- As a missionary in Romania, you
should know that Romanian drivers will not slow down when they see you walking
in the road; in fact they will most likely hit the gas and see how high they
can make you jump. - You should be aware that the
phrases you use just might mean something else in Romania. Like if you stub your toe
and say ‘Oi!’ you are actually saying a very naughty curse word and people’s
mouths will drop. - As a young woman in Romania if you
sit on the ground and you happen to notice that everyone is staring at you it’s
not because they think you are beautiful. In fact, it’s because they happen to
believe you are now infertile from sitting on the ground! - Before attempting to order
meat at a deli counter in Romania
you will want to brush up on your charades skills because the woman behind the
counter will most likely not understand a lick of English. You will want to be
able to act out a chicken, pig, or cow depending on your meat choice. You will
also want prearranged hand gestures prepared to describe exactly how much meat
you want… which can easily be mistaken with the thickness of said meat slices. - When living on a farm in Romania, always
assume that the giant brown pile in the road is manure and not mud. It will
most likely stink up your entire house once coated onto the bottom of your
sneakers. - If you decide to save money
by making large vats of chili and eating it every night, just remember that the
after-chili effects will last for days and will also stink up the entire house J - And if you decide to save
money by buying pudding with directions in Romanian and ask a Romanian friend
to translate for you, it will most likely turn out that the directions are
actually in Hungarian. Next time spring for the instant pudding! - When getting milk from your local Romanian
farm vending machine remember to bring a full size 2 liter container or milk
will pour out of the bottle and all over you and the floor! - Don’t forget that in Romania you
must bring your own bags to carry your groceries home from the store. If you do
not know this initially you will find yourself in need of a few extra arms to
carry the apples, yogurt, eggs, and pretzels you are dropping as you walk along
the road. - If you choose to highlight
your hair with a box kit from Romania
just remember that all the instructions will also be in Romanian and things
will most likely go very, very wrong. So
don’t even try it.
Being on the World Race means
that things that would normally be simple back home turn into big adventures
(or disasters, depending on how you look at it!) For example, one day our team
ran out of groceries but we had no transportation to get to a store. We were
staying on a farm in the middle of nowhere but I figured it wouldn’t be too
long a walk if we cut directly across the fields. So they sent me out with one
my teammates, April, to see if you we could buy some food. The journey started
well until we got half way through the field and got stuck in the mud
(literally). We continued on and came to a river which we could not across so
we decided to walk along the train tracks and had to jump into a thicket when
the train came speeding along. We were determined not to give up so we crossed
a construction site, scaled a wall, dodged traffic on the highway, and eventually
saw the Promised Land… a big beautiful supermarket within site (which happened
to be just a few more miles away). By the time we got there we were so famished
from our journey that we split a piece of pizza, which on the way back we
realized we had stolen! (She thought I had paid for it and I thought she had 🙂
Oh, well. All in all it turned into a 3 hour journey for a couple bags of
cereal, bread, and meat. Good times!
Amidst all the praying,
ministering, worshiping, and building we did this month we also managed to
squeeze in some down time. One night we built a giant bonfire and had s’mores.
On our free day we actually found a bowling alley and played a couple strings.
But the best day I think was April Fools Day. Because of limited resources
there wasn’t too much I could do but I did use the old “toothpaste in the
oreos” trick my sister and I used to pull as kids. Its classic! I also toilet
papered the guys room while they were out and really enjoyed their faces when
they walked in the door. But the best was when I foiled their plan to get me
back. As I was packing I discovered one of them had planted his phone in a bag
under my bed with alarm set for 4 am. It
took me a while but I managed to lure them out of their room with a batch of
cinnamon raisin bread I made. While they were busy eating it in the kitchen I
snuck back into their room and planted the phone behind a board in their room.
‘Round about 4 am it went off on full blast and they couldn’t find it anywhere.
Roberto screamed out, “Ahhh, HOW did she DO it??”
See, missionaries can have
fun too J
All in all, it was a great
month…thank you Caminul Felix and thank you ROMANIA!
