Probably the Best City in the World

Today I would like to tell you about my city, Brasov. The first thing that needs to be cleared up is the pronunciation. You see, it isn't actually Brasov as you see it. The s in the word does in fact have a tail, or comma underneath it. This character makes the "sh" sound, so now try the word again and say it correctly!

The picture I have included today shows the slogan that is posted throughout the city stating that this is probably the best city in the world. I'm not really sure why it's only probably the best city, but it does make me chuckle. Let's start with some history. Brasov actually has a lot of German influence. The old part of the city has a wall going around it that used to serve as protection. Most of the wall is still intact, but the gates are obviously not used as they once were. There are also a couple of towers still around that now serve as tourist sights rather than protection. When the Germans were here, the walls were actually to keep the Romanians out. They were allowed in during the day, but when curfew came each night, they all had to leave the city and stayed to the south of the city. Originally the Germans called the city Corona, and then Kronstadt, but it was eventually changed to Brasov. Skipping forward quite a bit, after the 2nd World War, Romania was ruled by communist leaders. The most obvious landmarks still remaining from that time are all the communist style apartment buildings. They were built so that all the people had a place to live, but living conditions were not good. They were given small amounts of money and told what to buy with it.

In 1989, a revolution began in Romania to break free of the communist rule. Thankfully, the revolution was successful, but Romanians are relatively "young" in their freedoms and there is a lack of education about how to live with the responsibility of making your own choices. Because of this, and the low amount of pay, most people are still very poor. It is amazing to me that I can see some of the hopelessness in people's faces as I pass them on the street. The younger generation is growing up in freedom, but it will take time for change to happen. On top of that, Romania is experiencing financial crisis like so much of the world, and the taxes here are about to increase by 25% (I believe). The people are so angry. As we talk to the nurses at the hospital, we already know that they are underpaid and worry about how they will manage. The tax will include things like heat and electricity. We know that things will only get worse for the children that we care for.

Now that the dreary details are out of the way, let me list some other facts about the city. There are about 300,000 people living here. There is a beautiful park in town called Central Park. It is such a nice place to go and find a bench to sit on for the afternoon. There are also tons of stray dogs and cats around. More dogs than cats I think. And they don't clean up after themselves, so sometimes the sidewalks can be a bit smelly. But they never even seem to notice the people walking by. I live on Strada De Mijloc (Mijloc Street). The city center is similar to a downtown square and is very close to the Black Church, named because it survived a fire that blackened the walls. On Tuesday evenings there is an organ concert at the church, which I of course attened last week. The main church here is the Orthodox Church, but I have seen a Catholic and Baptist church as well. There is a main street for walking filled with shops and restaurants that have little places to sit outside like the picture above. Sometimes it feels like a place out of a story or movie. I'm sure there are tons of other things I could list, but this will do for now. Love from Romania!

Up the Mountain

There is a mountain here called Tampa which boasts a sign of the city name much like the one in Hollywood. Today we decided to go on an adventure to find the sign at the top and then hike back down. There was actually a break in the rain today so we took the gondola up the mountain to have a look around. We squished our way back down through the mud and muck and I loved every minute of it. Here are some pictures of the afternoon. :)
Starting in the city center, looking up to the mountain.


Anna, Me, Talia, and Erin in the gondola.

The back of the Brasov sign. As it turns out, you can't really stand in front of it.


View from the top.

Yes, that is a giant, disgusting snail! This picture needs no words.

I mean, looks at that horrid slime trail. Uh!

Talia takes the lead on the way down. Again, sorry for the sideways pictures. My technology deficiencies makes this a challenge.

We did it!!!!

Shoes and hem a little muddy, but totally worth it! :)

They Are Precious In His Sight

Before I get lost in telling you about my babies, I realized there are a couple of other things that I want to tell you about Romania in general. I do, in fact, stick out like a sore thumb here. For the most part, Romanians are dark skinned with brown hair and brown eyes. I am pretty much the opposite of that, plus if I happen to be talking with someone as I walk along the street I tend to get several second glances.

