Romania 2001

Fun and games

4 June 2001 09:16

In answer to questions, I'm learning Romanian too slowly to follow the streetkids when they ask for cuzzie Nigel's animal balloons, but I'm slowly getting somewhere with it. I finished the first bag of balloons today. THANKS, NIGEL. At the same time, my English seems to be suffering - eg, to a Romanian who speaks English quite well I said "You want I come?"

I think one of the reasons that God wants me here is to keep Cerbu (one of my hosts, pronounced Chehrrrboo, which means little deer - his real name is Alin, pronounced ahLEEN) from killing himself or others. I got home for the streetkid day centre today to find an electrical socket with the cover off. I immediately got my multimeter ("Why on earth are you taking that to Romania, Ian?") and found out that sure enough, 230V. LIVE. The lightswitch to the toilet is just centimetres away. Someone groping for the switch in the middle of the night... Lights out, permanently. I mean, you could even stick your tongue in there.

And in the subject of tongues, Cerbu bought a scented candle on his and Nadine's recent trip to Hungary. (Nadine is Cerbu's NZ born wife.) We (5 of us) were sniffing it at the dinner table tonight. It was lit. When it got to my turn, it didn't smell of anything much so I sniffed harder. The flame went straight for my left nostril. Ow.

It looks like I'll be in Timisoara for more than the initial two weeks - there are a lot of planned building projects that will all take a fair amount of time.

The streetkids love attention. At the picnic in the Green Forest I think I mentioned last Friday I introduced one to the joys of being whirled around by his arms, an arm and a leg, or both his legs. He was face up for that last one, panicked, and twisted around and started to claw the ground. Oops. He still loves the other arrangements. [Safety note: Don't spin kids around by their legs. The blood rushes to their heads. Not good.]

I also taught someone to play Heart and Soul on the piano at a youth group at a village just out of town on Saturday afternoon.

God bless

Ian
8 )

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