Check back to previous posts because we're adding pictures to them, yaaay!
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Buna (hello) from Romania
M Last Friday we left Barcelona and flew to Bucharest Romania. Our adventure to Toledo was nothing compared to this one. We landed and because Romania is now a EU country we were asked no questions at the border. Awesome. We made our way with the help of some locals to the train station and got on a train to Medias, the city where we will be volunteering and going to a wedding. After 5 hours of traveling we knew our stop was close. Then the train stopped and we looked out into the darkness at what seemed to be just a rail yard. No lights, signs etc. We wondered why the train was stopping. But then it started up again and we noticed new people had got on. oh no.. was that Medias??? We asked a lady nearby "Medias"? She responded "Da, Medias" and pointed back to where we just left from. We had missed our stop.
So we waited until the next stop and hoped off. We got tickets for the next train heading back to Medias, which was 2 and a half hours later. We then went to a restaurant that would not serve us food (despite our efforts). So we found a stand selling junk food and enjoyed a banana and a bag of popcorn for supper. Finally we were back on our train. This time we made sure to let the locals around us know we needed Medias. They helped us to know when to get off, and this time when we pulled up there were lights. I guess we were sitting near the front of the train not the back which would have seen the dark. Then we got in a taxi and showed him the address we were to go to. He dropped us off and we went up to the gate and rang the door bell. We waited and waited with no luck. Jesse jumped up and thought about jumping over the gate, but not being 100% sure we were at the right place, or if this place had a dog, or if Jesse would break a bone jumping over we decided against it. So we decided to start walking until we could find a taxi or hotel. We ran into a wonderful lady who did not speak English, but understood "taxi". She then used her cell phone to call us a taxi. She was so trusting she even asked me to hold her purse while she called.
The taxi took us to a hotel. It was 10:30 at night by this time, so all the internet cafes were closed. Peter, the man who runs the organization we are volunteering with had sent me his cell phone number by e-mail, but of course I did not write it down. So we slept at the hotel with no hot water, sheets that felt like paper towel, smelled like smoke and alchohol, but did have a lovely free breakfast. The next morning we spent 2 hours walking around Medias looking for an internet cafe. No luck. They are all closed on Saturday. Our hotel did not have internet, so we went to a 4 start hotel and tried to bribe them to let us use their internet, they said only if we stayed the night. So we prayed and hopped in a taxi and headed back to the address where we had been the night before. Were we ever happy when a girl opened the gate and said in English are you the people who were suppose-to come last night? Then we saw Peter come out of the house. I guess the doorbell was broken the night before but had been fixed that morning. So it was rough start in Romania, but has been amazing since.
On Sat. night they had a welcome reception for all the Canadians who were in town for the wedding (one of the orphans I had worked with was marrying a Canadian). We even knew a couple who was there, small world! The wedding the next day was BEAUTIFUL. At Romanian receptions people get up and sing songs to the couple and the rest of the people listen.. if they want. Lots of talking while people were singing, but that is normal we are told. Being here has been like a retreat. We have our own room, and free laundry, but more than that the people are just amazing. Just as I had remembered. We feel so welcomed, and we can really see God working through people as they pray and work with the orphans and street kids.
Jesse has spent the week building a house in a village near here with a couple Romanians, and 3 guys from Vancouver. I have helped sort and count donations, and helped with the street kid program. They teach the kids how to read and write, play games, make crafts, do dramas, sing worship music etc. In one of the families who has taken in 2 orphans the mom is pregnant and having a very difficult time. She just got out of hospital and is on complete bed rest. Yesterday I spend the day making meals that her husband can freeze and reheat. I have been out there twice, yesterday with Jes. They are wonderful people, and we plan to get together with them at least once more before we leave. We were at their house until midnight last night. I am sure Jesse and the husband will be tired as they work today.
I am joining a lady to a nearby village this afternoon to work with the kids. Being here again and seeing the people who are SO poor, but so happy really reminds me of how much we have at home. I am amazed at the things we take for granted such as smooth paved roads that we like to complain about. Yesterday we pushed our van out of the mud as it had been raining. Jes and I are unsure exactly what day we will leave, or where we go from here, but we will update everyone once we know. We plan to leave some time next week.