You should also know that there are giant snails and slugs here. Everywhere. Really... everywhere. They are sick! It has been raining just about every day since I arrived (I am so over the rain!) and the slugs and snails come out to play. They are gross to look at, but even worse to step on. It honestly causes a physical reaction in me, much like the beginnings of nausea. Ick!

And now, what you really want to know... all about the babies! Right now, there are close to 20 kids in the hospital without mothers. They are in cribs with anywhere from one to four in a room. Generally, if a baby is more sick they have their own room. We split our time between the 3rd and 4th floors of the hospital and simply go into the rooms to spend time with the kids. If we are not in there, they are left alone unless a nurse is in to pass out bottles or administer medicine. Some of the kids act sick, but some of them seem like your normal, active toddler. We never know from day to day if the same kids will be in, if we will have new kids, or if some of them might be going home. Yes, most of them do have a home. The parents either can't or won't take care of them and they end up at the hospital. There are a couple of villages around Brasov where the kids are from and the Firm Foundations volunteers work closely with the hospital social worker to get the kids back to their families. More often than not, the child will be back within a couple of weeks.

Another service Firm Foundations provides to the hospital is handing out diapers on a daily basis. They do this for all children without parents on all five floors of the hospital. This includes the maternity wing for newborns, a pyschological wing, a terminal wing, an intensive care wing, and a surgery wing. Before they started providing the diapers, the hospital would just put the children in rags. Check out the Firm Foundations website link on the right side of my page to learn more. For the morning shift we go in at 9:30 and go from room to room spending time with the kids until 11:00 at which point we disperse the diapers. Each child gets four diapers a day and is changed at certain times. When we finish passing the diapers out we return to the 3rd and 4th floors to help change and feed the little ones there. Our shift ends at 12:30ish. The afternoon shift starts at 3:00 and goes until 6:00. We get to spend the whole time with the kids. We bring in toys and get them out of their cribs. They are not allowed to be on the floor without shoes, so we carry a bag of little shoes from room to room. They also are not allowed to sit or crawl in the floor to play, so we have to be careful about making sure they are either being held or can walk on their own. Those are all hospital rules.

Now that you know what I am up to, let me give you some specifics about my loves! Roxii (Roxy) has just started to learn to walk. She is a bundle of energy and loves to walk back and forth down her room for as long as we are in there. Robert has been in and out of the hospital his entire life. He is getting close to the walking stage and has the biggest tummy of any of the kids. :) He discovered bubbles for the first time last week and was beside himself with glee! There was a new little boy on Friday who also had great fun with the bubbles. We don't actually always know their names. Sad, but true. But that has only served as a reminder for me that Jesus knows everyone of their names, their stories, their families, even the number of hairs on their heads! Emmanuel is also at walking age and is all smiles and grins when we are there to play. He is such a joy! Sometimes, if we don't know their names, we give them names. Like Grumpy-Bum, who is very aptly named. We have kind of transitioned to Oscar (the grouch) for him. He loves to just be held and cuddled. I think he is always so upset because they insist on putting him in pink clothes. Andrea was there for a couple of days when I first arrived, but has since gone home. We have another nameless girl (Laura) who has a twin sister up on the intensive care wing. There is Roxana who has gotten more sick of late, Stelli who is a miracle baby, Louie who is named after the orangutan on The Jungle Book, Nicku, Idina, Monica, Daniel, more without names, and Willamesh. Willamesh is blind and so sweet. I cherish the time I get to spend singing to him and watching him smile. He is so small and does not eat much. I'm sure I have forgotten some, but hopefully this gives you a glimpse into what I am getting to see here.

The hospital does not allow us to take pictures, so we do it discreetly. I am hoping to get some pictures this week so that you can see these precious ones! I still have more stories to tell, so keep reading. :)
Love from Romania.

