There has been a disturbing trend appearing this month – marriage. Disturbing might seem a bit extreme, seeing as marriage is a beautiful picture of Christ’s relationship with the church, two people entering a sacred covenant, etc. However, when you’re on an 11 month long adventure with certain restrictions on dating, it becomes a bit awkward to have the issue of marriage consistently broached.
Day One:
Starts out with a typical first meeting….
“Hi! Welcome to Romania. Here’s where you’ll be staying. Here’s where you find food. Here’s where you find water. Why don’t you introduce yourselves.”
“Hi! I’m Shannon”
“I’m sorry….Sha….nn…what????”
“Shanna (pronounce Shaynuh) is fine.”
“Ok….Shanna.”
“I’m 23. I’m from Oklahoma.”
“Are you married?”
“Um…no.”
“Oh, you will get married soon.”
“Thanks?”
“Will you marry someone who is not from America?”
“I’m not sure where this is going, but, I guess it doesn’t really matter to me.”
And the conversation continues in a similar vein for the rest of my team.
At the end of the meeting, we discover that we will get homework every day. Hooray for going back to school! Homework for tomorrow – make a profile of who you want your husband to be. This coming off of a painfully long conversation about all of us marrying soon, this didn’t bode well for the rest of the month.
Day Two:
While Melanie and I are out in the community evangelizing with someone from the mission house, we meet three little old ladies – Tudoritza, Maria, and Victoria. At first, apparently, they were not too interested in talking with us. However, Melanie soon won their hearts with conversations about their children and their grandchildren. As we gradually endeared ourselves to them, they were fascinated by the fact that we were not yet married. While our translator did not always communicate everything they were saying, Melanie and I gathered that the three women were anxious to marry us off to wonderful Romanian men. No doubt flattering, however, it created many an amusing moment throughout the course of our conversation.
The stories could continue, but I think you get the idea. Fun on the World Race.
A more serious blog to follow soon.