So we waited until the next stop and hoped off. We got tickets for the next train heading back to Medias, which was 2 and a half hours later. We then went to a restaurant that would not serve us food (despite our efforts). So we found a stand selling junk food and enjoyed a banana and a bag of popcorn for supper. Finally we were back on our train. This time we made sure to let the locals around us know we needed Medias. They helped us to know when to get off, and this time when we pulled up there were lights. I guess we were sitting near the front of the train not the back which would have seen the dark. Then we got in a taxi and showed him the address we were to go to. He dropped us off and we went up to the gate and rang the door bell. We waited and waited with no luck. Jesse jumped up and thought about jumping over the gate, but not being 100% sure we were at the right place, or if this place had a dog, or if Jesse would break a bone jumping over we decided against it. So we decided to start walking until we could find a taxi or hotel. We ran into a wonderful lady who did not speak English, but understood "taxi". She then used her cell phone to call us a taxi. She was so trusting she even asked me to hold her purse while she called.
The taxi took us to a hotel. It was 10:30 at night by this time, so all the internet cafes were closed. Peter, the man who runs the organization we are volunteering with had sent me his cell phone number by e-mail, but of course I did not write it down. So we slept at the hotel with no hot water, sheets that felt like paper towel, smelled like smoke and alchohol, but did have a lovely free breakfast. The next morning we spent 2 hours walking around Medias looking for an internet cafe. No luck. They are all closed on Saturday. Our hotel did not have internet, so we went to a 4 start hotel and tried to bribe them to let us use their internet, they said only if we stayed the night. So we prayed and hopped in a taxi and headed back to the address where we had been the night before. Were we ever happy when a girl opened the gate and said in English are you the people who were suppose-to come last night? Then we saw Peter come out of the house. I guess the doorbell was broken the night before but had been fixed that morning. So it was rough start in Romania, but has been amazing since.
On Sat. night they had a welcome reception for all the Canadians who were in town for the wedding (one of the orphans I had worked with was marrying a Canadian). We even knew a couple who was there, small world! The wedding the next day was BEAUTIFUL. At Romanian receptions people get up and sing songs to the couple and the rest of the people listen.. if they want. Lots of talking while people were singing, but that is normal we are told. Being here has been like a retreat. We have our own room, and free laundry, but more than that the people are just amazing. Just as I had remembered. We feel so welcomed, and we can really see God working through people as they pray and work with the orphans and street kids.
Jesse has spent the week building a house in a village near here with a couple Romanians, and 3 guys from Vancouver. I have helped sort and count donations, and helped with the street kid program. They teach the kids how to read and write, play games, make crafts, do dramas, sing worship music etc. In one of the families who has taken in 2 orphans the mom is pregnant and having a very difficult time. She just got out of hospital and is on complete bed rest. Yesterday I spend the day making meals that her husband can freeze and reheat. I have been out there twice, yesterday with Jes. They are wonderful people, and we plan to get together with them at least once more before we leave. We were at their house until midnight last night. I am sure Jesse and the husband will be tired as they work today.
I am joining a lady to a nearby village this afternoon to work with the kids. Being here again and seeing the people who are SO poor, but so happy really reminds me of how much we have at home. I am amazed at the things we take for granted such as smooth paved roads that we like to complain about. Yesterday we pushed our van out of the mud as it had been raining. Jes and I are unsure exactly what day we will leave, or where we go from here, but we will update everyone once we know. We plan to leave some time next week.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
A tale of two.. wait, three cities.
J Madrid, the true Spanish capital, where the Royal Palace will amaze, the monuments and fountains abound, and there are hundreds, nay, thousands still walking the streets into the wee hours of the night. Some bars don´t close until 6am, but keep in mind that many close around 2,3 pm and don´t reopen until 7 or 8pm. Being that we´re here in the fall we don´t really understand the dedication to the siesta, but we thoroughly enjoy the tradition, usually with a light nap or at least putting our feet up, walking from here to there all day really puts a strain on our tootsies.
M Go to WEM and find Europa Bullavard then look up. That is Madrid, only on a huge scale. The buildings are awesome. The weather has been about 15 to 18 degrees, for those who want to know. We enjoyed looking at the wonderful architecture, and joined one of those "hop on hop off" bus tours that you would think of in London. We got some culture at an Art Museum, the Prado.
Our worst experience (besides bed bugs!) to this point was the day before we left for the English Village, we spent most of the day looking for a place to stay when we got back. It´s off season, so we did not forsee a problem, but apparently November 1st (the day before we returned to Madrid) is a holiday in Spain, and there was also a "football" game on, so everywhere was full. We went to an internet cafe, with no luck, then went door to door hoping that we could find a place. We were making plans to leave our lugage at the airport in a locker and stay up all night at an all night club, when, thanks be to God, we found a place.
