Well, this is going to be brief. It's 10:30 and I'm in a hurry! We had an evening service tonight, that was amazing, but our day was one thing to the next, to the next until this very moment. In fact, we came home and the rest of the team is packing candy bags for all the kids, so I'm skipping out of the "next thing" to give you this brief update. Pastor Tim needs the internet tonight for important business, so I want to make sure I'm off the computer early enough that he's not up later than necessary. I will post pictures tomorrow for both days. Tomorrow night some are going to the service but others are staying home...I'm planning to stay home and work on my projects. I'm having a hard time keeping up! I've already taken almost 3000 pictures, about 2000 of which are "good." It takes several hours a day to load them, go through them, tweak them, save them, shrink them, and blog them! And I'm at about 5 hours of video footage as well. I'm going to join the gypsy circus with my juggling act!
Hightlights: No rain today! YAY! VBS in Oserhei went well. Chrissy and Martha gave the lesson, Cody did games, Rich handled babies and behaviour issues...as usual. Today the kids at Oserhei were a little more wild than normal. Usually they're the more well behaved village. They weren't bad, just tired us out a little more than usual and we were tired to start with! As much as I love taking pictures of them, I am getting a little tired of taking the SAME children's pictures for the zillionth time. I usually delete what I don't want as I go so I don't use up memory space that I don't need. My camera has become part of the activity time...I have a herd of children around me at all times yelling "Poser, Poser!" which means "Picture, Picture!" I have to eventually yell "GATTA! GATTA!" which means "Enough! Enough!" They're quick learners, though, and they'll go grab a team member and say, "Poser, Poser" and of course, how can I turn down a picture of THAT? lol. They bring me their baby brothers and sisters in an attempt to get me to take more pictures. As we are all packed in the van, they are still up against the windows, some still asking for posers. I got tired of hearing "poser" after awhile and started telling them to say "Schnazzy" or "Funky" instead. We're quite amused because now they think those words have something to do with pictures. The next Americans to visit will wonder why these kids are running around yelling, "Schnazzy, schnazzy! Funky, Funky!" lol
While we're on the topic of language, it's funny when the kids pull out some English from time to time. One boy told us he was Michael Jackson. Another child said, "I love you, baby." One little girl sweetly told Martha, "I love you, in the Lord." Occasionally they'll say "hi" or "bye bye" or "Thank you." And they're so proud of themselves. It's adorable. But I think my favorite will still be schnazzy and funky. You'll have to see the video footage to appreciate it...they sound like little birds chirping out the words...hilarious.
Cheriu VBS was once again out of hand for game time. We had to send a number of kids "CASA" (home) because they would not listen. Cody and James had to hold a couple children captive so they wouldn't interfere with the games. We were attempting tug of war and jump rope. And there was a loose form of Red Rover at one point too...which basically consisted of lining up the men with their arms linked and sending the kids running down the hill to see if they could break through in masses. It was amusing. And wore them out for a few minutes.
After VBS today, the children in Oserhei decided it was playdoh day! And yes, you can just imagine what their playdoh is made of. Very thick mud, which is not always just dirt! Mmmmm. They take it and make little bowl shaped objects out of it and then throw it down on the road so that the air pocket makes a loud popping noise. I love the creativity of it and that they amuse themselves, but I still had a difficult time stomaching the concept in general.
We were invited into another home tonight, I have pictures I will share tomorrow.
The service tonight was really cool. We were back at Cheriu and Pastor Tim's good friend, a gypsy pastor, visted and his team gave a musical presentation (he invited our girls to give an impromptu musical number, which they did quite nicely). The church members brought out their church pews and set them in the street. Others stood outside their front gates and watched. A few horse drawn wagons came during the service, one went right through the middle, the other was polite and went around. I loved hearing the authentic gypsy music...so beautiful and moving.
As promised, Leevu was not around today, but we DID see him in town, driving his horse drawn wagon on his way home from wherever he was. He waived. We tease Sarah mercilessly. But she would like everyone to know that the moment she found out that he may have misconstrued her friendliness (and that in their culture, things are taken much more seriously), she made it quite clear that she is not interested. That's her story and she's stickin' to it. lol
Well, time for me to go to bed. I was falling asleep standing up. Time to get one good night's rest before our last day of VBS tomorrow. Thanks for all your prayers and your comments...the team enjoyed hearing. It was a topic of discussion at lunch...Who left comments? What did they say? Did so and so comment on this picture? :) GATTA! GATTA!
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