Romania Day 8

This brings us to the final day in Romania =(

Day 8

I awoke bright and early to go on the last walk of the trip.

Kerri and Merri had tried these delicious pastry type things before and loved them. The place was finally open when we walked by...so I tried one. Delicious!

yummmmm

After the walk and breakfast, Mia came to speak with us.

Mia is the late Pastor Joseph's wife.

Gene showed her a plaque that will hang in the front of the clinic in his memory.

Gene presenting the plaque.

Our bags were already brought downstairs and the boys were loading them into the vans.

Everyone said their final goodbyes.

This is one of the hardest parts...including the night before.

Actually driving away from the Clinic is so hard. To think it would be at least a year until I could return again (most likely 2 years for me now that I'm going into nursing school).

2 years is so long!

That is a long time to miss all these wonderful people. The translators will grow up so much in that time. I don't want to miss it!

the bags being loaded

goodbye pic with Basil

Everyone lined up as we pulled away

We still had full day ahead of us.

We were headed toward the market first.

We had a little over 30 minutes to walk around and look at things.

I had mentioned to some of the group members that they sold pig heads in the market. I knew exactly where to go to find them. They were all stacked up and I started to take pictures. The lady behind the counter saw what I was doing and rearranged the heads for the picture. She was proud of her pig heads!

looks good huh?

We looked at normal stuff as well.

legumes

fish

and flowers

Up next: a visit to the old clinic

The new Diaconia Clinic is only 2 years old.

It opened my first trip to Romania.

The ServingHim organization has come a long way.

outside of the old clinic

I was very glad to hear that we would be making time to visit the Home of Hope. It is an orphanage that works with the Holy Trinity Baptist church and the Diaconia clinic. There are 4 homes, each with an average of 10 kids. Each home has a house mother and father. These kids are very sweet and seem very happy.

Here I am with Claudia and Kerri.

I had never met Claudia before, but she came up to me and held my hand. She proceeded to walk me around the property and show me their home dog, Daisy.

Daisy has an underbite =P

I did get to see Maria. I helped work on Maria in 2008 and she quickly stole my heart. She ran to the dental chair and had the biggest smile on her face. She continued to smile through her whole appointment. She is just a very happy child. I got to see her last year again. When we first walked up to the Home of Hope she skated up to me and gave me a hug. What a great feeling.

Me and Maria: 2008, 2009, and 2010

After we got to tour one of the homes, we had to hit the road.

Peter in front of the Home of Hope

We had a 40 minutes drive to the town of Ianca.

a buggy along the way to Ianca

We would be having lunch at Nina's house. Nina is a member of Peter's church. She was so kind to cook for all of us.

Nina

walking up to Nina's house

(Sammy)

Peter helping set up for lunch

It was a beautiful place to eat. The breeze was perfect.

Becki pouring her drink

There was plenty of food to go around...and it was very good!

Nina even sang for us!

One thing that we all noticed was that Nina never once sat down with us. She said it is custom to serve her guests and to not eat with them. This is so if we need something she is there for us. I found this interesting. Some of the women were wondering what would happen if they did that at their next dinner party. What would the guests say?

something to think about

After we ate...just a couple of feet over...and on the other side of the fence...we got to check out her animals.

The dogs

the pigs

the goats

and it was hard to miss the chickens

It was almost like a petting zoo!

she had a pretty garden

saying bye

It was time to go to the park in Ianca.

It just so happens that they had bumper cars set up for a celebration of some kind.

Everybody shared a car with a kid in the park. The kids had a blast....ok, we did too!

what a way to cheer up a day of goodbyes

We taught the kids some songs and how to brush their teeth, let them color, Mike played soccer with some, and blew up balloons.

We spent quite some time at the park with the kids.

After we left, we got to visit Peter's church. This was my first time to see it in person.

I asked Peter to stand in front of his church

We hit the road once again.

We had about a 3 hour drive to Bucharest.

We stayed at the airport hotel.

After we checked in and had a little time to relax, we all walked over to the restaurant nexdoor.

It was a cute place!

When we first got upstairs to sit down...I noticed it was pretty hot up there. I switched seats to be next to the window and opened it. There was a nice breeze, but the window would not stay open. Mike, Dan, and I proceeded in trying to find a way to keep it open. A fork ended up being the winner.

I had my usual at this point

schnitzel

Tamara and I were both pretty tired, so we left before dessert. We went back to the room and got ready for bed.

I took a pic of the cook on the way out

Tamara and I realized that our room had not cooled off since we turned the AC on before dinner. We called downstairs and a guy came up to help us out with the AC knob. We had it on the coldest it would go and he tells us it is cool in the room. No, it was not. I like air that goes below at least 80 please! He switched us rooms, but the problem was the same.

I did watch a little Romanian TV before bed.

We had to be downstairs the next morning at 6:15 AM. yikes!

I did snag some pics of the room in Bucharest.

I didn't sleep well that night...I missed the 60 degree AC and comfy beds in the clinic! =/

Ah well

The next day brings us to London.

I'll save that for tomorrow.