(I'm ashamed that it's 9 months later and I'm still finishing these)
As a special treat for us on our last full day in Romania, Jim announced a "special breakfast edition of hot seat". This was mostly so we could get through everyone before we headed home, but it was fun. Following breakfast, those who still needed to do some shopping (mostly for gifts for sponsors) went to take care of that while the rest of us helped clean up the team house. Most of our cleaning was organizing the things we were leaving for the kids.
When the others came back, we began our debriefing process. It wasn't until I got home that I truly appreciated that this was a part of our trip. I really went through a major culture shock when I got home, which I wouldn't have expected if Jim hadn't told us about it.
Jim had us all go around and say our highs and lows of the trip, and three words we would use to describe our trip. For me they were as follows:
Lows: thinking about the babies at the baby hospital during the thunderstorm, and having to leave the kids
Highs: worship at Alfa & Omega, and Marius' huge smile at Voluntar on Children's Day
3 Words: love, sovereignty, and fellowship
We paused our debriefing here for lunch, and our final visit to Peris. I spent my time there chasing Alina around the play yard, giving her and Ana piggyback rides, and laughing at some of the older boys giving Brinn a hard time about Volle. Goodbyes were hard, especially when some of the younger ones got emotional, but the H2H staff eventually ushered us back to the vans and got us back to Pipera.
We were given Schwarmas for dinner, and then ushered off to finish our debriefing by writing our story in one page, and then in one paragraph. We finished off the night with the final edition of hot seat.
Showing posts with label orphanage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label orphanage. Show all posts
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Saturday, August 22, 2009
6-2 Trip to Rossiori
Tuesday was a very early morning for us. I believe we were on the road by 6:30. I spent a bit of the time sleeping, but was awake to see a couple storks' nests as we drove past and the city of Alexandria as we drove through. The big exciting thing on our drive was passing through a gypsy village. Oh my was that interesting. Everything was very extravagant looking, big ornate houses. Jenny told us though that those are all fronts, the real house are quite small and behind them.
Our home base for the day was at a local church in Rossiori. We set up and put on a concert and carnival just like at Peris, except that these kids were crazy. It was kind of scary doing the cake walk with them because they were doing so much running and shoving.
We recovered over some lunch and then had free time. I did a bit of shopping, tried authentic Romanian sausage (called "meech") and bought a scarf.
We put on one more concert for a second group of kids and another carnival. These kids were much less hyper than the first ones, thankfully. One little girl was very cute, when given her candy she exclaimed in Romanian "I've won something!"
After carnival we packed up, got sack dinners to go, and made the drive back to Pipera. We could tell on our way home that a storm was blowing in and just as our van got back to the team house, rain drops started falling. These were HUGE raindrops. I made a ran for the porch, and no sooner had I made it up the steps then it started pouring buckets. This was absolutely the biggest thunderstorm I have ever seen.
Some of the others were not quite so lucky and were drenched by the time they made it inside. Gusting wind, pouring rain, and booming thunder...definitely a good night to be inside. There was pizza waiting for us for a little extra dinner, now that's a good pizza delivery service!
Tues night was when I hit my low of the trip. I was sitting on one of the couches pondering the week and the storm, and then it hit me. I thought of the babies at the baby hospital, lying in their little cribs, alone, in the dark, in the middle of this storm. Babies who don't have parents to rush in and comfort them if they're scared and crying.
It only occurs to me now, several months later, that this could be an analogy for unreached people: alone, in the dark, in the midst of storms, with no one to shed light into their world. How important missions are for all the lost and lonely people in this world!
After pizza consumption we had night light and hot seat. Hot seat quote, Ryan to Katie D. (who are dating) as he picks up paper and pen "Describe your perfect date..."
Our home base for the day was at a local church in Rossiori. We set up and put on a concert and carnival just like at Peris, except that these kids were crazy. It was kind of scary doing the cake walk with them because they were doing so much running and shoving.
