November 2006

Did you know that taking two egg yolks, mixing them with some mustard and salt, and eventually adding some cooking oil will leave you with a cream sauce equivolent of mayonnaise? It works, it really does.

Tonight, with little in the fridge, David and I set out to make some food. As he pulled out the ingredients, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what he was envisioning. I began to help and could not figure out what these simple ingredients and a huge time investment would provide us with. But mixed with some potatoes and onions, we had a fabulous potato salad.

As I sit and write, I am surrounded by cement walls (as most houses here are made of) and somewhere inside the cement comes a small sound of something rattling around… I was almost too afraid to ask David what it was, for my assumption was confirmed, mice.

Last Friday night, I stayed in the village, Marga with my friend Alina (who I met last summer) and my new friend Ema. As Alina and I went to our room, a little mouse scurried across the floor and back into his hiding place. We thought we were safe, but about the time Ema came to bed, it was time for the mice (now 2) to come and play. A few minutes after the light was off, Ema asked for someone to turn on the light as she exclaimed, “A mouse just ran through my hair.” Alina was relived as she was sure a mouse had just been in her hair too. At the same time, we heard one in a plastic bag across the room, which now confirmed multiple mouses…mice!!! Immediately we summoned our hero in the next room. David came to the rescue and moved us out of the “mouse” room for the night. And finally, the girls got a good night sleep - mouse free. (I woke up to find one of the mice “baked” to death on my clean shirt drying on the radiator. We smashed him with a shoe to make sure his life was over and I rewashed my shirt before wearing.)

WELCOME TO ROMANIA!!!

November 12th, 2006 © allthis

Again, I find myself with so much to update and not enough time to share everything that is going on.  I will post a daily update in the next coupe of days.

I decided yesterday to travel into Timisoara to meet with some Greater Europe Mission Missionaries, Dwight and Melissa.  I was glad to travel alongside of Dave who was going to Budapest, Hungary for the night.  We were supposed to leave the house at 6:20am to begin our journey.  At 6:25 Dave knocked on my door and realized my alarm never woke me up.  I jumped out of bed, dressed, threw things in my backpack and ran out the door to get to the train station in Otelu.  We got to the train station just in time to get tickets and get on board a train that would take us to Caransebes.  When we got to Caransebes Dave checked the track number for the train headed into Timisoara.  The track number was listed wrong so we ended up on the wrong train.  We had to be in Timisoara by 11:30 so Dave coud catch another train to Budapest, so we were left to find another way.

Of course, at this point, the girl always has to find a restroom.  I finally found what was seriously equivolent to a hole in the ground (Eastern European Toilets).  At least there was paper available.  But in the end, I was even charged to use this  “bathroom”.

Dave knew of a van that traveled between Caransebes and Timisoara, but it appeared as though the van had already left.  That’s when he mentioned “hitch hiking”.  Dave turned to me and asked, “Are you praying?” and I  can say that I most certainly had been!  I had just taken my backpack off to take my jacket off and a coachline bus headed to Timisaoara drove by, and then began to stop down the road.  Dave looked back at me and started running.  I picked up my bag and began to run - this is the moment I felt like it was the Amazing Race :).

We got on the packed bus and were standing with at least a half dozen others in the walkway of the bus.  The time between Carasebes and Timisoara was about 90-120 minutes, and we were standing in the isle of the bus.  About half way through the ride, we stopped in Lugoj where the bus emptied in half and we were finally able to take a seat.  Thankfully, it only seemed like I had been standing for 10 minutes.  After some sleeping on the bus and some verb conjucation practice, we arrived in Timisoara only blocks from the apartment Dave lived in during his language studies.

Timisoara is a beautiful city, with history and a true Eastern European feel (very similar to Prague).  We found our way to the train station and met up with Dwight and Melissa and Dave left for a long train ride to Budapest.  Little did I know what I was in for…

I arrived at Dwight and Melissa’s to enjoy  many more American luxaries than I would ever find in Marga.  I am thankful that my experiences in Romania have been from the village, to the small town, to the big city.  With each increase, luxaries of America are ever increasing.  But today I enjoyed washing AND DRYING my clothes (there is no dryer in Marga or Otelu), wireless internet access, and the awareness that many things I believed unavailable in Romania are actually available here at the big stores in the city.  I am looking forward to my tour tomorrow of downtown Timisoara and the rich history from the Revolution.

November 6nd, 2006 © allthis

As I sit here, it is snowing in much of Romania.  I prayed for snow and I’m very excited to have my first snow of the year be my first snow ever in Romania!!!

After a long 2 days all over the SW region of Romania, I’m glad to be home, but blessed by a visit to Phil’s niece’s house.  My eyes and heart have been opened far greater than I could have imagined.

I will share more in another post, but my thoughts keep returning to this, “When your vision, passion and mission meet,  something within is truly unleashed, but disappointment and trials still occur and sometimes at a greater rate and intensity.”  I guess part of me always dreamed when vision, passion and mission met, that things would be easier, that I could handle anything that came my way.  And I can, with His strength within me, but what happens when your expectations fall far from where you had anticipated?  I’m continuing to process these thoughts and more.

I’m learning more and more what it means, ALL THIS FOR A KING, for my Glorious King.

November 2nd, 2006 © allthis