Answered Questions

Before I left for Romania there were many unknowns about my trip. What would I find when I got here? Today's blog will be an atempt to answer some of the things that happen on a daily basis here. :)



Para, my house mom, is a wonderful cook. Although she does not speak English, we seem to manage. (Thanks Liz!!) My Romanian is not great, but I do know how to tell her what time we will be home for meals, or if we will not be there at all. For breakfast I get some type of meat and cheese, hot tea, and bread and jam. It seems more like a lunch type meal to me, but whatev. Then lunch is interesting. One day I had eggs, one day I had hot dog type meat that I attempted to wrap in bread, and today I had fried cheese. It was really tasty, but I'm not used to that being an entire meal. I must admit I had some peanut butter on a piece of bread as well. Dinner usually consist of some type of soup, meat, and side like veggies or rice, and a cucumber and tomato salad. I pick around the tomatoes.


Our room has a very large window and Para closes the shutters around 8pm (the sun does not set until after 10!), and then when it is time for us to get up, the shutters open! The toilet paper at the house is more like crepe paper than anything else. It's not like that in other places though. We must wear shoes in the house. I was walking bare-foot and all of a sudden there was a flurry of Romanian speech and pointing to feet and showing of shoes. I caught on very quickly! The radio plays all kinds of music. They have KISS FM, like we do, but it plays everything from Queen to Sinatra to Gaga and Beyonce, as well as Romanian pop music. A couple of mornings ago there was some music from Grease playing in the kitchen while Para was working in there, so I went in and started singing and dancing, and she danced a little, too. :)

There are some interesting superstitions here. We cannot open the windows at the hospital because they think that if a breeze from the window touches you, it could paralyze you. So, it gets a bit warm in there! We also cannot whistle in the hallways, because that might bring destruction on the building. Interesting, but useful things to know. I have ended up with lots of free time that I was not expecting. The shifts at the hospital are only 3 hours once a day, so I have done lots of walking around the city and quite a bit of reading as well. I am still trying to work out what I'm going to do while not at the hospital, but I think some things might come up. I'll keep you posted.

I am anxious to tell you about my sweet babies and the hospital, but will save that for my next writing. They have captured my heart. And even though the time is brief, I love every second of it. Keep reading, and as always, ask questions if I've forgotten anything or if there is something you want to know! Love from Romania!

A Few Pictures

I'm at the Projects Abroad office and will be leaving in a few minutes for an authentic Romanian lunch, but wanted to put up some pictures while I have a chance. :)



Here I am in the mountains. This was at the Peles Castle.

This is my city Brasov!

This is the room where Talia and I live. We eat our meals at that table and my bed is on the left.

This is Traian and Claudio, our guides for the tour on Saturday. Sorry it's sideways!

Not really sure who this is. They were in the city center. There is always something going on there!

Hello From Romania!

What an adventurous 3 days I have had! I will just start from the beginning and try to put in as many details as possible without writing the longest blog ever know to man. :)

DFW airport was a breeze, except for the part when we were all loaded up on the plane and made it to the runway only to be told we were going to wait for about an hour. I sent out several texts asking for prayer to make the connecting flight (my layover was 1 hour!) and because the Lord is faithful and hears His children, I made it in plenty of time to New York to catch my next flight. I sat next to a lovely woman named Brigitta who was on her way home to Zurich. She is a world traveler, but feels most at home in New York and was sad to be leaving. Once we landed in Zurich I did have to do an airport dash to switch terminals and find the right gate. I'm pretty sure is was on the opposite side of the airport from where I landed! When I got to the gate, there was no plane, only a bus. A couple of minutes after boarding the bus, they took us to the plane and off we went. After arriving in Bucarest I picked up one of my bags and reported the one that was lost. Thankfully I had printed out the name, address, and phone number of my host family! It was delivered this morning. :) Then I walked out and found my Projects Abroad sign and met Daniel, who drove me to Brasov. He was very kind, didn't speak much English, and laughed at me very much when I told him how much I like baseball. I was incredibly tired, but managed to stay awake for some of the ride. I saw everything from buildings to horsedrawn carts, roadside markets, and people all along the street. We drove through some beautiful mountains and on roads with plenty of hairpin turns. It was wonderful!

