Cooking- Romanian Style
Last Friday Mel and I had the opportunity to start learning how to make traditional Romanian foods. I am sure you have heard me mention before Liana and Emil. Well Liana's mother worked in a several restaurants during the communist period. She is a fantastic cook. It has really been my desire to learn to cook the traditional Romanian food we have eaten here so that I can take that part of Romania back to America with me. On Friday we prepared Salata de Beoff. Previously I might have described it as potato salad but after making it I realize it is much more than potato salad. It is made from homemade mayonnaise, cooked chicken, cooked carrots, cooked potatoes, dill pickles, canned peas, an apple. Everything in the Salata is the same size (pea size) so Mel and I did a lot of chopping. Once it was finished Liana's mom helped us mold the salad by hand and and then decorate it. We decorated it with slices of pickled peppers, cooked egg whites, and carrots. It was delicious. What made the whole experience so special was the relationships we got to enjoy. When we first got to her house we sat and had coffee and homemade pastries. There was no cooking until we had relaxed and talked together. This Friday we are going to make Cozonac. A delicious Romanian bread for special occasions.
Ministry Starts Back Up
Over Christmas and New Years we had a break from ministries but last week they started up again. Maurice is back to doing flooring in Tsigmandru with Marius. This has been really great because he spends more time talking to Marius. Maurice gets to practice his Romanian and Marius is learning English. Maurice has even gone to his house twice for lunch. What a privilege. I have taken the boys there and they love it. It is as close to grandma's farm as they have had. There were pigs, chickens, rabbits, and even puppies.
Mamarute has also started back up. This semester we are doing 10 weeks on habitats around the world. This week was Africa. The kids have fun because we make a poster for each habitat. They color all the pictures and then we glue them on. They are getting to be quite creative. Please be in prayer for one of the little boys in this group. Adi's grandmother died around November and he has really been acting out since them. Please pray that we will know how to help him during this difficult and confusing time.
The Thursday after New Years we hosted an ice cream party for the teens from our church. we invited Liana and Emil's two boys- Lian and Andrei. They came a brought a couple of friends. we made banana splits and I am pretty sure none of them have ever had such a thing. Most kids liked it. We played a great game called "Pass the Pigs" that my sister-in-law sent me for Christmas. The teens loved it and now we play it at any teen gathering. We also had an open gym day at the Baragan school on Saturday to reconnect with the Baragan teens. It was a fun two hours (but I'll admit I was a little sore the next day). We also invited Lian and Adrei. Lian said that it was "forte frumos" meaning it was terrific.
Doama Lenuta (pronounced Lenutza)
If you recall from previous posts this is the elderly women we met during the food drive. We have been continuing our weekly visits to her. She enjoys talking about old traditions, questions about God, and telling stories from her childhood. She wants us to write her stories down and take them to America. When we get them all compiled we will put them on the blog to read. Please be in prayer for her as well. She had some heart problems over Christmas and needs a new pacemaker but can't afford it. She trusts God though to provide for her needs. After Christmas Roberta, Maurice, and I went to see her. She said she had questions about the church and would not have peace until she had the answers. She always asks me who is home with the boys. When I tell her that Maurice is- she just chuckles. She really gets a laugh when I tell her that he washes dishes and does laundry. I guess that is just not man's work here. She likes him anyway. She has promised to go to church in a couple weeks when Maurice is preaching but she is very nervous about all the stairs. Please be in prayer that she will safely get down the stairs when we take her to church.
New Years
Almost everything in town shut down for the first two days of the new year. That pretty much left us nothing to do except stay in our pajamas all day and watch "Pride and Prejudice" - TWICE. The first one was the one Melanie had which is the new version. After that we watched the 6 hour version I have. Maurice is probably a little sick of girl movies. In addition to that we had a visit from Lian and Andrei with their friend Roxi. They came with a rose and pine branch wrapped in tinsel. After some miscommunication I finally understood that Mel and I were just supposed to stand there. They sang us a song and tapped our shoulders with the flower. I am not sure what it means but it was fun.
Christmas Treat
For a Christmas treat over the holidays we all went to a swimming pool about 1/2 hour away. It was a great time and the water felt like bath water. It was a little expensive by Romanian standards but it was actually about the same as going to the movies in America. Nolan and Liam really loved it as they have only had a couple of opportunities to swim since we have been here.
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