Let me set the scene of where we are here in Romania. It is rural countryside. We live on a compound in a beautiful, hilly village. Long grass, cherry trees, roses, and wild flowers fill the horizon. It’s almost like living on set of the show Little House on the Prairie. The way it seems is that we are the only people in this sweet little village. However, that is not entirely true. You walk down the dirt road and see babooshkas (grandmas) sitting on benches with their scarfs on their heads and honorable country men in there overalls and straw hats, plowing the fields. We also share this land with lots of animals. Hundreds of sheep roam in the fields. Chickens wondering on the side of the road. There are also horses, cows, and snakes. More snakes then I care to admit.
Our hosts are corky and funny. They have been married around 10 years and love the Lord. Roy is a bishop and his wife, Melonia is full of energy and spunk. They live with a ton of joy. When they are around there is never a dull moments. especially Melonia with her eccentric mannerisms and detailed ways of doing things. Especially on one afternoon in particular.
This afternoon was so full of laughter. In fact, it might make you literally laugh out loud. It was our first off day of the month, and I was coming out my room after a very restful morning and ran into Melania. She enthusiastically gave me a hug and wanted to show me her favorite spot on the deck and show me how we were going to cut the grass this month. This began our endeavors where than my teammate Hannah joined us. Melania proudly invited us to see her garden. We excepted her invitation but before we could go she had to explain some things. Because her english wasn’t the greatest she acted out most of it as she told us about all the snakes that live in the grass where we were going. She explained by pointing at the ground and jumping back and yelling and the hitting the ground with a stick.
“Now you try.” She said with an enormous grin on her face. She hates snakes more then anything and wanted us to be prepared. Then she handed Hannah and I long sticks for snake killing as well and on the way to the garden, she told us about all the snakes she finds.
After the garden we went over by a house they owned. In front of the house were piles of grass that had been cut. We had to mix the grass around in order for the bottom grass to get dry. Melania took a stink and started hitting the piles all over before mixing them. Then she would look up at us and say with the biggest smile, “its for the snakes.” Hannah and I began to flip and mix the grass and hadn’t seen any snakes when all of a sudden there was just a baby one laying in my pile. I started laugh yelling, “snake snake snake snake snake”. The other girls thought I was joking until they saw it. I trying to whack it with the stick but I was laughing to hard at the ridiculousness that I missed every time. We all were dying laughing at this moment. The snake was basically unaware that I was even trying to do anything to it. Finally, Melania picked up the snake and killed it. We were all laughing so hard as she told me how slow I was and that I need to be faster and then had me practice before walking back to the main house.
She would defensively take a step and look around for a snake then another step as if a lion was about to pounce out of the long grass. She cracked me up so much. about 30 minutes later after Hannah and I went inside, Melania ran inside yelling at the top of her lungs, “SNAKE, SNAKE”. I ran without thinking to see what was going on and we got to the spot by the deck and the snake was gone. The rest of the month, every day we went into the grassy area by the deck, Melania told us story after story of all the snakes.
Let me set the scene of where we are here in Romania. It is rural countryside. We live on a compound in a beautiful, hilly village. Long grass, cherry trees, roses, and wild flowers fill the horizon. It’s almost like living on set of the show Little House on the Prairie. The way it seems is that we are the only people in this sweet little village. However, that is not entirely true. You walk down the dirt road and see babooshkas (grandmas) sitting on benches with their scarfs on their heads and honorable country men in there overalls and straw hats, plowing the fields. We also share this land with lots of animals. Hundreds of sheep roam in the fields. Chickens wondering on the side of the road. There are also horses, cows, and snakes. More snakes then I care to admit.
Our hosts are corky and funny. They have been married around 10 years and love the Lord. Roy is a bishop and his wife, Melonia is full of energy and spunk. They live with a ton of joy. When they are around there is never a dull moments. especially Melonia with her eccentric mannerisms and detailed ways of doing things. Especially on one afternoon in particular.
This afternoon was so full of laughter. In fact, it might make you literally laugh out loud. It was our first off day of the month, and I was coming out my room after a very restful morning and ran into Melania. She enthusiastically gave me a hug and wanted to show me her favorite spot on the deck and show me how we were going to cut the grass this month. This began our endeavors where than my teammate Hannah joined us. Melania proudly invited us to see her garden. We excepted her invitation but before we could go she had to explain some things. Because her english wasn’t the greatest she acted out most of it as she told us about all the snakes that live in the grass where we were going. She explained by pointing at the ground and jumping back and yelling and the hitting the ground with a stick.
“Now you try.” She said with an enormous grin on her face. She hates snakes more then anything and wanted us to be prepared. Then she handed Hannah and I long sticks for snake killing as well and on the way to the garden, she told us about all the snakes she finds.
After the garden we went over by a house they owned. In front of the house were piles of grass that had been cut. We had to mix the grass around in order for the bottom grass to get dry. Melania took a stink and started hitting the piles all over before mixing them. Then she would look up at us and say with the biggest smile, “its for the snakes.” Hannah and I began to flip and mix the grass and hadn’t seen any snakes when all of a sudden there was just a baby one laying in my pile. I started laugh yelling, “snake snake snake snake snake”. The other girls thought I was joking until they saw it. I trying to whack it with the stick but I was laughing to hard at the ridiculousness that I missed every time. We all were dying laughing at this moment. The snake was basically unaware that I was even trying to do anything to it. Finally, Melania picked up the snake and killed it. We were all laughing so hard as she told me how slow I was and that I need to be faster and then had me practice before walking back to the main house.
She would defensively take a step and look around for a snake then another step as if a lion was about to pounce out of the long grass. She cracked me up so much. about 30 minutes later after Hannah and I went inside, Melania ran inside yelling at the top of her lungs, “SNAKE, SNAKE”. I ran without thinking to see what was going on and we got to the spot by the deck and the snake was gone. The rest of the month, every day we went into the grassy area by the deck, Melania told us story after story of all the snakes.
