Romania 2002

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Newsletter 2

Tuesday 17 December 2002

Apologies to those people who I didn't have time to tell of this trip before I left New Zealand. It was all a bit rushed, and put together in a very short time, but when God makes such an opportunity possible in such an amazing way, I wasn't about to argue.

Last week was the streetkids winter camp. 9 boys, 3 girls, and lots of adults, including a bunch of Australians. We were late getting away on Monday, thanks partly to the brakes on one of the three vans locking up. It took a while to get them unstuck. Just one hour into our travels, after we had gone just 45km we had our next little set back. I was driving one of the vans (which was quite fun since they drive on the wrong side of the road here) but when I was overtaking a truck I managed (I think) to change down from 5th to 2nd gear. This was really bad for the diesel engine, and I gave up on the overtaking manoeuver pretty quickly. We coasted to a stop on the side of the road. The diagnosis was that by over-revving the engine I managed to blow three rods out the side of the engine - as evidenced by three new holes in the engine block leaking oil.

So the engine was dead.

We piled everyone and everything into just two vans and continued our merry way for several more hours, arriving nicely in time for dinner.

Update 30 January 2003:

In an email from Romania:

The mechanic finally got around to looking at the white van and he and I were both surprised! Tavi (the mechanic) said that he was expecting to find an oil pan full of bits and pieces! What we found was a very clean engine! What had happened was that the timing belt broke causing the camshaft to seize causing 3 lifters to break and go through the side of the block. The rest of the engine was perfect! He replaced the camshaft, lifters and one rocker arm and re-sealed the motor and put it back into the van. So the damage was not nearly as bad as we thought. PTL!

Some of us went for a walk that evening, and according to my digital thermometer it was -14.4 deg C. We woke up the next morning with thick ice along the bottom of the windows. Thanks to the sub zero temperatures and clear skies we didn't get any snow, but we did find some in the next valley over by going for a walk on Wednesday. You really don't get 15 year old kids screaming like that when sliding on snow in New Zealand. Couldn't have a snow fight because at -12 deg C the snow wouldn't stay in balls.

Back at the camp I managed to hurt myself on a frozen river. We were sliding on it and I entered the river a little too high. I went through a top layer of ice then piled into the solid ice a tad further down the river. It's given me a really great bruise, so big that two hands aren't big enough to cover it. That night I helped make LED torches with the kids, who had an impromtu disco with them in the main dorm.

Lots more happened, but I'm running out of time so I'll get a bit more later this week. We're supposed to head out to meet some streetkids on the street tonight (or maybe under a street sitting on a hot water pipe). It's snowing heavily, which will make that quite fun. [Sadly it didn't happen - for me at least.] Oh yeah. I had a white birthday recently, and thanks to everyone who turned up unexpected. What a surprise.

God bless, all.

Ian
8 )

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