We have returned from 2 nights staying in Snagov (a resort town) where the H2H Girls Transition House is. On Monday before we left we tried again to visit the People's Palace in Bucharest (the building that was to be the office for the then ruler....it is the 2nd largest building in the world!) But, we were unable to go on a tour for about 3 hours, so we left and thought we would do other touring--but because it was the first day back from a week off for most people, the parking was bad and we couldn't find anywhere to park. So--we gave up after several hours of driving around and came back for lunch and to prepare to leave. Back into the car for a 45 min. or so trip to Peris (the orphanage we first went to) where we did Easter egg hunts for about 100 children. It was great fun (and exhausting!). The H2H Romanian teacher (Lunesta) asked the kids what they did for Easter--and then told them that Easter is not about eggs, not about bunnies---but it is about Jesus dying for our sins. It was very powerful--and gave me ideas on how we could better present Easter for our children (slightly harder in USA since candy, bunnies....is so many people's idea about Easter). Back to Monday....after the afternoon in Peris, we went to dinner at Kristin's apartment and then headed over to the Girls House about 8 PM. We stayed right there with the 5 girls and at night a "seminary" girl--that means she attends a Christian school (she was 22 ). The girls were so excited to see us--it was hard to get them to settle down so that all could go to bed. Finally, about 9:30 we disappeared into our room and things quieted enough for us to sleep. We spent the day on a field trip back into Bucharest (feels like we have driven a lot) seeing "Aladdin" done in live theater. None of the children had ever seen live theater--they were the best behaved kids there. (only 9 kids had qualified for this reward trip). The kids returned to the orphanage and Kristin and Deborah (a former H2H worker that came for vacation for 2 weeks) took us to lunch--we had a picnic with Swarma (chicken sandwiches that I have written about before) in a lovely park. Then we had Starbucks!!! It is so funny because the music was Frank Sinatra singing and the menu has English names but Romanian subtitles under the Eng. name. Then it was back to the girls house--they were so excited to see us again. Dennis mowed their large lawn for them while I began writing postcards--hope to get them all written before we leave here!
Today after a breakfast of pancakes with jelly on them, we were off with another reward trip of kids to the same museum we had been to last week--it was fun to see the animals with a group of kids that was so excited to be there. The kids saw a helicopter landing and were just amazed. This trip has opened my eyes to things that before I guess I had taken for granted. At any rate, after the field trip, Dennis and I joined a Romanian girl, Corny, (a graduate from the H2H transition program)who took us on the metro back to the team house. We had a 30 min. walk along busy roads to get here--but it was fun to see the sights in a different way. We then walked to the post office to mail the postcards--we were given receipts for the postcards--interesting! The woman was most helpful--just like Carla in Clarksburg!
Tomorrow's plans are for a trip south to see the boys and girls orphanages in Roshure as well as the Boys Transition Home. It will be fun to see what the southern part of the area looks like. It is about 2 hours away--we will just do a day trip.
We are hoping that there will be time to get into the mountains--I am not much of a "city girl" and so am tiring of traffic and not as much green as we are used to. It is hard to believe that we have been here over a week--we have so many stories to tell! Over and out.....
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