Don't laugh when you read this...but it occurred to me the other day as I went downstairs (a mere 4 floors, 3 hallways, and 90 stairs from my room) to set my bag of laundry in line with two others to wait my turn to use one of the two washing machines that are available to students (and praise God I am here now when they have washing machines!) that my life is a little strange. Or maybe it was the day I sat on the back steps of a home in one of the villages. There I was with a kitten on my lap, looking across a freshly planted garden with the smells of lunch in the air and suddenly I was remembering the house where my Grandma Bergeon lived when I was growing up; a place where the garden took up nearly half of the property, a place where the cooking was done on a wood stove which also provided heat, a place where there was always room for one more at the table. Or maybe it was after participating in a worship service with 8 other people in a room lovingly maintained since 1915, maybe it was that day that I realized my life is a little strange...strange in a weird and wonderful way.
I told you NOT to laugh!
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There are advantages and disadvantages in being in the field for an extended period of time. The greatest advantage is having time to develop deeper relationships with people as well as the opportunity to understand the people's daily life in a more complete way. The disadvantages are that you have time to develop deeper relationships with people to whom you will have to say good-bye and you begin to realize that there are issues in their daily lives that you will never understand.
As I enter the last three weeks of my time here I am realizing how much I have learned and how much more there is to learn. I am realizing how much I am going to miss some of the people I have met and how little I really know many of them. I also realized last night as I went off on my own to pick up a phone card and a couple of other items that the neighborhood feels like home. I know where to go, I recognize people on the streets, and sometimes I don't see the ugliness of the blocks (apartment buildings) because I know some of the people who have made warm and loving homes inside those ugly exteriors. These days when I talk about going home, I mean to my room at Emanuel. And then I realize that in three short weeks I will be leaving what has become familiar and will return to what is no longer familiar. I don't think it will take long for me to get back in the swing of things once I return and yet I know that I have been changed and that I may not so easily fit back into my old life.
The double-edged sword of knowledge also means that I know more about the problems the Romanian people face, about the difficulties of existing in a time of the great transitions that are happening politically, economically, and socially. Politically I hear about things like a religious law that, if passed, will essentially make the Orthodox church the state church and all others illegal. In the economic realm I am told the weather here is unusually cold for this time of the year. People are concerned because crops are going in late and with the amount of rain they have had some areas still cannot plant. People who always struggle to make ends meet during the winter are anticipating higher prices in the fall and winter and wonder how they will feed their families and heat their homes.
Socially the Romanian people are being deluged with images and life-styles that are attractive and deadly. Social issues such as hunger and homelessness are needing to be addressed in new ways...ways that are almost foreign after decades of being repressed and taken care of by the government.
It is almost impossible for us to imagine the damage the Communist and Ceaucescu regimes did to this country and its people. We can read about it and study it but until you talk to people who lived it the reality just doesn't sink in. Last night I talked to a woman who remembers that as a young teen she had to get up at 4 a.m. one morning every week to go stand in line for 1 litre of milk, the ration that was given her family. Most of those mornings, rain or shine, she stood in line for at least 4 hours.
I have learned that the goal of the Ceaucescu Communist government was to make the people completely dependent on the government for everythingfood, shelter, work, etc. To obtain that goal they did everything possible to separate people from their ethnic, religious, and cultural heritages. Their measures included fear and intimidation which was carried out by the secret police who then recruited or threatened people into becoming informers (it is said that at one time 1 out of every 3 people was an informer and even if this was not true it is what was believed), the destruction of historic buildings and the razing of entire villages, the relocation of people from the country to the city, the persecution of intellectuals and dissenters, etc. etc. etc. They sought to and almost accomplished the complete subjection of the people of Romania and perhaps worst of all, crushed their spirit and took away their hope.
The miracle is that there are good people in Romania working hard to improve conditions for everyone, good people who survived those years of oppression and are now raising children whose futures have the potential to be much brighter. Please keep them in your prayers.
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It has been quite a weekI have met a Canadian author and a former U.S. Ambassador to Romania. I have attended a Christian concert and a grief counseling workshop. I have worshipped in the largest evangelical church in Romania and in a one room home church. I have bounced around in a van with two other people and been packed into a VW hatchback car with five.
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The young man I am tutoring has such a heart for God! He is a gifted musician who wants to be a missionary and will spend the summer ministering with mission teams from the U.S. He will travel to Moscow as soon as school is done to meet up with the first groups. Then they will travel to the Chez Republic and then he will go on to St. Petersburg. Please pray that he will be able to get his visa and whatever other documents he needs as well as find the funds to pay for everything.
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Hows this for an internship?
Leave your home at 6:30 a.m. and walk to the bus station to catch the 8:00 bus which will take you another 20 miles north and drop you off on the highway where you will walk another two miles to arrive at the church where you will conduct morning worship, preach, and provide music. After a short break you hold Sunday school for the children and youth which last about another hour so it is now about 3 p.m. You have lunch with one of the families from the church and at 4:15 you leave the village to return to Oradea and play music at the 5:00 p.m. service which last until 7 or 7:15. Oh, and your pay is your transportation money and lunch.
My friend, Vitalie, does this every Sunday.
Food for Thought
The other day one of the students asked me how I liked the food in Romania and I said I liked it a lot (because I do!) even though some of it was unfamiliar. I went on to say that I liked trying new things including different kinds of food. The student expressed surprise at my response saying that "most Americans complain about our food. They say it upsets their stomachs."
The longer I am here the more often these little pieces of information come out in casual conversations. You may remember that in an earlier entry I talked about Bogdan and his experience with Americans who didn't take the time to learn his name. In another entry I mentioned a young woman and her boyfriend who had a bad experience with an American. It turns out that a young woman who was on a mission team from the U.S. decided that the boy was cute and even though she knew the Romanian girl and the boy were dating she began flirting with the boy. And now this comment about the food.
Maybe, just maybe, we have earned the title "Ugly Americans."