Cows, horses, chickens and castles...

Life in Romania can be interesting...and what's more interesting is how quickly things become "normal"...  We recently had a visitor with us from England - she'd never stayed with us before or been in Romania - so everything was "cute or interesting" and she really, really loved the cows wandering down the street and the chickens scratching under her window in the  mornings...all things that I take for granted now...so, since I probably have never shared what a "normal" day is around here...

Life here in the village can be really hard, the women especially, work really hard - they're always out tending their gardens, washing clothes by hand, walking for a kilometer or more to get water and then trying to keep a house clean that's nothing but dirt floors and mud walls - but they are always grateful for what they have, they smile a lot and sing (not that they don't cry or get mad - but even though their lives are "miserable" by our standards - they are just joyful)...so a normal day for a Romanian Roma (Gypsy) would be getting up before dawn, if they have a cow, she's the one who gets to milk it and then she sends it out the door to join the rest of the herd that the cowherd is gathering (more on this later) - then she'll get all the kids up (most families have between 6 and 16 children) - and then try to clean up the house - which is really difficult, especially if you have toddlers - Romanians, in general are quite house-proud - they want things to look nice and even go as far as sweeping their yards (which I don't do very often and is often a source of sorrow for my neighbours).  They'll feed the chickens and then they'll work for hours in their gardens - hoeing and weeding and getting rid of insects and snails...  But they also take time to sit outside their houses and eat with friends and neighbours, they sing, they dance, they play music and love their families... 

It's amazing to me how "relative" poverty is - because even these Roma are poor by our standards, they are still richer than their relatives in Checheci (the ghetto in Arad) - because in Checheci, there are no gardens, there are no chickens or cows for food and life is a struggle every day...  and when life is a struggle, one does whatever one can to get by - and in Checheci, that means sending your children out to beg...because "strain" (straeen (foreigners)) will look at the "poor, sad child" and give them money, whereas, they'll yell at the adult or ignore them or give them loads of grief...or scrounging for whatever you can find to sell (scrap metal, building supplies, watches, phones, whatever is sellable) - and this is a way of life - the truth is, that it's not pretty and it's not good - but it is what it is - and it's mostly because of the way the Roma are thought of (lower than dogs, animals with no soul, thieves, liars, baby-stealers...), which, if you think about it - was (and still is, in some cases) how people thought about Jews (how they justified the pogroms and the Holocaust) and the Native Americans - and how they justified wiping out entire cultures around the world...

Roma are different, they have a different value system than we do (most Roma won't break into your house to steal something from you, but if you leave it "unattended", that must mean that you didn't really care about it, so it's ok if I take it, if I have a use for it) and while they are fiercely loyal to their families and clans, don't often form attachments to anyone outside their clans - most Roma are related to one another in some ways and they are fiercely proud of their heritage... and they have their own justice system and way of doing things - which means they have little use for our laws...which, if you think about it - is a little like being a Christian - we're supposed to be "outside of the world" even though we live in it - so while we are supposed to give to Ceasar what is Ceasar's, everything else we do should be for Him - and sometimes that means living outside the box - which is what the Roma do :-)...albeit in a different form.

Hmmm...this has turned into a little bit of a rant...sorry about that...but hey - a blog is where you put what is on your heart for the world to read...so...

Anyway, back to the subject of "normal" - so normal for me, means waking up to chickens scratching under my window, no water, because they've decided to work on the mains for the 3rd day in a row...but they aren't actually doing anything :-), walking to work - skirting my way around the cow poo, because all the cows in the village (yes, they actually keep cows, chickens and pigs in their backyards - even though now, since we entered the EU, it's technically illegal) have been let out and have been taken up to the hills to graze (it's really fun to watch them walk home - because they all come down in a herd, and, as they get to their house, peel off and stop at their gate - I have no idea how they know, but they do - the cowherd doesn't do anything - they just peel off and stop - and if there's no one home - then they just graze outside their gate until someone comes home and lets them in)...and then I stop at the little grocery shop (called Dorin's) and I get some apa minerala carbogazoase (fizzy mineral water) and then I walk the rest of the way to work.  The walk takes me by people's gardens all full of cabbage (varza), peppers (ardei), corn (porumb), onions (ceapa), and a host of other vegetables (legume) - which, at this time of year, are all ready to be harvested - so there's lots of color everywhere.

A few weeks ago, the walk to work was filled with the aroma of rotting cabbage and manure - one of my neighbours had harvested her cabbage and left the remains in the garden and then went along behind and spread cow manure - lovely smell - cow manure is fine...but cow manure and rotting cabbage is enough to make me vomit :-)...  The good things about my walk - fresh air (most of the time) - beautiful views - you can see the hills and the castle the whole way - the women I meet along the way (sometimes, on the way home, I stop and sit and speak with them about life in general - they don't always understand me and I don't always understand them, but we do seem to get by), the girls in Dorin's shop - they're lovely girls - smiling all the time and pleasant - watching the seasons change and experiencing the way God works...

So, work for me consists of helping Lee in whatever capacity he needs, so sometimes that means research, or building webpages, or sending emails, or calling people, or accounts, or making coffee, or tracking visitors, making sure they get here safely, have all their paperwork in order and have a place to stay..., fielding people and making sure that Lee isn't interrupted if he doesn't need to be, interacting with people who come into the office - there are always people looking for "Andrash" (Andreas), because he runs community and is the final say when it comes to whether people get help or not...it might also mean helping out Andreas, or Kari, when they have stuff to do in community - truth is, my job here isn't very exciting - and not glamorous in any way shape or form - but it's all essential to the smooth running of an office - and it's something that a lot of people won't do, because everyone wants to do the "cool" jobs - running homework clubs, helping people, building stuff...  But God put me here and this is what He wants me to do right now...so I do it and gladly (plus, I'm kind of good at it...go figure).

Then after work...mostly I just go home, hang out with Karen and Liz and, lately, Sofia (she's staying with us for a while), read, watch a movie, cook food, eat...go to bed....  On Wednesday's we have Bible study and I sometimes lead those - which for me is always a challenge - since I really don't like to speak in front of groups - but God is good and will always give me a topic - the challenge for me is to let Him choose the topic - because when I try to lead them, they aren't nearly as good as when He leads them....  Saturdays are street church in Arad - where we meet up with the young men and women who live on the street and spend time with them and Sundays are church in Siria...

So, that's my life - cows in the street - horses and carts driving down the road, chickens, other people's gardens, sunflowers covering fields, castles in the distance - God all around, in the air I breathe...it's a lovely, life - even when there are days when it's really hard to get out of bed - when you can't really face another person who's life is much harder than your's and all you want to do is go home to someplace where you don't have to build another fire - chop your own wood, go without water or shower for days at a time or struggle to try to share a concept you have no language for... 

I just want to thank all of you who support me here and allow me to stay - you are all wonderful faithful people and I love you all...