It’s hard to believe that month 2 is up! Here are some things I noticed during my time here in Targu Mures, Romania.
You know you’re on the World Race when…
- The Bulgarian Border Patrol stops your teammate to ask if he can play her guitar. Surprisingly he starts playing “La Bamba” rather well.
- Your teammate is having some sweet time with Jesus in the backyard when she is forced to move because of the horse and wagon driving by.
- You’re told to avoid the cornfields late at night in case there are drunken Gypsies waiting to mug you. (Note: We haven’t seen any signs of danger)
- Your workout buddy, Steve T., has fastened 4 belts together, thrown them over a beam and balanced a mop between the ends in order to do pull-ups.
- One of the belts from the aforementioned contraption breaks mid-set and you stop your crunches to laugh at his misfortune.
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You go to a village festival and at the beauty pageant the emcee shares the contestants’ height, weight, hip, waist and bust sizes. This was really sad
- To wash your laundry (on occasion) you start with a soapy bucket of hot water and end with this…
- Kids in a Gypsy village are all under 10 and have fake cigarette candy and REAL beer.
- Your ministry contact leads you as you hitch hike to a nearby village in the back of a carpet delivery van.
- Coke tastes way better and even kind of healthy since you’re overseas.
- The sight of a McDonald’s makes you hungry for a double cheeseburger. It doesn’t matter that you never eat McDonald’s at home, it’s American and it makes you want some.
- You realize that you miss the most random foods from home: Subway sandwiches, fried okra, strawberries, blueberries and broccoli.
- You realize that you now love foods from overseas that you won’t be able to get in America: Fitness cereal with yogurt clusters, Cappy juice, International Coke (it’s way better than at home), Lion candy bars, and hot bread rolls with nuts (pictured below).
- Your math skills get a workout between converting kilograms to pounds and USD to Lei at the grocery store.
- Your squad leader asks this question at an after dinner discussion: “I need to know, if you die, do you want to be raised from the dead?”
- To the above question Frank answers: “No. If it’s my time, it’s my time.” 5 minute break…then he comes out of his room saying, “I changed my mind. Raise me from the dead. Do you know how cool it would be to say you were raised from the dead?”
- You and a teammate run through the city after church (and pass a wedding party) in your chacos/keens and dress/skirt to make it to the bus stop on time.
- You travel to a Gypsy village to hold a baptism service in the river.
- Your three awesome male teammates rent a movie for you and the girls, prepare fruit dipped in chocolate, and serve you a spaghetti dinner with bouquets of flowers. Oh, and an amazing chocolate cake for dessert! (Note: this doesn’t usually happen on the Race. Luxury!)
- Your personal trainer (Steve T.) knocks on the door in the morning to ensure that you get your workout in for the day!
- Your options for getting home are: 1) pray for a late bus/nice van to stop, 2) walk 7-8 km (approx. 5 miles).
- From the above options, you still pray but end up walking approx. 5 miles home in the dark with your headlamps. Total walk time: 1hr. 32min. 7sec.
- In one village you pass chickens, dogs and sheep on the same road. Later, you are passed by a horse and cart, then finally by cows as they walk to the barn to be milked for the night.
- You are served hot “fruit soup” for dinner. It was very different and delicious.
- Inexpensive and fun teammate bonding time is found in running in the cornfield late at night or playing "Rock, Paper, Scissors" tag in the back yard.
- As you’re walking to the bus stop each day kids yell, “hello, hello” and “goodbye, goodbye”. This happens EVERYDAY and they run out of the house joyfully to shout to you.
- One of the kids with a cute smile and long braid comes up to hold your hand only to try and bite your pinky finger off. (No worries, she didn’t succeed in breaking the skin!)
- Your team decides to spice lunch up by holding a "murder mystery dinner" while talking in fun accents, staying in character and dressing in your finest WR attire.
Hope you enjoyed the updates! We leave Targu Mures for Bucharest on Friday (10 hr. train ride). We will spend the night in the airport and early Monday morning the entire squad will be flying to India! Please pray for our team as we'll be flying (at least 10-15 hours w/ layovers), taking a train (32 hours) and a bus (3 hours) to get to our new home for the next month. Please be praying anytime from Monday until Wednesday as it will be a long couple of travel days. I don't know the internet situation for India, Nepal or Africa, but I will continue to blog and mass post when I get a chance. Thanks to everyone who's keeping up and praying. Y'all are the best!
