I arrived back in Oradea on Friday the 21 (Good Friday here) after only a 5 hour train ride. I had the option of taking a 5 a.m. train or a 5:30 p.m. bus. Since I preferred to arrive in the daylight I chose the first option, tiring but good to be back. One of the nice things about being back is that I am once again using a computer whose keyboard is familiar. The last blog entry I made was done on a Romanian keyboard where the "y" key printed as "X" and vice versa. And that was one of the easier things to figure out!

As many of you know I occasionally have a problem with motion sickness so I am giving glory to God and thanking all of you for praying because I have had very little trouble with motion sickness in spite of a variety of train, bus, and taxi rides. Even the trip over the Carpathian Mountains was tolerable because I could look up and out and not directly at the passing scenery. That was some bus ride! We were in a full size commercial bus going up and over the mountains on a road that I am sure followed an old mountain goat path! The switch backs were worthy of 15-20 mile an hour speeds and I always seemed to be on the side of the bus with no guard rail. Not that the guard rails were much good because the road bed was washing away from under them! As if all of this wasn't exciting enough we had a trainee driver who managed to stall the bus three different times one of which was as we were rounding one of the very tight corners on the way up! I have a friend who once told me that I must work my guardian angel overtime, well she sure had her work cut out for her on this bus trip! In spite of all of these unexpected thrills, the journey through the mountains was beautiful. I am glad I had the opportunity to travel from Piatru Neamt to Tirgu Meres.

Did I mention that driver training in Romania includes learning how to play chicken? Drivers race down the road, swerving around the numerous pot holes and try to beat any vehicle coming from the other direction to the path through the pot holes. You can actually see the tire tracks vehicles have worn into the pavement as they dodge the holes!

Both Piatru Neamt and Tirgu Meres are considered small towns with populations around 100,000. (So small is a relative term!) Anyway, they are located on opposite sides of the mountains in the foothills and are beautiful and picturesque. Unfortunately, as is the case in all of Romania that I have seen, litter is a huge problem. In the city or in the countryside there are always plastic bags and bottles laying around. Efforts are being made to cut back on the trash such as charging for bags at the stores, hiring cleaning crews, and using men from the jails to clean up. Tirgu Meres was the cleanest of the places I have visited and so the combination of rolling streets, old buildings, and lack of litter made it memorable.

Of course it is the people I met who really made the whole trip a grand adventure. I traveled with Cristina and met her fiance, Roy. They will be getting married this fall and will live in Bucuaresti. This doesnt seem so unusual until you realize that Roy is English and has learned Romanian and is willing to live in Romania because it is Cristina's home--must be love! Cristina's parents hosted us for a number of meals in their home in Piatru Neamt and offered much laughter and hospitality. Ana and her parents provided a comfortable place for me to stay. Ana gave up her bedroom so that I could have privacy. This meant that she and her parents shared one room while I had another all to myself. That's hospitality! While in Piatru Neamt I also had an opportunity to meet Bert, an Englishman who is in his late 70s and who travels to Romania about three times a year for 6 to 8 weeks at a time. One of the ways in which Bert lives out his faith is to go to parts of the city where he knows the beggars are sleeping and hand out food and money. This action is particularly awe inspiring because the typical Romanian will simply walk by beggers and tell you not to give them any money because they might come back. Not so different from many the way I saw New Yorkers treat beggars in New York City.

