Still in limbo

Well, we're still in Den Haag. What can I say? I'm learning to appreciate the little things in life even more than normal. The house doesn't really smell bad anymore, the cleaners are actually done in it and we got all the mattresses and stuff back yesterday. Hopefully the builders started in the cellar today but the installation of the water heater and that will probably not happen until sometime early next week.

Some good things though...I am VERY grateful for warm showers (or relatively, the shower in Den Haag has the annoying habit of going from nice and warm to cold to scalding with no warning whatsoever...however it is seriously light years better than the so-cold-it-makes-your-head-ache shower I had at the Rotterdam house this weekend)

I am also beyond grateful to finally be able to do laundry again. We have extremely limited electricity at the house but thankfully one of the things that gets it is the washing machine. I never thought I would ever be so excited to do laundry in my life. I was literally jumping up and down happy, hehe. I've done about six loads of laundry (not just mine of course) in the past two days and I'm honestly so happy about it.

Hm, what else...I never realized how important personal space was to me. But living in basically one big room with five or six other people wears on you after awhile. Thankfully it's only temporary, it's not definite but if nothing goes wrong and there are not more delays we may be able to move back into the Rotterdam house a week from today *crosses fingers*

We'll see though. Three or four days has turned into three or four weeks so yeah...I guess with all the lessons in patience I've been getting in the past year I still haven't learned it well enough yet, lol. I feel like I've kept a pretty positive view throughout this whole thing though and it will be over soon so I can handle a little inconvenience for another week or two. I am really really looking forward to getting back to normal life! Sorry the updates won't be very frequent until we're back in the house again but I'll try and post something whenever I get a chance. *smile*

I'm back but not home...

So Romania was fun, and I got home safely and had a nice uneventful flight. Since the house caught on fire we're living in Den Haag until the electricity's fixed and everything at our house. We're just in one big room at Ineke's sisiter's house and we don't have a computer or anything there. I'm on Joel's computer right now but after this I probably won't be able to update again until we're back in the house. So...pray that everything goes smoothly and quickly so things can start getting back to normal again. Until next time *smile*

A new side of things

Today I went with the missionary couple from Canada to help deliver some supplies to the TB hospital here in Bacau and up into the mountains to get some information about the flood victims.

The hospital was like a step back in time.

The first place we went was the place they do laundry. Right now the motor on the washing machine was broken so they had a huge vat full of steaming hot water and a big stick to stir it around. Think Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971 version) where the mother is singing Cheer Up Charlie... However, the ladies that worked there were really excited to show me around and told me all about what they did. I didn't understand a word, but they told me, lol.

From there we delivered a few more supplies to the lab and then drove off towards the mountains. I'm sure most of you have heard about all the awful flooding in Europe recently and Romania got hit pretty hard by it as well. We drove around and saw things and then stopped at some town halls so that Don could get some information about the supplies the government was providing and what was still needed. The government is helping a bit but only enough to get people started on their houses. They'll supply the cement for the foundation and a few doors and windows and stuff but the rest the people have to do on their own. And a lot of them really have nothing left, no house, cattle, clothes etc it was all just washed away. I was able to take some pictures of the damage...it's really sad...


sand bags that didn't do a whole lot of good...


a makeshift bridge



another half gone house...

All the villages we drove through were like that, some houses half standing and others just piles of rock and debris, roads completely washed away...it was really awful and they've only just started digging things out. The process of rebuilding will probably takes months and months...

After all that it was time for lunch so we took a back little road and crossed this:


it looks pretty ok here but in reality it's world's scariest bridge to drive across. No joke, the boards were not nailed down and it creaked and a quarter of it was already partly detached! I've never been so close to plunging into an icy cold river in my life!!!

It was worth it though. We had a really nice picnic lunch at the top of the a hill overlooking a beautiful valley. Romania has several different sides, some very sad and poor and others beautiful, rich and colorful. But all the sides together make it a truly beautiful country.

Earthquakes, Fires and Colds

Sorry for the lack of updates but Blogger gave me a hard time getting the pictures on the post below, plus I've been fighting a cold and stuff the past few days and simply haven't felt up to blogging. So here's what's been going on since Saturday.

Saturday my host family's cellar caught on fire. No one was hurt and there's not any unfixable damage to the house. You can read the full story on Joel and Ineke's blog. Please pray that the insurance decides to pay for everything and that the process is quick so that everyone can get back in the house and back to normal life.

Sunday I was in bed half the day with a killer headache so nothing to report there.

Yesterday we had a small earthquake! Kid you not, the whole house rattled for about three seconds or so. It was a small enough that we weren't exactly sure what had happened. It was like a really huge truck went by or something enormous fell downstairs in the house. No damage anywhere in the city I don't think, just enough for a little excitement.

Today we finished getting the birth certificate for Sam taken care of. There was a bit of a problem because Thea and Marcel don't have the same last name which is I guess unheard of here. So Thea had to memorize in Romanian and say in front of a notary that it's Marcel's baby and she wants Sam to have Marcel's last name. We then went on a little errand that I'll show you all pictures of once I get back to Holland and from there went shopping at the Metro which is a grocery store where you can buy things in bulk. We got a nice supply of Honey-Nut Cheerios and Crispy Milkyway bars for me since they don't sell them in Holland, woo hoo!

And yeah, that's about it. Hopefully tomorrow I'll join our Canadian neighbors who are missionaries here and help them out while they go to the hospital. I'll take pictures and let you know how it goes tomorrow. Until then *smile*

Transylvania

Well, I had a great Saturday. Marcel, a colleague of Marcel's, Ella, Abel, and I (Thea stayed home with Sam and Job was away at Judo camp) left early in the morning around 6:15am and headed to Transylvania for the day. It was about a four or five hour drive west over the mountains from where I'm staying. We saw three different cities and I'll just let the pictures speak for the rest.

Bradsov


The city square, it's such a cute little city with a big old wall around it. And just about everything is in both Romanian and German.



The largest Gothlic church in Eastern Europe


The Inside of the church


A little old women selling flowers on the street


a view from the hill over looking the city

Bran


welcome to Dracula's castle


Dracula's castle


Dracula's front door


a view from inside

Risnov


the wall of the fort


view from the top of the fort


me!

So that was my day. We drove home that same night and were back around 8pm or so. It was so much fun! *smile*