Daniel dropped me off at the house where I am staying and I met my house mom, Para, who speaks no English. So there is one question answered- no, the family does not speak English. I have not met her husband yet. He has not been at the house. I do have a roommate, Talia. She is from New Zealand and has been so welcoming and helpful. That first night we went to the town square because she had plans to meet friends that work at the hospital for some opera event. When we got there it turned out to be an opera that was being televised on a big screen. We didn't stay for long, but met up with the other girls and went for dinner. They are such fun and I am really looking forward to working with them and getting to know them. So that was Thursday and Friday for me. I'm not really sure when one stopped and the other started, but it was all good.

Talia told me she and one other girl had a tour planned for Saturday to see some of the area surrounding Brasov and invited me to go. We met our guide at 9am and soon there after left in his van to see Romania. His son also went with us as the guide. Father and son, Traian and Claudio respectively, were so much fun. The way they interacted was so sweet and fun to watch. Their affection for one another was a great addition to the day. Traian speaks very broken English, and Claudio does very well. He is probably in his late teens and still in school, but helps his dad out during the summer with tours. We toured 2 castles, 3 churches, drove through the mountains, had a lovely lunch, and returned to Brasov around 6:30pm. We ate dessert on one of the main streets and then headed home. I did manage to get a shower in before I completely crashed, but that was about all.

I know that was a lot to do after just arriving, but I am so glad that I did. I have already come to love this country and the people. I cannot wait to spend time here, learn about the culture and people, and hopefully share this Love I have been given.

Today (Sunday) has been an easy day. We slept in a little and then caught a bus out to the supermarket. It is basically like a Wal-Mart. It is Father's Day back in the states and I am wishing that I could talk to my dad. He is so special to me and I love him greatly. So, Dad, happy Father's Day. You are leading worship right now and my prayers are with you. Have a wonderfual day!!!! I love you!

I will go for now. My orientation is tomorrow with Projects Abroad and the hospital and then I get to start work on Tuesday. I am so blessed to be here! I will try to include more day-to-day details next time I write. Feel free to comment or email me with questions and I will do my best to answer them. This internet cafe does not have USB for me to put up pictures, but hopefully they will come soon! Miss you and love you!

OK GO

I believe if you click on the title of this blog you will find one of my favorite music videos. It is by a group called Ok Go and is very entertaining- but don't click it until you finish reading!

In 12 hours my plane should be leaving. I will have quite a day of travel ahead of me. Four hour flight to New York, one hour layover. Eight hour flight to Zurich, one hour layover. Three hour flight to Bucharest, three hour car ride through the mountains. And finally I will arrive in Brasov. Saturday will be an orientation day for me to learn my way around the city and places I will be frequenting. I hope I'm not too chicken to test out some of my Romanian language skills!

Today has been an interesting day of getting ready for departure. I cleaned the house (those of you who know me well will not be surprised by this) and picked up some last minute things. But tonight was the best part. Some of my closest friends came over to help me pack and I could not have done it without them. Thank you to Ali, Jonelle, and Liz for literally packing my bag for me. We also watched So You Think You Can Dance- you know, we had to take care of the important things! I also got to talk to my sweet brother, who was able to dissipate the stress I began to feel after everyone left.

You see, the simple act of packing started thoughts racing in my head. Thoughts like, why I am taking so much stuff for me when I am going to be with people who need so many things? I have so much stuff, too many bags. And while these are valid points, I will not allow Satan a foothold in my thoughts before I even leave the house. I leave knowing I am loved, knowing I am prayed for by many people. Probably more than I realize. I leave knowing that even if I do take too much stuff or the wrong things that God is SO much bigger than my feeble worries and nothing I do is going to stop His work. I leave happy, overwhelmed by this blessing. I leave feeling sent. That may be an odd way to put it, but just like Barnabas and Saul in Acts 13, I have been prayed over and sent to another place. Thank you for reading, praying, supporting, and backing me up.

So, the next time I write will be from Romania! I do not know what to expect, but I think it will be an adventure. Ready or not- ok, go! (But really, ok go. Go click on the title now, it's super fun!)

Lists

I am a list person. There is just something really satisfying about seeing what all needs to be done and then marking things off as they get accomplished. Not checking- I'm not a checker- one line straight through the middle to scratch it off the list. Plus, if I don't write something down, I usually forget about it, and it therefore does not get done. I have had several different lists going in the last couple of days in getting ready to leave and am happy to report that they are very close to being finished!