From Piatru Neamt and a family of very organized and thoughtful people I went on to Tirgu Meres where I stayed with a family of four who were the total opposite. They stayed up late, slept late, ate when they were hungry and took life at a pretty relaxed pace. Their home is made up of a small kitchen, a bathroom with a shower, no tub, a very small sitting/dining room, and what we would consider a living room. The two girls share a bed in the living room while the parents have a bed in the sitting/dining room. There are no closets, no storage areas of any kind so they have cabinets situated around the living room where each person has space to keep their personal items including clothing. Mimi, my hostess, was a joy to be around. She loves her family, loves the Lord, and wants desperately to move to the U.S. It is humbling to realize the high regard in which many people here hold the U.S. It can also be very frustrating because they all want to hear success stories and have a difficult time understanding that not everything in the U.S. is easy or as wonderful as they imagine. In a couple of conversation I had to give up trying to insert a bit of reality because the people I was talking to simply wouldnt believe me. They told me I must be wrong! I found myself trying to maintain a balance between being honest about things in the States while at the same time not destroying peoples' dreams. For some of the folks I have met the dream of moving to the U.S. is one of the things that helps them survive as they face the difficult circumstances of their lives here in Romania.

A CONVERSATION:

"I bought my ticket today. The bus leaves at 7 a.m.  How long does it take to get to Tirgu Meres?"

"About 5 hours."

"Great! Ill be there by Noon."

"No, the bus arrive about half past 1."

WHAT HAPPENED HERE?

1. The Romanian speaker translated the number 6 as 5.

2. The duration of the trip stated does not include stops.

3. The 5 hour answer was the least painful for the questioner to hear.

4. The bus starts loading at 7:00.

CHOOSE THE ANSWER YOU THINK IS RIGHT. SEE END OF BLOG ENTRY FOR THE CORRECT ANSWER.

* * * *

A CONVERSATION:

"What time do you (the guest) usually go to bed?

Oh, somewhere between 10 and 11 p.m."

"Good, what time do you get up?"

"Around 8-8:30." (I learned earlier in this trip that if I say the actual time I normally get up6-6:30--people seems a little freaked out.)

"Good. We will have coffee when you get up."

SAME DAY, SOMETIME AFTER 11 P.M.

"You can sleep as late as you want in the morning. Ten, eleven oclock if you want."

"Oh, I wont sleep that late. Eight or eight-thirty is about as late as I ever sleep."

"Well, maybe here it will be different."

TRANSLATION: We (the host family) stay up late and sleep late.

I have had numerous conversations like the one above. I think the rules of politeness and/or hospitality dictate that the host ask the questions but don't seem to include a need to necessarily honor the answer. Sooner or later you will end up doing what the questioner wants.

My hostess in Tirgu Meres kept encouraging me to drink milk. She would tell me over and over that it was okay, it was fresh milk..which it was...fresh, unpasturized, out of the cow that morning fresh. I declined.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT:

While in Tirgu Meres, it came to my attention that a family in a nearby village was struggling to make a living. The husband has been out of work for some time and they are trying to survive on what they can grow and sell. Since he has been out of work this man has learned to make artwork out of metal sheets. I am not sure if they are aluminum or copper or what, but they are beautiful. My hostess asked if I would be interested in purchasing some of the art work because it would be a great kindness to this family. I hesitated to respond right away because I wanted to spend some time thinking and praying about the matter. Here is the reason I wanted time: one of the issues I have had to struggle with while here is figuring out when I am being manipulated by people. I don't know if they do it consciously or not but it almost seems like a given in many situations.

I spent some pretty intense time thinking about whether or not I should order this art work. Was the money going to go to the artist? Would a product be coming back? Was the host family going to get a percentage (or keep it all)? Would purchasing this artwork be an appropriate way to use some of the ministry money I still had? These questions kept rolling around inside my head. Then I started thinking about Easter and the great gift of love that God showered upon his people. Did God ask if we deserved this gift? Did God want a guarantee that we would accept his grace and pass it on? Did God's love depend on my credibility? If you answer these questions in the same way I did you will know what my final decisions was.

ANSWER TO THE TIME QUESTION:

 It could be any one of the four answers! The first two are self-explanatory. Number 3 would fit into what I have begun to understand as a Romanian concept of hospitality. Number 4 could fall into one of two categories--first, time is a very loosely held concept for many Romanians; second, everything is dependent on the driver who may or may not load the bus right at 7. The driver is in control and the rest of us are just along for the ride.

Paste Ferecit (Happy Easter)