We recovered over some lunch and then had free time. I did a bit of shopping, tried authentic Romanian sausage (called "meech") and bought a scarf.
We put on one more concert for a second group of kids and another carnival. These kids were much less hyper than the first ones, thankfully. One little girl was very cute, when given her candy she exclaimed in Romanian "I've won something!"
After carnival we packed up, got sack dinners to go, and made the drive back to Pipera. We could tell on our way home that a storm was blowing in and just as our van got back to the team house, rain drops started falling. These were HUGE raindrops. I made a ran for the porch, and no sooner had I made it up the steps then it started pouring buckets. This was absolutely the biggest thunderstorm I have ever seen.
Some of the others were not quite so lucky and were drenched by the time they made it inside. Gusting wind, pouring rain, and booming thunder...definitely a good night to be inside. There was pizza waiting for us for a little extra dinner, now that's a good pizza delivery service!
Tues night was when I hit my low of the trip. I was sitting on one of the couches pondering the week and the storm, and then it hit me. I thought of the babies at the baby hospital, lying in their little cribs, alone, in the dark, in the middle of this storm. Babies who don't have parents to rush in and comfort them if they're scared and crying.
It only occurs to me now, several months later, that this could be an analogy for unreached people: alone, in the dark, in the midst of storms, with no one to shed light into their world. How important missions are for all the lost and lonely people in this world!
After pizza consumption we had night light and hot seat. Hot seat quote, Ryan to Katie D. (who are dating) as he picks up paper and pen "Describe your perfect date..."
6-1 Children's Day
(ee gads I need to finish my Romania journaling)
June 1st is Children's Day in Romania. It was established during Communism, which didn't make sense to me at first, why a communist dictator would care about children. But, if you think about it, children are a very important resource, and are easily brain washed, so it's prudent for a dictator to try to win them over.
Anyway, Children's Day still exists as a national holiday. Many museums offer free admission for children and there are all sorts of parties and carnivals for the kids.
Due to the late night we had had Sunday in combination with thelong day we were about to have, breakfast was made optional so people could sleep in a bit. I, however, never skip breakfast if I can help it. I ate rather quickly and then went with a few others to the Mega Image grocery store. I bought some more chocolate for gifts and some other Romanian snacks I had become fond of.
Back at the house we had worship and devotional time led by Matt and Amy Beth. Then the day got interesting.
The original plan had been: eat lunch, then go do a concert and carnival at Peris. However, after lunch we were informed that the orphanage directors had taken all of the "good kids" to an event at a different orphanage being put on by the Chinese ambassador. Instead, we went to where most of the kids were (an orphanage called Voluntar) and put on a concert there.
Favorite moment #1 of the day was as I was putting together my clarinet. I felt a little tap on my arm and turned to see Marius with the biggest grin on his face. I successfully said hi in Romanian as he gave me a big hug and asked him "che fach?" (how's it going?) his smile widened as he exclaimed "bine!" (good!) and ran off to greet other Winds members.
The concert was one of the most disorganized ones I have ever done, but considering it had been planned an hour before we put it on, not bad. After being thanked by the Chinese ambassador and the orphanage director, we loaded the vans and went to Peris where we did the same concert, but for ALL the kids.
Then, chaos ensued, carnival time. It was amazing how much we had been able to pull together. We had popcorn, face painting, hair wraps, magic show, limbo, ring toss, balloon animals, crafts, games, the fishing game, and a cake walk. Katie D. and I ran the cake walk. I took care of controlling the music and she did the number picking and candy giving.
After a few rounds we figured out we could just pick the number by looking at which kids had not had candy yet. I think only a few of them figured out we were rigging it, lol
Favorite moment #2 for the day was when Katie picked the number for an older boy and as she leaned down to get candy, he grabbed the little girl behind him and pushed her into his spot so she would get the candy instead.
