Good Ol' Budapest

I'd say it's been a pretty productive past few days since my last post. First, my roommate Ruben got engaged in the city square of Timisoara. My job was to scare the pigeons so that the pictures would turn out even better, but for the most part I just looked like a dork who's trying way to hard to ruin a priceless moment. He drops down on his knee, pops the question, she says yes, we all get excited; oh, and did I mention that it was jam-packed with people? Afterwards, they wanted to go get KFC and see How to Train Your Dragon in 3D at Ilius Mall, which has to be most awesome engagement celebration of all time.

The next day Danny and I went to Budapest to schedule tours/find restaurants for when the group comes over in June. We had to get up at 4:15 AM on Sunday, but we missed our train that left at 4:50 because it left 25 minutes early. And it was the only train to the next train station until 6 PM. Who does this? Seriously, why would you leave 25 minutes early at 4 AM on a Sunday? After much grumbling, we had to go wake up Ruben to drive us to Timisoara, but we made our next train and arrived in Budapest six hours later. We arrived and immediately put on our swim trunks to head to the Szechenyi Baths, which was the best thing in the whole world since sliced bread. What is it? A thermal bath where old people wear Speedos, others flaunt their belly rolls and saggy arms, and where you hear at least four different languages while sitting in one hot tub. After four hours of pure bliss, I realized that this is the reason why I love Europe.

Everything else went well. We planned everything out, found great places to eat, to sleep, and to see for when the group of 50 comes. We loved this saxophone player in Hero's Square, who would frequently play Whitney Houston and Celine Dion. We also loved the goulash at Cafe Intenzo (which, by the way, had a beautiful Hungarian waitress who was top notch). We never stopped walking around or climbing the hills on the Buda side, but it was a great experience. So we get back last night at 12:30 AM after a 9 hour journey home, and after a short night sleep we got up to do some manual labor in Susani painting some pipes. Our reward? Eating homemade Romanian food.

This weekend I'm going to Frankfurt from Friday to Tuesday to pick up a van that Ovidiu got a good deal on and desperately needs, which means we'll be driving back through not just the Bavarian and Austrian Alps, but also on the German and Austrian autobahn. I'm crossing my fingers that I could possibly drive, even if it's for just one mile, so that my life could officially be complete. Speed limits are for wussies.

And a funny story: While in Budapest, we found a super, super cheap hotel (22 Euros cheap) that even had breakfast included. Little did we know that we were sleeping below a group of very loud and very drunk Germans who would sing "Tribute" by Tenacious D, followed by deep laughter and a subsequent "Owww!!" This was all while sleeping in a room that was maybe five feet wide, on a bed that felt like concrete, all after walking around Budapest for 14 hours straight. We happened to see them the next morning, and when I say morning I mean 2 PM.

Pictures From Teenage Prison in Buzias

Without further adieu, some pictures from Buzias...

Prison Ministry in Buzias, Romania

As I said in my last post, if you would have told me that I'd be going to an all boys prison in Romania for a week three months ago, I would have said you were sniffing glue. Who knew that I was going to be meeting up people from South Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky to hang out/evangelize 65+ teenage boys who have known nothing else in their lives except stealing, gambling, sex, and life on the streets? Who knew that I would be playing "jail rules soccer" with inmates 14-17 years old who are good enough to play professionally? Who knew that one of the guys I met was a professional magician who would be wowing crowds of inmates yelling "Magia!" when he walked into a room?

These are just a few questions that crossed my mind throughout this past week in Buzias. We ate with the prisoners, which was interesting because I hit my gag reflex twice with the soup, and played a ton of football (European) with them. We sang songs with them in their prison dormitories and repeated everything they said because we couldn't understand them (most of them which was vulgar). It seemed all they wanted to do was arm-wrestle with me, which in itself had no rules, so by the end of every day my right arm felt like spaghetti. We would sit and talk with them, asking questions about their family and what happened in their past that brought them here. And when you pulled your camera out, it was complete pandemonium; I've never had to pose for more pictures in my life.

All in all, this was one of the craziest experiences I've ever had. Some of the stories these young men told made me tear up; how could you not when you hear that some of them stole only because their parents live in Spain so they had to support their brothers and sisters? And not only that, but they only get to talk to them on the phone once a month. We asked each group if they could think of one person who loved them, and only four out of 60 raised their hand. Hearing stories like these and making friendships with these guys has opened my eyes to a whole new understanding of the world, and I know that I'll never be the same. Seeing them grabbing you and not wanting to let you leave was hard, and I told them I would be back soon. What they don't know is that while they may have benefitted from me being there, they completely changed my life.

That being said, this week will be a little slower. There are some people here from the Detroit area here, so I imagine I'll do stuff with them at some point. But the big news is that next weekend I'll be going to Budapest with Danny for three days to make sure everything is set for the Pioneer trip. They asked me if going there would be a problem. I told them "I mean, it's WAY out of my way, but I guess I'll fit it into my schedule..."

