Monday morning, I got out of bed…
I was so happy to type that simple statement!
We decided to start slow and see how the day progressed given my weakened state from the previous day. Kept breakfast bread down-check. Took a shower without needing a nap-check. Drank tea without getting nauseous- check. Good to go!
The drawback to Scott foraying out into the foreign culture world on his own is that he got to experience all kinds of adventures without me. The first of which was opening the refrigerator the first morning. If you ever want to add a little excitement to your life, open a refrigerator in a foreign country without one of your hosts there to translate the labels. That particular morning, he poured a very sour buttermilk on his cereal because there is only one word different on the label from regular milk. Regular milk is Lapte, buttermilk is Lapte Batut. Let’s just say the first bite was a bit of a surprise.
He had also toured the facility already with my dad so he got to see it twice. We met with the director of FCE as well as many of the other Swedish and Romanian staff members and social workers. We toured the Depot, the donation warehouse. We peeked in the woodshop.
We came back to the volunteer house and ate a Swedish pork stew served over roasted yellow potatoes with homemade cucumbers on the side and apple raisin cake for dessert. Or I should say, Scott ate it. I had plain yellow mashed potatoes and grated fresh apple. Stomach was still a little tender at this point.
We drove out to the supermarket in town- the brand new one with shelves 8 feet high and 24 inches apart. The one with all the imported food from the US and Europe. The one with the Lays potato chips stacked next to the split pigs heads. The one with Honey Nut Cheerios and Lucky Charms and every flavor of Orbit gum ever dreamed up in the marketing and development department. Next to the jars of pickled onions, pickled cabbage, pickled carrots, pickled tomatoes, pickled pickles…We bought chocolate for the kids- Romanian chocolate, not American.
We drove up to Brandusa, the transit house for older teenagers and homeless families. The view of Marghita from there is beautiful. It used to be an apple orchard and is now called Apple Hill. The building is fairly new and is still being completed in some parts. Big sitting areas, large kitchen, boys hall, girls hall and family hall. The goal here is to allow people a place to stay while encouraging them to develop skills to be on their own. 
Alot of these areas are within walking distance of each other as the actual ground that Marghita covers is fairly small for the amount of people who live there- we were told around 20,000. We drove because my mom has very bad knees and getting around is very difficult for her, especially on broken sidewalks and cobblestone streets.
After we left Brandusa, we drove to another transit house called Poiana. This house has had only teenage boys in the past but two little girls from one of the orphanages that is closing, have just moved in. They are very sweet and the boys are very rowdy big brothers to them. A wonderful young couple are house parents for this house. They speak very good English, have only been married about 3 years and have an absolutely adorable 2 yr old by the name of Samuel. Rafa, the father, leads the worship service in the Club on Friday nights. He and his brother Kasmin, as well as the rest of their family, are strong Christians and very involved in multiple aspects of their community and FCE.
The house was immaculately neat, including the all five of the boys rooms, despite construction going on to remodel a significant part of the house. The boys that live here came out of one of the state run orphanages. Several of them look to be around 12 or 13 and are really 18 or 19. Several of them have developed very deep mentoring friendships with the teams that come and run the summer camps from Colorado and those friendships helped to shape and change their lives. For the first time, they not only had someone to love them but also to tell them how much Jesus loves them and the freedom that they can find in their relationship with their Heavenly Father.
One boy, Josef, has a dream to go and work in the old folks home. He loves old people and the old folks have it pretty tough. The home is not a nice place to live and the staff have a hard time lifting them from their chairs for various bodily needs that they may have. Sometimes they are just left in their chairs. He is the big guy in the picture on the left. As you can see, there is definitely a reason that he would be good there. He is 17.
On the road outside the Poiana house- gives new meaning to the term “free range”….
Back to Herculane for house meeting, worship time and sharing. We have been asked to share about the Ranch and what we do to the 20 or so volunteers and foster moms that participate in the meeting. The age range is 18-80. Multiple cultures and faiths represented. We led worship time and shared videos and stories from the Ranch. The interest in doing something similar here is high but horses are not ridden in Romania, they are only worked and used to drive carts. The questions flew fast and furious and several Swedish volunteers shared of similar interests and opportunities in their country. Then we just hung out with our new Scottish friend, 18 yr old Ali, and Jenny, a mid twenties Scottish gal, and Kasmin, her husband, also a mid twenties young man who happens to be Romanian and Rafa’s brother. They were married after Jenny had spent several years volunteering here.
The end of my first full day and much more to come…