We began the clean up when the kids were summoned for dinner and returned to Pipera for our own dinner. Night light was filled with excited chatter about our favorite kid moments of the day and instead of hot seat we had a special guest interview afterward.
Kostel is Jim's Romanian counterpart. He shared about his personal experience in the Revolution and about the effect of H2H's ministry in Romania. Kostel is extremely passionate about ministry and God, and also a very funny man. Favorite Kostel quote: talking about Jim always wanting to expand ministry "Jim like sin, bigger and bigger, but I like it." lol
June 1st is Children's Day in Romania. It was established during Communism, which didn't make sense to me at first, why a communist dictator would care about children. But, if you think about it, children are a very important resource, and are easily brain washed, so it's prudent for a dictator to try to win them over.
Anyway, Children's Day still exists as a national holiday. Many museums offer free admission for children and there are all sorts of parties and carnivals for the kids.
Due to the late night we had had Sunday in combination with thelong day we were about to have, breakfast was made optional so people could sleep in a bit. I, however, never skip breakfast if I can help it. I ate rather quickly and then went with a few others to the Mega Image grocery store. I bought some more chocolate for gifts and some other Romanian snacks I had become fond of.
Back at the house we had worship and devotional time led by Matt and Amy Beth. Then the day got interesting.
The original plan had been: eat lunch, then go do a concert and carnival at Peris. However, after lunch we were informed that the orphanage directors had taken all of the "good kids" to an event at a different orphanage being put on by the Chinese ambassador. Instead, we went to where most of the kids were (an orphanage called Voluntar) and put on a concert there.
Favorite moment #1 of the day was as I was putting together my clarinet. I felt a little tap on my arm and turned to see Marius with the biggest grin on his face. I successfully said hi in Romanian as he gave me a big hug and asked him "che fach?" (how's it going?) his smile widened as he exclaimed "bine!" (good!) and ran off to greet other Winds members.
The concert was one of the most disorganized ones I have ever done, but considering it had been planned an hour before we put it on, not bad. After being thanked by the Chinese ambassador and the orphanage director, we loaded the vans and went to Peris where we did the same concert, but for ALL the kids.
Then, chaos ensued, carnival time. It was amazing how much we had been able to pull together. We had popcorn, face painting, hair wraps, magic show, limbo, ring toss, balloon animals, crafts, games, the fishing game, and a cake walk. Katie D. and I ran the cake walk. I took care of controlling the music and she did the number picking and candy giving.
After a few rounds we figured out we could just pick the number by looking at which kids had not had candy yet. I think only a few of them figured out we were rigging it, lol
Favorite moment #2 for the day was when Katie picked the number for an older boy and as she leaned down to get candy, he grabbed the little girl behind him and pushed her into his spot so she would get the candy instead.
We began the clean up when the kids were summoned for dinner and returned to Pipera for our own dinner. Night light was filled with excited chatter about our favorite kid moments of the day and instead of hot seat we had a special guest interview afterward.
Kostel is Jim's Romanian counterpart. He shared about his personal experience in the Revolution and about the effect of H2H's ministry in Romania. Kostel is extremely passionate about ministry and God, and also a very funny man. Favorite Kostel quote: talking about Jim always wanting to expand ministry "Jim like sin, bigger and bigger, but I like it." lol
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
5-29 Oldtown Bucharest and More Lessons at Peris
Morning devotionals Friday were appropriate for the work we were doing (not that there wouldn't be a devotional that was appropriate) "Found, Called, Adopted" Important thing to remember when working with orphans, we're all adopted. Jim mentioned that some of the older orphans have expressed a deeper understanding of faith because they can more easily make the connection of being adopted than we can.
Explorations of Bucharest continued with the oldest standing section of the city. We saw St. Anthony's church, the oldest church in Bucharest. The architecture in Romania is incredible. It's quite unlike anything I'm accustomed to; "beautifully unique is how I've been describing it. There are intricate paintings that cover the ceiling depicting Bible stories and beautiful stained glass windows. Something cool about all Eastern Orthodox churches is that they have 3 domes on top to represent the Trinity.