And a funny story of the week: When I first met these guys from South Carolina, one of them came up to me and said "Hi, my name is Brandon" loud and very slow. I said, "Hi I'm Alex." He says, "Wow, his English is really sharp." I said, "Well, I'm from Texas." And later on in the week, I met a 12 year old boy who came with the Detroit group. He comes up to me and says, "So where do you live?" I told him I live in Lugoj. He said, "Oh okay. Have you ever been to America?" I laughed and said, "Excuse me?" He repeated the question because he was being serious, so I said, "Well, I sort of lived there all my life. I'm from Dallas." Even Americans that come over think I'm Romanian.

And Just When You Think It's Spring...

...it snows all day today, and you have to go unpack your long underwear from your suitcase that's out on the balcony. But it's all good because today was beautiful; so beautiful that I walked around the city all morning trying to be "artsy" with my photos, as noticed above. Danny and Ruben had classes all week for their college degree from Covington Seminary, which has a branch here in Lugoj. They had two professors here and I was encouraged to go to a few classes, which I did the past three days. I enjoy Romania the most in the snow; it's a new kind of experience walking down the street, probably with a factory dog behind you, having cold snow sting your face like needles as you cross the street adjacent to an elderly gypsy woman with a dull green headcovering. Talking with a couple of those professors tonight, they mentioned that they always think about Romania when they're back in South Carolina. They said they always think about this place wherever they are because it's a different place than they've ever been. They say they've "fallen in love with it." I agree with them more and more every day.

This weekend I'm going to Arad for a youth meeting with a couple guys who are flying in from North Carolina. Arad is a place I've heard a lot about, so I'm excited about making the couple hour van trip north with some new American friends. The big news for this post is that all next week these guys that are coming over are going to be doing ministry in a teenage prison in local village of Buzias, which is pretty close to Lugoj. I've asked to join them, so hopefully it's cool if I tag along (and if it's not I'm going anyways). We'll be there from 10-4 every day next week, spending time and eating with the inmates. I came here excited about new experiences and not knowing exactly what to expect, and I think this fits the bill pretty well.

As promised, a funny story: I was talking with Adina, Ovidiu's wife, and she was telling me that they were showing my Facebook page to some of the students here that they regularly hang out with before I flew over. She said they were looking at some of my profile pictures and saw the picture of Borat in that hilarious swimsuit, and she became very nervous about having me come over because they thought I was going to look just like Borat. She didn't want to show the picture to the students and was nervous about me acting just like Borat. The joke is that my "Avatar" character wouldn't be one of those blue characters, but Borat; they even expected me to have a mustache when I got off the plane. Adina says it's all good now because I don't wear anything like that picture or act outrageous like Borat. Yet.

First Trip to Gavojdia Orphanage

Here are some pictures from our first trip to the Gavojdia Orphanage, about fifteen miles away from Lugoj. There are about 60 kids at this orphanage and they range from 4-17 years old. A lot of them still see their parents every once in a while but are sent back here because they can not afford to take care of them. Thirty years ago, during Communism and under the reign of Ceausescu, the orphanage was in much worse shape. During that time, the orphans were treated "like animals"; they were beaten, abused, and most of them could not talk before the age of 8 or 9 because no one had taught them how to speak. Since the regime fell about 20 years ago, a huge effort has gone out to help out the orphanages in Romania so things are much better now. It was an incredible experience to be there and we will be going back often, which I'm thrilled about.

Today we went and helped out Manu again at the school, this time moving huge, muddy pieces of lumber in the rain. They're hard working guys and a lot of them were orphans during Ceausescu's time, so they were eager to see what I thought of the orphanage. I found it funny that someone asked me if I knew Russian. After this, we walked home, took off our shoes and dirty clothes, and went to Susani for another children's meeting. This time we went to a further village, Nevrincea, which was probably the poorest village I've seen so far. There were several kids waiting for us, and once we got back to Susani it was clear that we had more kids this time. We sang and danced with the kids, then we were treated to Adina's homemade "sarmale" (a traditional meat dish), and talked while eating sunflower seeds.

Tomorrow, we're doing the Eucharist again with the elderly ladies around the village. I'm excited to see them again. Also, I'll be going to a couple classes this week with Danny and Ruben at a seminary here in Lugoj that they go to, which should be interesting. And next week, we'll be going to a teenage prison to do prison ministry with some people from North Carolina. Things are exciting here to say the least. Take care and have a great weekend.

Oh, and a funny story: I scored a goal while playing soccer with the older orphans yesterday, and everyone on my team started giving me high fives and congratulating me. I had no idea what was going on, probably because they all said that it was "next goal wins" in Romanian and forgot to tell the American on the field. So I basically scored the game-winning goal, which beat the opposing team in which every player was an orphan, and I was oblivious the whole time. Talk about a bittersweet moment.

