Easter in Motru, Romania

Ciao, ciao everyone. So after getting back from Frankfurt last weekend and the epic, all-night drive through three and a half countries, two days later I was off again to my roommate Danny's hometown of Motru for Easter. We took a four hour train ride from Lugoj to Severin, and met up Danny's sister Rebecca and her friend on the train. Severin is right on the Danube River, which seperates southwestern Romania from Serbia (so once again Serbia is so close, and yet so far away). After hitch-hiking from Severin to Motru, we spent the next five days (four nights) there and stayed in the apartment Danny grew up in. While his three brothers, two sisters, and two childhood buddies were all great, none could compare to his mother. She's a jack-of-all trades in the kitchen. I swear that woman could make a piece of lard taste delicious; it was like everything she made was the 8th wonder of the world.

On Saturday, we got in a 1982 Ford Sierra and drove to the caves outside of Motru. Maybe I didn't know what to expect from a cave, but it was much colder and darker than I ever expected it to be. And I had a sneaky suspicion that there were bats watching me...or the Count from Sesame Street. After that, we hiked on top of this huge hill, took some pictures, then went back and ate more food. We had Easter service on Sunday and I was asked to share a message, so I spoke on Mark 16 and blew the roof off the place (kidding). All in all, I had a great time and I was glad to see where Danny grew up. I'm pretty sure there was an average of about 11 people in the apartment at all times, so things were always bustling to say the least. And I want it to be known that I successfully nabbed a car for our ride back to Severin, making me a perfect 100% at hitch-hiking.

So what's on tap for this week? Rest. Hopefully. We're starting a program with some high schoolers in Susani on Friday, so we'll be planning for that this week. Also, we'll be nailing down more specifics for the House of Joy site so everyone at Pioneer, especially my bosses who read this blog, will be impressed with my liaison skills. I also met up some people from Colorado today, so I have a feeling I'll be with them often this week.

And a funny story: Danny, my roommate, was telling me a story about how he wore shoes that were way too small one time when he was playing basketball. He said, "It was nuts man. My..uh... leg thumbs were hurting real bad." What's a "leg thumb"? It's a big toe. After laughing about that for a long time, I apologized and told him that a hurt "leg thumb" is no laughing matter.