We walked through a town square where there was a statue of Dracula, after all, Transylvania is a region of Romania ;)
Around the square were a number of shops, which meant some souvenir shopping time. I bought three beautiful painted eggs and some postcards from one and then went to the glass shop up the street. Romania is known for their glass, crystal, and porcelain. I would have loved to buy some crystal, but even with the exchange rate in my favor, it was too expensive. I did buy a small braided porcelain bowl. It has small pink flowers painted on it and says "Made in Romania" on the bottom.
Lessons at Peris were made interesting thanks to a sudden rain shower that sprang up as we arrived. Most of us and most of the kids were mostly wet, lol. That didn't matter too much though, plus, it was an exciting day. The queen woke up. That was really exciting, seeing how happy the kids were. We played some humns for them, taught them how to play "Hot Cross Buns" on mini recorders, and gave them paper crowns to decorate.
Play time Friday was slightly gross thanks to a lot of wet dog poop on the play area. Pretty sure everybody changed clothes as soon as we got back to the Team House
Dinner was a cheerful affair, thanks to the return of the brass from Rossiori. We had a much more lively night light, hearing about some of what the brass had been up to, and then moved quickly on to hot seat.
Two favorite hot seat moments of the night:
*Abe's Turn*
Matt Fell "If had to marry someone in this room, who would it be?"
Abe "Erin or Andrea"
*Andrea's turn*
Matt Fell "Would you marry Abe?"
Abe "Hey! You have to at least let me ask myself!"
Matt "So ask her"
Abe "Andrea, will you marry me?"
Andrea "yes Abe, I'll marry you."
And
Stephen "I can be decisive, sometimes."
Goodness I love band people :)
Explorations of Bucharest continued with the oldest standing section of the city. We saw St. Anthony's church, the oldest church in Bucharest. The architecture in Romania is incredible. It's quite unlike anything I'm accustomed to; "beautifully unique is how I've been describing it. There are intricate paintings that cover the ceiling depicting Bible stories and beautiful stained glass windows. Something cool about all Eastern Orthodox churches is that they have 3 domes on top to represent the Trinity.
We walked through a town square where there was a statue of Dracula, after all, Transylvania is a region of Romania ;)
Around the square were a number of shops, which meant some souvenir shopping time. I bought three beautiful painted eggs and some postcards from one and then went to the glass shop up the street. Romania is known for their glass, crystal, and porcelain. I would have loved to buy some crystal, but even with the exchange rate in my favor, it was too expensive. I did buy a small braided porcelain bowl. It has small pink flowers painted on it and says "Made in Romania" on the bottom.
Lessons at Peris were made interesting thanks to a sudden rain shower that sprang up as we arrived. Most of us and most of the kids were mostly wet, lol. That didn't matter too much though, plus, it was an exciting day. The queen woke up. That was really exciting, seeing how happy the kids were. We played some humns for them, taught them how to play "Hot Cross Buns" on mini recorders, and gave them paper crowns to decorate.
Play time Friday was slightly gross thanks to a lot of wet dog poop on the play area. Pretty sure everybody changed clothes as soon as we got back to the Team House
Dinner was a cheerful affair, thanks to the return of the brass from Rossiori. We had a much more lively night light, hearing about some of what the brass had been up to, and then moved quickly on to hot seat.
Two favorite hot seat moments of the night:
*Abe's Turn*
Matt Fell "If had to marry someone in this room, who would it be?"
Abe "Erin or Andrea"
*Andrea's turn*
Matt Fell "Would you marry Abe?"
Abe "Hey! You have to at least let me ask myself!"
Matt "So ask her"
Abe "Andrea, will you marry me?"
Andrea "yes Abe, I'll marry you."
And
Stephen "I can be decisive, sometimes."