Spring Is Around the Corner

Spring is in the air, at least it seems like. It seems warmer, sunnier, and greener here the past week, so much so I've made the bold decision to pack up the long underwear. My sources tell me the weather could change at any moment and that it could very well snow later this week, but I'm think they've had too much salami. People are starting to come outside more and do "outdoorsy" things, such as eating lunch in the park, playing soccer, and street merchants setting up their carts in the city center. I know I'm going to jinx it by saying this too soon and with my luck there will be a blizzard this weekend, but I'm betting Spring just around the corner.

Last week we went by the Serbian/Hungarian border to take care of some stuff, and it got me thinking: Can I now say I've been to Serbia? I was five miles from the border, and I know that I wasn't "technically" there, but I'm going to say I've been there because I don't know anyone who's been closer (except for Preston Curry, who lived there). We had a meeting on Saturday in Susani with all these funny, sweet kids who did a bunch of arts and crafts. They'll be some of the kids we get to do VBS stuff with in the summer, so I was glad to spend some time with them. It was weird, all of them looked like we could be related. Ovidiu asked me to speak on Sunday so I spoke on Luke 15, which I thought went well. I felt very priviliged that he would want me to do that and afterwards, like usual, we had some of Adina's heavenly cooking and hung out at the house sharing funny stories. On Sunday night we had a big meeting again in our apartment, which is slowly getting bigger.

On Friday we're going to the Gavojdia Orphanage for the first time, which is something I've been looking forward to for a long time. I'm eager to see what orphanages look like here in Romania and to have an unbelievable experience like that. One thing I love about being in Romania is that every day seems to be a great experience that I've never had before. I wake up every day and know that this isn't just a normal day, but a day in which I'll be living in a culture I never imagined I would ever experience.For instace, when we came in the apartment a little while ago, we saw our old gypsy friend digging through our garbage can for food. We gave her a loaf of bread and some encouragement, and as she was leaving I can't help but think that those type of moments are ones I won't ever forget. Some things just go beyond words.

Since it's been a while, I have two funny stories of the week: 1)My friend Raul told me on Sunday that he had a pet lamb one time. I thought it was funny because it was so random, so he tells me the story (without any pauses at all), "Yeah, it was great. I walk him on leash all the time and he pull me around and he was my friend. He was so cute and awesome, I loved it. But my Dad killed it and we ate it for dinner." That's a story twist for the ages. Raul's the man.

2) I was in the shower yesterday and about to start to get the shampoo out of my hair, and all of a sudden I see solid brown water all over my feet. I thought it was something in my hair so I started washing my hair to get it all out, but looking down I see Nesquick-colored water running down arm. The maintenance crew was working on the water pipeline outside and all this dust and dirt had gotten into the pipeline, so the water looked like Austin Power's coffee in "The Spy Who Shagged Me." No worries, though: early yesterday afternoon everything was back to normal. Danny and Ruben laughed at me and said they'd never seen it so brown in their life. No matter where you are in the world, brown water is never natural. Have a great week friends.

Straja Recap, Etc.

It's been quite a week since my last post. We got back from the weekend in Straja really late on Sunday night, but it was a great time. We took about 25 people to Straja, a mountain resort place about four hours from Lugoj. We stayed at the "Sissi", a cabin about 2 km from the mountain. We got stuck big time getting up to Sissi because of the snow and slush, but after an hour we finally got there. We had long, exhausting snowball fights, Bible studies led by Ovidiu, intense games of Rummy, and mici (Romanian meat). We went sledding on the mountain on Saturday afternoon, which was amazing. Unlike Colorado or New Mexico, all of the hotels and rentals were on the top of the mountain, so it was like a big Romanian party up there. There were skiers, but we preferred to sled on plastic sacks and cheap sled rentals. It was great to get to hang out with some Romanian students, who taught me some new hilarious phrases such as, "Shut up, I'm the boss." We also played charades in Romanian, which was great for everyone except the American in the room. All in all, great trip, great people, loads of snow, and beautiful scenery.

The rest of the week looks pretty exciting. Ovidiu came to our apartment today and showed us the blueprints from House of Joy, which looks really impressive. It's going to be a great building and they definitely have big plans for the future. We'll be going to Timisoara tomorrow to do "business", and early next week I'll be going to Gavojdia to the orphanage for the first time, which I'm really looking forward to. This orphanage is one of the sites that Pioneer will be working at when they come over in early June. Everyone is incredibly excited about having the group come over in June and about having me here for the next five months, so that's a good thing.

I want to put a funny story on every post, so here it is. Danny and I were walking through the city center in Lugoj this afternoon, which is basically a big row of shops and stores, and saw a massive pile of snow fall on this high school guy from the roof of the building. It almost felt like a scene from Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, except no Macaulay Culkin. I almost felt bad for the guy, but I felt worse because I didn't have a video camera. Adios and have a great week.