J Yes our start in Madrid was rocky, between the accomodation situation, and then going to the Prado and not getting the audio guide (3.50 euro each) and then finding out that the fee was only for earbuds, you see the first exibits we saw were in English as well so we figured why spend the dough, in the end we spent about 3 hours doing self interpretation of most of the paintings. It was still a lot of fun, Madrid has an energy that is hard to explain, and the Plaza´s and mazes of streets, we got lost often, but enjoyed wondering and exploring.
We decided before leaving for Barcelona that we would spend one night in Toledo. A small city only half an hour outside of Madrid. It was recommended to us by a few of our new Spanish friends. We´ll, what a long and tiring day that turned out to be.
M We got to the train station and got our tickets, no problem. Our ticket had a picture of a train on it with the number four underneath, so naturally we went to platform 4 and waited for our train to be ready to board. We noticed that after announcing the trains on the intercomm they would also announce in English, so we thought there would be no problems. We waited, and waited, and about 5 minutes after our train was to leave we reassured ourselves that Spanish trains were never on time. Half an hour after our train was to depart we realised we had missed it. Luckily after paying a service fee and waiting another hour we were on another train to Toledo.
We were just minutes from arriving in Toledo when we realised we hadn´t written our hostels information down. No problem we thought, we just need to find an internet cafe and look it up. After taking a bus into town, we asked at an information booth where we might find one, the nice lady replied that there was only one cafe in the whole city, and it was on the other side of town. Back onto the bus, we went off in search of this lone internet cafe. After much walking we finally found it, but it was closed. After a few arguements and a few more dozen blocks of carrying our packs we found one. Half an hour later we lugged ourselves into our hostel.
Oh did we mention that the streets in Toldeo are not flat? Either up, down, or both. Oh and cobblestone to boot.
J Despite our problems we enjoyed the hostel which was really a hotel, two single beds unfortunately but a private room and bathroom, the little comforts you take for granted at home. We walked the narrow and as Mich said, vertical streets of Toldeo. What a beautiful little city. We had a typical dinner at a small restaraunt, followed by drinks at a hip cafe, that had about a half dozen people in it (we ate at 7, and were at the club by 9, which is normal for home, but way early for Spain).
Thankfully our return to Madrid and subsequent flight to Barcelona went as smoothly as we could have hoped, and we found our hostel with minimal headache (compared to the Toledo fiascao anyway).
M Last night we slept here in Barcelona, and we were apperantly lucky that we had a place to sleep, as the streets were full, and I mean FULL of crazy Scottish Soccer (football) fans. It is out of control! There are also many police, even special ones we think are probably riot police standing around just in case. Why? Because tonight Glasgow plays Barcelona, the hostel guy says it is always like this when Scottland, or England comes to town.
J Barcelona is a much newer city, it feels a little like Madrid but doesn´t seem to have the same charm in my opinion. It still has plenty to see and shops and fountains galore. We spent the day at the Zoo and seeing a few meseums. I also have to confess that I´ve been to McDonalds two nights in a row, I fell in love with a Gelat i Cafe (coffee and ice cream) that they have here. Michelle is letting me indulge though as we´re doing a lot of walking these days, and they´re small.
M There is a big street that we walk down that is full of people, buskers, and pet shops. Yes pet shops. Lots of birds and rabbits are sold up and down the street. Well we are off to eat dinner. It is 8:15, so the resturaunts should be open now we hope. Eating here in Spain is usually lunch at 2pm and dinner at 9pm, so many resturuants don´t even open until 8pm. Good night all.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
an English Village
J So we´ve just returned from a week of speaking, eating, walking, and speaking some more. The poor Spainiards were just terrified at the beginning, but after a few days, and many meals later they had made friends, improved their spoken language and thier comprehension. By the end of the week us Anglos (english speakers) were really comfortable and wishing the program lasted longer, while the Spainiards were relieved it was over, being mentally exhausted and ready for a week of detox.
Publeos English was an awesome adventure, the personalities of the people made it so much fun, between discussions ranging from religion, nuclear power plants, and roller coasters to plays and skits there was never a dull moment. Our master of ceremonies Akemi and the program director Pablo made the week run smoothly, and assisted in making us comfortable. By the end of the 8 days we had spent at least 1 hour with every Spainiard in a one vs. one session, we also did teleconference and individual phone calls. The area around the site (the hotel) and the town La Aberca were beautiful, and we enjoyed walks during the days, and dancing at the bar till the wee hours with our new amigos.
Now that we´re back in Madrid, we´re really missing our private rooms, the buffet breakfast and 3 course lunch and dinners. We´re also missing the people we met, and the amazing time we had. We highly recommend the program, and look forward to returning one day.
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