Goodness I love band people :)
Friday, June 26, 2009
5-28 Open Air Market and Lessons at Peris
Morning devotionals on Thursday were out of another Max Lucado book (they are big fans of Max Lucado, I think I should get some of his books, I've never read very much of his stuff) "Grace for a Moment". It described all the things hands do, and how everything your hands do should be ministry.
Cultural experience for the day would be the largest open air market in Bucharest (possibly in all Romania, I don't remember). We were informed that this would be the most likely day we would get pickpocketed, were that to happenon the trip. Thankfully it did not. Since a group of 15 Americans would draw too much attention, and we would inevitably get separated anyway, we divided into smaller groups. I was with Amanda, Andrea, and Sanda (our translator and guide).
The market reminded me a lot of the ones I've been to in Mexico. Jim mentioned later that most open air markets are the same no matter what part of the world you're in. A difference I noticed between the Romanian one and Mexican ones really surprised me though. The Romanians don't barter over prices. I tried on a lot of cute skirts, but didn't buy any because most were way too small for me. It didn't matter much that there wasn't price negotiating because everything was so cheap. I bought 2 mugs and a wooden spoon for 10 lei (about $3.50 American).
After lunch at the team house, it was back to Peris for more lessons. The classrooms are a surprising contrast to the rest of the orphanage. The orphanages receive funding from two departments: child protective services, and the department of education. The department of education does a lot more for the children than the child protective services do. The classroom was small, but clean with desks and a chalkboard and several computers.
We taught the same lesson to two classes: 1st and 2nd grade and 5th and 6th grade. There's a pretty wide age range in the classes though. For our lesson we introduced the children to the clarinet and taught them about musical tempos. Katie Feher made up this amazingly cute story to teach the lesson through, kind of like Peter and the Wolf. It was about a little girl who met a bird (flute) a cat (clarinet) and a bear (saxophone) while walking through the forest. The animals taught her about music, and through what she learned she was able to wake up the queen who had been put under a sleeping enchantment.
I got to be the queen, though I didn't do much, because the little girl didn't yet know enough music to wake her. The kids gave lots of suggestions to try to wake me. The cutest one was to ask nicely, and the little boy came up and asked me very nicely (in Romanian) to wake up. The funniest came from a 12 year old boy named Aline. Aline and his twin Florine are two of the more difficult children at the orphanage, they get themselves into a lot of trouble.
The previous day, when the queen didn't wake up, Aline suggested that they kiss the queen. Fairly standard method of waking sleeping royalty. Well, Katie asks "are you volunteering?" Wrong child to make that suggestion to. Aline got up, walked over, and gave Rachel (the queen on Wed) a very long kiss on the cheek. This story at Night Light Wed night prompted Jim to make the new rule: No making out with orphans.
In any case, since we were a different group of ladies on Thurs, Aline thought he should make that suggestion again. "Perhaps we should kiss the queen" As soon as Sanda translated that I began panicking, oh snap, I'm about to get kissed by a 12 year old Romanian orphan. Luckily Amanda was looking out for me and quickly said "oh, but you tried that yesterday and it didn't work, remember?" Thank goodness for friends! haha
We played several clarinet quartets for them, which they loved and kept asking for more. Florine even told us that he wanted us to play forever so they could fall asleep to music. Then we handed out tambourines we had made from paper plates and popcorn for them to decorate and play with.
After lessons we had more playtime outside with the kids. This was the day I met little Ana. Adorable little 6 year old who's favorite thing is piggy back rides. She doesn't do much talking, the staff said she gets some amount of speech therapy and they think she has some developmental issues. A very sweet little girl though. I also got my hair done by Alina and by Flori (Ana's older sister) and played a very vigorous game of tag with a blonde boy of about 12 (I think) named Alexandre.
When it came time to leave we had a bit of excitement. As we got back to the vans we noticed there was someone in the driver's seat of one: oh, it's Aline, surprise surprise. We all start yelling and running to get him out, and as Amanda and I pull open the side door, he manages to unset the parking break and put the van in neutral. Great. The van starts rolling down the hill towards the lake.