That by no means implies that I am packed. All the things have come off the list and basically exploded in my room. There is stuff everywhere. To prove this point, and to practice my technology skills, I am including a picture. Hopefully I will include pictures of Romania in my blog once I am there, so I think it a good idea to have a test run. Here we go. :)

Success!! And don't worry, I will be downsizing obviously. You must consider all options before making cuts. Ha ha!

I have still been enjoying my summer with fun events like our recent scavenger hunt (way to go team Lucky 7- winners of the iTunes cards! This means new music for the plane ride), and tonight I will see the musical Wicked with several friends. I truly am blessed.

PS- I am getting more and more excited by the minute!

Just A Matter of Days

I love the simplicity of summer. It has just been a matter of days since the semester ended, but already I am in full summer mode. There is such a sweet freedom that comes from not having a set schedule or plan. I have time- time to catch up on things neglected, time to rest, time to go slow, time to play. So far I have cleaned house, seen movies, played sand AND indoor volleyball, worked out, been to two free concerts in the park, had friends visit, played my guitar, slept in... I feel spoiled!

I will be leaving for Romania very soon. A couple of days ago someone asked me when I leave. I said, "Next week. *insert Home Alone face and dramatic pause* I LEAVE NEXT WEEK!" It was a little shocking to me. I feel like I have so much to do. I have been fighting the urge for a couple of days now to pull out everything I am planning to take with me so I can start narrowing down. But I know it will end up all over my bed and room, and I will have to sleep somewhere else. Let's be honest, it's probably going to happen tomorrow. :)

In the midst of summer and preparations I am learning to play Love Never Fails on the guitar. (Thanks David!!) It is a song by Brandon Heath with beautiful words. I cannot wait to sing it to the sweet babies I will be meeting in just a matter of days.

Love Never Fails

by Brandon Heath

Love is not proud
Love does not boast
Love after all
Matters the most

Love does not run
Love does not hide
Love does not keep
Locked inside

Love is the river that flows through
Love never fails you

Love will sustain
Love will provide
Love will not cease
At the end of time

Love will protect
Love always hopes
Love still believes
When you don’t

Love is the arms that are holding you
Love never fails you

When my heart won’t make a sound
When I can’t turn back around
When the sky is falling down
Nothing is greater than this
Greater than this

Love is right here
Love is alive
Love is the way
The truth the life

Love is the river that flows through
Love is the arms that are holding you
Love is the place you will fly to
Love never fails you

Welcome

Welcome to my new readers! I don't actually know if you are reading, but I have handed out postcards with my blog address and am hoping that some of you might actually check it out. I have already written quite a bit about my trip... and quite a bit not about my trip. I plan to keep giving information as I receive it, and to try to write a couple of times a week while I am gone. I won't know if you are keeping up with me unless you leave comments or become a follower of the blog. And as I am not very tech savvy, I don't know how to tell you to do that. I'm not sure if you need an account, or just an email address, or what. Perhaps some of you who already follow can leave a comment with instructions?! Anyway, thank you for reading and take a look around. As I write this, the countdown says 14 days! I am still trying to wrap my mind around it.

It has been a busy couple of weeks. School is coming to a close (only 1 & 1/2 days!), I had a birthday, ran a 5K- which was incredibly fun, almost had to move out of my house but the Lord provided just like He always does. I have also continued to work on my Romanian. Tonight I finally got to the first reading lesson. The first 10 lessons were all audio, but lesson 11 had a short reading section at the end of it. I'm not going to lie, it's hard.

Finally, a quick update regarding Romania. A few people have asked how they can help out with my trip. I talked with Sarah, who runs the volunteer program at the hospital, and asked if I could bring anything from here that they need. She said plastic gloves and hand sanitizer would be great. So, I am planning on taking either a bag or box full of those supplies. If you would like to donate money or supplies, just let me know and I will be grateful and happy to add it to what I have. Thanks for your support and prayers!