In 2003-2004, my parents had come to a fork in the road of their lives and made the decision to take us to see and experience Romania for ourselves. We were home schooled anyway and my Dad was in between jobs, so they bought a small cabin in the mountains near the town where Dad’s sister lived (this was before they immigrated), and we packed everything up (including the dog) and made the big move.
While we lived there, my Mom kept a diary and sent it home to her parents. I’d like to share our experiences from that very important time of our life here. Due to the length of the diary, its going to come as a series, with new posts every weekend. You’ll probably figure this out, but some names you’ll come across are: Ruth (my Mom), Fedi (Dad), Rebekah (me), Anni (sister), Ryan and Steven (brothers), and Gino (our dalmatian).
If you missed the first post, click here to find it.
September 1, 2003
Well, we finally got some rain last night. I’m glad because everything was so dusty. It did mean, though, that Fedi very nearly got the little jeep thoroughly stuck in the mud. I’m glad he insisted on 4 wd. He must have had some angles pushing along with me because it looked hopeless.
This morning I woke up pretty grumpy. The inconveniences of no refrigerator, wash machine, or shelves or cupboards were getting to me. Fedi has to be gone all day again today. He was home only 1 day last week. They are necessary things that he has to take care of, like finding the little jeep for us. We bounce all over in it but it seems strong and dependable. So, I need to be thankful and patient.
It cheered me up when we went to get the milk. The Rancher’s wife was there. She had cooked us some delicious donuts yesterday and today she gave us 2 different kinds of cheese made from their fresh cows milk. My admiration for the Romanian women is huge. Her kitchen is a little lean-to, open on 2 sides with a wood stove.
Yesterday we returned Agi’s car to her. They live in a little village. She has 6 brothers and sisters. It seems to be a warm friendly family.
September 2, 2003
We both had frustrating days yesterday. Fedi, again only accomplished about 3 things on his list of about 8 or 9. Things are slow and definitely not customer oriented in Romania. We need to lower our expectations. It means he has to go back today again. I knew things would be much more inconvenient here as far as no dishwasher, dryer, now still no refrigerator, wash machine, or even shelves to put things on, but I thought Fedi would be around to help me. I’m trying to do school full-time now and finding it hard.
On the other hand, we went on a awesome hike yesterday evening. The view was terrific. Fedi showed the kids so many interesting things in the woods. We all loved it. I woke up this morning in a warm bed (still just mattresses on the floor), had a good coffee and fresh bread, how can I be so un-thankful to God? There is also a sense of rightness about where we are. It seems right to be here, is the best way I can say it.
Today Fedi is going to meet someone else at the pastor’s house to tell them about home-schooling. There is an interest in this among the Christians here, though it is now illegal. I don’t see how these hard-working Romanian women could find the time for this though. On Friday Fedi is going with the pastor to evangelize in a town. The Catholic priest there has refused to let the Jesus film to be shown there but Leventa thought they could go door to door with the sound track.
Well I need to go get our fresh milk now and I think the kids are waking up.
September 4, 2003
Well, we used a good chunk of the donation money on the Pastor’s utility bills. He was $710 behind. It sounds irresponsible until you find out his income is $100 a month and he has 5 kids. We sent them money a year or so ago and he used it to start a funnel cake business with his wife. The agreement was that if the business does well, they will pay the church’s utility bills. Well, the next month they were handed the bill and apparently the business has not done well. They also charge a high interest on overdue utility bills so it gets almost impossible to catch up.
Fedi is in his element here. He helped some people with logging on one of our walks. There poor little horse worked so hard to haul huge logs up. Fedi was able to tell the cow rancher’s son about Christianity. With no TV he has Bible studies with the kids in the evenings.
These are a couple of horses that pull the logging wagons. They were coming right through our front yard.
Next week we will work on the waterpower. It has taken a lot of time to have oak timber cut to make a dam and to price and have material cut to make a secure shed for the generator, inverter, and batteries. We are going as cheap as we can. There are also 2 guys that Leventa said, need work next week. So we will let them stay in our livingroom and see if we can keep them busy.
Speaking of busy, I need to get the winter things out. There was frost on the grass this morning and it hasn’t warmed up much.
September 8, 2003
On Saturday, Leventa and his wife Edith came to spend the day with us. Their car broke down a short distance from the house and they walked the rest of the way. After lunch Fedi and Laventa went to look at the car and Edith and I looked at each other. I knew she was panicky about her husband leaving her alone with me since communication was a problem. Well we took a walk and then fried up some meat our neighbor brought us and actually got along pretty well with the language. It was not a bad 4 hours.
Sunday was nice. We went to morning service at the Baptist camp. This is a beautiful building with sleeping quarters and about 4 buildings in all. Obviously, American dollars at work. After the service we went to Arpi and Maria’s house for lunch in Fedi’s hometown. He had been avoiding going there and was dreading it. I didn’t know why until he finally admitted that he was ashamed of the jeep we bought. Different mentality than I’m used to but I don’t want to be critical. Anyway, he didn’t see anyone he knew except for the Pastor (Arpi) and his wife.
I listened closely to 5 hours of Hungarian conversation and picked up a few words. This couple had been very nice to Jozsef and Sandor so they talked a lot about them. Their daughter Annika was going away to boarding school and was crying. Boarding school is common here for the higher grades because transportation is a problem. It’s rough on the kids.
Today the 2 men are supposed to come. I am trying to work out at least a ½ day of school and also prepare for them. Rebekah has done very well since we started school. She just plugs away to get it all done.
The sunset coming home was beautiful yesterday. The scenery and timeless atmosphere make this place amazing. The people log with horse and wagon as they have for 100s of years. They make bread, garden, milk cows, and live like they always have. The improvements the rest of the world takes for granted are to expensive for most of the people.
Fedi and I at $600 a month have 3x as much money as most people here but I don’t have the skills to cook like they do and I’m not willing to let my kids suffer nutritionally or be subject to their health care system. And washing clothes by hand is the pits!
Well anyway the logs were delivered yesterday to make the dam, pipes, and the frame for the hydro unit shed the day before so this week should show good progress.
It’s been hard to keep in touch with people from the states. We still haven’t gotten to an internet for e-mail. Fedi has been too busy and when he is gone I have no car or if I go with him we have all the kids and it seems hard to get on the internet with 4 kids to watch.
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