Luckily Stephen had already been in the van and was able to save the day. He pulled Aline out of the driver's seat, jumped into it himself. His eyes near about popped out of his head when he put his foot on what he thougt was the break and the van didn't stop. It was the clutch, he tried again, and this time succeeded in stopping the van. Whew!
This was actually the second time that Aline nearly sent the van into the lake. Several years ago he managed to get it rolling, but with no Stephen there to save the day, the only thing that saved the van from the lake was the tree it ran into.
Anyway, we certainly had a lot to talk about at dinner and Night Light. Ho Seat was fantastically amusing thanks to Elayne. Pretty much everything she says is hysterical, but the winning quote of the night was "I dig guys who don't have all their teeth."
Classic
A random note I included was that our "This is the day the Lord has made" devotional in the morning, really helped me think about my issues with change. *This* is the day the Lord has made. Not just yesterday, or 3 months ago, today, no matter what today holds, I will rejoice and be glad in it.
The trip itself really helped me transition from Biola into the next thing. I had great fellowship with everyone, but it really helped me see that God still does great things and brings great people into my life regardless of where I am.
Cultural experience for the day would be the largest open air market in Bucharest (possibly in all Romania, I don't remember). We were informed that this would be the most likely day we would get pickpocketed, were that to happenon the trip. Thankfully it did not. Since a group of 15 Americans would draw too much attention, and we would inevitably get separated anyway, we divided into smaller groups. I was with Amanda, Andrea, and Sanda (our translator and guide).
The market reminded me a lot of the ones I've been to in Mexico. Jim mentioned later that most open air markets are the same no matter what part of the world you're in. A difference I noticed between the Romanian one and Mexican ones really surprised me though. The Romanians don't barter over prices. I tried on a lot of cute skirts, but didn't buy any because most were way too small for me. It didn't matter much that there wasn't price negotiating because everything was so cheap. I bought 2 mugs and a wooden spoon for 10 lei (about $3.50 American).
After lunch at the team house, it was back to Peris for more lessons. The classrooms are a surprising contrast to the rest of the orphanage. The orphanages receive funding from two departments: child protective services, and the department of education. The department of education does a lot more for the children than the child protective services do. The classroom was small, but clean with desks and a chalkboard and several computers.
We taught the same lesson to two classes: 1st and 2nd grade and 5th and 6th grade. There's a pretty wide age range in the classes though. For our lesson we introduced the children to the clarinet and taught them about musical tempos. Katie Feher made up this amazingly cute story to teach the lesson through, kind of like Peter and the Wolf. It was about a little girl who met a bird (flute) a cat (clarinet) and a bear (saxophone) while walking through the forest. The animals taught her about music, and through what she learned she was able to wake up the queen who had been put under a sleeping enchantment.
I got to be the queen, though I didn't do much, because the little girl didn't yet know enough music to wake her. The kids gave lots of suggestions to try to wake me. The cutest one was to ask nicely, and the little boy came up and asked me very nicely (in Romanian) to wake up. The funniest came from a 12 year old boy named Aline. Aline and his twin Florine are two of the more difficult children at the orphanage, they get themselves into a lot of trouble.
The previous day, when the queen didn't wake up, Aline suggested that they kiss the queen. Fairly standard method of waking sleeping royalty. Well, Katie asks "are you volunteering?" Wrong child to make that suggestion to. Aline got up, walked over, and gave Rachel (the queen on Wed) a very long kiss on the cheek. This story at Night Light Wed night prompted Jim to make the new rule: No making out with orphans.
