Romania...its just so random

I was greeted by a small Romanian clan from Pro Vita (the organisation I am volunteering for) - Mel, Mihail and Janet (Mel's English aunt) at the airport, an enthusiastic reception despite the late hour (almost midnight) as my flight was delayed by over an hour. At the car I am met immediately with Mihail booming out to me "NO NO NO, DONT TOUCH THE BOOT OF THE CAR!!" - it apparently fell off its hinges a while back and is now tied on by some rope. So we squeeze my backpack through the only backdoor that works and all pile in. We then meet a rather large traffic jam whilst trying to get out of the carpark, with all the Romanians dealing with it in typical Romanian fashion - by all beeping their horns and yelling out of their car windows. We finally approach the exit only to hear a few painful splutters from our car before the engine dies...ha ha ha "Welcome back to Romania Mandie!".

Its difficult to convey the way of life here...its a trip back in time, where horse and carts dominate the roads, farming is done by hand and not machines, where entertainment must stem from one's imagination and not a television, religion plays a dominant role in your everyday life and you never have any idea what you are going to be doing from one day to the next (except when its harvesting season). Things that occur here at first may shock, surprise or unnerve you but in a very amusing way it all just starts to seem so common place.

Hope these incidences might help depict life here...
- having a run-in with "the villagers" at a campfire at summer camp one night...
- half hour trips into town that turn into 3 hour long missions (one of which at night included 3 of us volunteers being led down into the basement of a half-built concrete building out back of a church in middle of nowhere where we were met by a young boy holding a large lit candle - it crossed all of minds that we had met our doom and were about to lose a kidney or be trafficked out of the country for money)...
- Mihail dealing with a ranting alcoholic father who after being given money to leave the village came back three days later and took two of his youngest children apparently with the intention of having them beg on the streets in France for him - leaving his pregnant wife and three other distraught children behind...
- to the packs of stray dogs that greet you (not always in the friendliest manner) when you leave the house and wake you incessantly during the night...
- a Friday night spent with everyone dancing in the dusty courtyard and indulging in donuts to celebrate a birthday and say goodbye to volunteers...
- the volunteer house puppy being kidnapped by one very outspoken American women promising it a better life in the luxury of her mansion back home...
- sitting on my third floor balcony with my morning cup of coffee watching hundreds (no exaggeration here as I counted one hundred and there was more than twice that amount) as they did the most elaborate dance between the volunteer's house and the telegraph pole on the hill opposite...
- wanting to watch a movie and having the company of 28 children who hang on to every English word spoken but understand only a few...
- observing with great amusement the flurry of activity that ensues when its determined that Father Tanase (the founder of Pro Vita) is in the vicinity - cigarettes butted out, animals hidden that shouldn't be in the house and a quick scattering of all individuals as they hope to escape the wrath of this man (with whom I seem to get along fine with but think perhaps the fact that we don't speak each other's languages is the large contributing factor to our affable relationship)...
- a trip to the train station that involved three cars as the first one ran out of petrol (this car was driven backwards up a hill for a bit as Mihail worked out what remaining petrol in the tank would run into the engine - we even overtook a horse and cart doing this - it was far too funny!), the second broke down despite our fine efforts of push starting it after the transfer of the other car's battery into it...
- being invited to the wedding of someone I didn't know and attending the reception that lasted until 5am, with each course of food being served up until that time (we only got to sample the first two courses despite lasting until 2am!)...
- the village running out of water three days in a row as its connected to a local well and with little rain over the summer it truly is an exhaustible resource (when you have no water you suddenly realise just how much you need it!)...
- to being asked at 4pm Sunday evening if I want to go to Greece for a summer camp - leaving in only 12 hours at 4am the next day!

Yep, life here is certainly interesting :-) A few of us volunteers were sitting around one day pondering the concept that if we understood the Romanian language, would everything that went on here seem less random? We sat for a minute as we all thought about it and then said simultaneously "nahhh..."

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