Ana buys supplies for their craft business and sells the finished products, and Cosmina is a social worker who gets the girls involved in the community as well as works on the government side of running the ministry.

As I said above there are 7 girls enrolled in the program. Their names are Nadia, Natalie, Corina, Theresea, Cireasa, Rihanna, and Iolanda. They all grew up in Orphanages and are at the center to basically learn how to become responsible, hardworking adults. The orphanages offer no real guidance for the kids in their care so the kids leave at 18 with no idea how to cook, clean, get or keep a job, etc. No one ensures that they are going to school and doing their homework so many of them don't know basic things like telling time. Corey and the staff home school the girls who are too old to go to school. They teach them math, science, Romanian, English, and anything else the girls want to learn. Corey said he recently started teaching them Anatomy after one of the girls came home asking what her kidneys were, apparently some one on the street asked her to sell him one of her kidneys (she said no). The craft business is one of the ways they train the girls in how to work. Most of them make greeting cards and Nadia makes fabric flowers, they also want to try making jewelry.

Corina, Shellie, and Brittany finding buttons for cards.

This is mostly what we have been working on here. Diana usually makes a prototype card and gives it to the girls and they make about 40 of them. But it takes about a day (or two) to come up with a card idea and make it just right. Diana wants to make cards that people will buy rather than ones people might see and think "I could make that myself" so needless to say they need to be really nice. She has also been doing this for a while and is happy to let us try some designs so she can get a bit of a break in that area hopefully.

Natalia working on cards.

So that doesn't cover EVERYTHING but is a short over view of the first two weeks. More posts and Stories to come!

Prayer Requests

Less than a week to go!

    I booked my flight yesterday and am flying out of Boise bright and early Monday morning and arriving in Budapest, Hungary around noon on Tuesday. I will be flying through Minneapolis International Airport to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport and then on to Budapest. I am really nervous about travelling through Schiphol and Budapest considering I don't know the languages (thankfully I speak the second most widely spoken language in the world. Thank you Jesus!) But seriously, I would really appreciate a lot of prayer that everything goes smoothly, that I don't get lost, that my luggage doesn't get lost, etc.
    From Budapest I will be taking a shuttle with several other girls to Oredea which is just over the Hungarian border. We could also use prayer that we meet up without incident and that none of our flights get cancelled or delayed (at least not for too long).
    Other than that, I have been and still am learning some basic Romanian so hopefully that will be helpful. I can't believe this is happening so fast, it hardly seems real. Thank you to everyone who has been praying and again to all the people who are helping me financially to get there and stay there. God bless!

Look's like it's happening!

I am happy to announce that plans are finally coming together to get me to Romania! It has all happened very fast (I will be leaving in two weeks) but I am glad that the goal so close that I can't forget or ignore it.

As I said it all came together quite quickly. In March a Ministry contacted me about coming to Romania in May. That was a rather scary prospect considering I had little to no funding and only two months to get ready. I didn't jump at the opportunity right away, but took a while to think about it and mostly ignore it because it was  frightening. But I finally got to a point where I didn't have a single excuse not to go. Everything was coming together and I had to decide whether I was going or not. However, I finally decided to pursue the opportunity thinking "I might as well give it a try" and was pleasantly surprised by how well everything is coming together.

The ministry is Romanian Orphan Ministries and I will be leaving around May 14th  and coming home sometime in July.  I will be staying in an apartment with a few other girls who have been there before in a town called Oredea on the border of Hungary.While I am there I will be very busy. I am told there is always something to do, but a few things would include English tutoring and Bible studies.

This last weekend I had a garage sale and was able to raise about $330, thanks to everyone who came and supported me! There are many people who have helped financially that I would like to thank, but am unsure if they would like their names posted so I will simply say you know who you are and so do I, so Thank you! May the Lord bless you abundantly for your contrbution!

If you have any questions, please ask I would love to answer them!

New Plan, Prayer Requests

    If you read my last post you know that January was the time for me to reapply to Rock Ministries to serve in Romania. Well, January has come and gone and I received a letter from ROCK saying that, basically, the ministry has dissolved and given their responsibilities over to Heart to Heart International. Now this leaves me in a difficult spot. I am not sure how God is going to get me to Romania, but I still have no doubt that He wants me there. I could really use your prayers.
    My plan now is to write to several ministries that I have found on the internet and let them know of my conviction to be in Romania ministering to the people there and hopefully those letters will reach the right people. After doing some research I think it would be awesome to minister to the Roma (or Gypsies) there and have found a couple of groups who want to reach this group. So I could use your prayers in that aspect as well. I don't know how all of this is going to work out but I know that God is faithful and that He has great plans. Please be praying!

Some Concerns and Prayer requests:
 * God would bring the right opportunity into my path.
 * When all this is going to happen and what I should be doing for now.
 * Where and to whom am I supposed to be reaching?
 * All the specific from money to get there, to living there,  to my life back here in Boise.