In any case, since we were a different group of ladies on Thurs, Aline thought he should make that suggestion again. "Perhaps we should kiss the queen" As soon as Sanda translated that I began panicking, oh snap, I'm about to get kissed by a 12 year old Romanian orphan. Luckily Amanda was looking out for me and quickly said "oh, but you tried that yesterday and it didn't work, remember?" Thank goodness for friends! haha
We played several clarinet quartets for them, which they loved and kept asking for more. Florine even told us that he wanted us to play forever so they could fall asleep to music. Then we handed out tambourines we had made from paper plates and popcorn for them to decorate and play with.
After lessons we had more playtime outside with the kids. This was the day I met little Ana. Adorable little 6 year old who's favorite thing is piggy back rides. She doesn't do much talking, the staff said she gets some amount of speech therapy and they think she has some developmental issues. A very sweet little girl though. I also got my hair done by Alina and by Flori (Ana's older sister) and played a very vigorous game of tag with a blonde boy of about 12 (I think) named Alexandre.
When it came time to leave we had a bit of excitement. As we got back to the vans we noticed there was someone in the driver's seat of one: oh, it's Aline, surprise surprise. We all start yelling and running to get him out, and as Amanda and I pull open the side door, he manages to unset the parking break and put the van in neutral. Great. The van starts rolling down the hill towards the lake.
Luckily Stephen had already been in the van and was able to save the day. He pulled Aline out of the driver's seat, jumped into it himself. His eyes near about popped out of his head when he put his foot on what he thougt was the break and the van didn't stop. It was the clutch, he tried again, and this time succeeded in stopping the van. Whew!
This was actually the second time that Aline nearly sent the van into the lake. Several years ago he managed to get it rolling, but with no Stephen there to save the day, the only thing that saved the van from the lake was the tree it ran into.
Anyway, we certainly had a lot to talk about at dinner and Night Light. Ho Seat was fantastically amusing thanks to Elayne. Pretty much everything she says is hysterical, but the winning quote of the night was "I dig guys who don't have all their teeth."
Classic
A random note I included was that our "This is the day the Lord has made" devotional in the morning, really helped me think about my issues with change. *This* is the day the Lord has made. Not just yesterday, or 3 months ago, today, no matter what today holds, I will rejoice and be glad in it.
The trip itself really helped me transition from Biola into the next thing. I had great fellowship with everyone, but it really helped me see that God still does great things and brings great people into my life regardless of where I am.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
5-26 Orientation and First Visit to Peris
Once it was *actually* time to get up, we had a breakfast. I discovered a new favorite breakfast delight: Finetti. It's a lot like Nutella, and tastes fabulous on croissants. After breakfast we gathered and had orientation. They purposefully wait to give us all this information until we aren't completely zoned out from jetlag. To start out Jim (or "boss Jim" as we began calling him) led us in a fun and educational Romanian culture quiz game. I did fairly well thanks to some lucky guessing and some general travel knowledge.
A couple interesting Romanian culture facts:
Currents-This is the Romanian term for drafts or breezes and they are supersticious about them. In Romanian culture currents are very bad, they cause bad things and can make you deathly sick. You never have a door and a window open at the same time and in the car, you do not have more than one window open at once, if that. Most places do not have air conditioning, so you can imagine how hot it gets during the summer if you believe currents are evil.
Flowers-Romanians love flowers. There is a specific type and number of flowers for any occasion. General rule, odd numbers of flowers are for happy occasions and even numbers are for sad occasions. Also, when presenting someone with flowers, you hand them to them upside down. That way, when they turn them right side up, they catch the luck from the flowers. To hand someone flowers right side up means you're stealing their luck, which would be a terribly rude thing to do!
After our quiz game, Jen (who is absolutely amazing) talked to us about ministry specifics. She used props to show the tools necessary for successful ministry. Curiosity, forgiveness, patience, proactivity, friendship, and flexibility. Jen told us to think about what we needed to happen in order to count our trip as a success and reminded us that all we are asked to do is love God and love others.
After orientation we had lunch together and then the brass loaded up and left for Rosiori (a town about 3 hours southwest of Bucharest, pronounced "Ro-she-or"). They stayed at the boys' transition house and worked with two different groups of kids down there.
Meanwhile, us woodwinds loaded up and made our first trip to the Peris (pronounced "Pair-eesh") orphanage. Peris is a stark contrast from Bucharest. It is a small farming community with little houses and large fields. One day on our way back from the orphanage we had to stop to let a shepherd and a flock of sheep pass.
Kirsteen, one of the H2H staff members, has been teaching the children some basic music lessons. Our first day they performed some clapping rhythm songs for us. The rest of the time was spent playing with and getting to know the kids. I got to observe a cooking class that another staff member Sanda has been doing with some of the older girls. They made a lemon zest cake. Some of the girls speak Spanish, which they have learned from watching Spanish soap operas, so I was able to communicate a bit.
Oral communication, however, is not needed with these children. They are very good at using gestures, but most of the time they just grab you and drag you wherever they want. If they really want to tell you something, they take you to a translator. Once the children had worn us out entirely, we made the 45 minute drive back to the team house for dinner.
An H2H practice in the evenings is "Night Light". We sit down with Jim and talk about how our days went: things we liked, things we didn't understand, struggles during the day, etc. Then comes Hot Seat. Each person has 2 minutes to talk about themselves, and then everyone else can ask questions, any question they feel like. Suffice it to say, this got very fun by the end of the trip.
A couple interesting Romanian culture facts:
Currents-This is the Romanian term for drafts or breezes and they are supersticious about them. In Romanian culture currents are very bad, they cause bad things and can make you deathly sick. You never have a door and a window open at the same time and in the car, you do not have more than one window open at once, if that. Most places do not have air conditioning, so you can imagine how hot it gets during the summer if you believe currents are evil.
Flowers-Romanians love flowers. There is a specific type and number of flowers for any occasion. General rule, odd numbers of flowers are for happy occasions and even numbers are for sad occasions. Also, when presenting someone with flowers, you hand them to them upside down. That way, when they turn them right side up, they catch the luck from the flowers. To hand someone flowers right side up means you're stealing their luck, which would be a terribly rude thing to do!
After our quiz game, Jen (who is absolutely amazing) talked to us about ministry specifics. She used props to show the tools necessary for successful ministry. Curiosity, forgiveness, patience, proactivity, friendship, and flexibility. Jen told us to think about what we needed to happen in order to count our trip as a success and reminded us that all we are asked to do is love God and love others.
After orientation we had lunch together and then the brass loaded up and left for Rosiori (a town about 3 hours southwest of Bucharest, pronounced "Ro-she-or"). They stayed at the boys' transition house and worked with two different groups of kids down there.
Meanwhile, us woodwinds loaded up and made our first trip to the Peris (pronounced "Pair-eesh") orphanage. Peris is a stark contrast from Bucharest. It is a small farming community with little houses and large fields. One day on our way back from the orphanage we had to stop to let a shepherd and a flock of sheep pass.
Kirsteen, one of the H2H staff members, has been teaching the children some basic music lessons. Our first day they performed some clapping rhythm songs for us. The rest of the time was spent playing with and getting to know the kids. I got to observe a cooking class that another staff member Sanda has been doing with some of the older girls. They made a lemon zest cake. Some of the girls speak Spanish, which they have learned from watching Spanish soap operas, so I was able to communicate a bit.
Oral communication, however, is not needed with these children. They are very good at using gestures, but most of the time they just grab you and drag you wherever they want. If they really want to tell you something, they take you to a translator. Once the children had worn us out entirely, we made the 45 minute drive back to the team house for dinner.
An H2H practice in the evenings is "Night Light". We sit down with Jim and talk about how our days went: things we liked, things we didn't understand, struggles during the day, etc. Then comes Hot Seat. Each person has 2 minutes to talk about themselves, and then everyone else can ask questions, any question they feel like. Suffice it to say, this got very fun by the end of the trip.
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