May.
My sister arrived in Iasi (Thea, in case you were wondering which sister) on May 5th and we spent some 2 to 2.5 weeks together. I actually have no idea how long it was. She left way too soon, yet it seemed like she was here forever because there is no way that all of the things we did could possibly have fit into 17 days. Highlights of her visit included laughing so hard we cried at Little Texas with Lilian, singing all of our old songs together in Spanish and Swahili and English, roaming the streets of Iasi every day, all day.
In her earnest endeavor to get Romanians to smile at her, we encountered one rather creepy gentleman who tried to get us to go for a ride to a museum (???) with him at something like 11:00 p.m. Nah...let's play the old "I don't speak Romanian" trick and whip out the old cell phone. Magic.
The first couple of days of her visit we spent largely with an extremely friendly feller called Iulian. They're a dime a dozen in these parts, but this one is special. He's a real estate dude and I was scouting out some apartments for no good reason. He speaks Romanian ridiculously fast, and the first day I couldn't catch where he said we were to meet him. So Thea and I showed up at the office at the appointed time and asked the guy there where the dude we were supposed to meet was.
"You have an appointment with an agent? What's his name?"
Thea and I just stared at each other. We had no idea. But then Mr. Remax himself called my phone...so I put his boss on the line and Mr. Boss explained where Mr. Remax was and we lived happily ever after. I think at every apartment we looked at he introduced us to the owner as "the tall, beautiful, athletic American girls." Nothing like letting people form their own first opinions. :P Once, when the four of us (realtor, owner, Thea, and I) were crammed into a tiny elevator that was most definitely meant for maximum of 3 people, the owner, a man of some 65 years of age somehow decided that Thea definitely spoke Romanian quite fluently and began excitedly narrating his sportive background (volleyball coach, I think) some four inches from her face (personal space means something different in an over-crowded "lift") in his slightly accented Romanian. Poor Thea just smiled and nodded and he never knew that she wasn't just as excited about his monologue as he was.
May was a month of firsts, as well. First time my parents visited me away from home. First time my Dad and my sister celebrated their respective birthdays on this side of the ocean. First time I've ridden a metro in a foreign country. First time on a train by myself. I daresay it was the first time most of my friends had met a girl taller than *gasp* 180 cm!
The last couple of days (yes, I do know that it's June now. Well into June.) we've opened the house to studiers who have no place to study. It's been fun watching the green gate creak open and waiting to see which hardworking medical students will pop by today. I love making food for them--they're rather an exceptionally agreeable crowd, and it's a lovely opportunity to practice my basically nonexistent cooking skills. Tonight after dinner, Femi sat down at the piano and began playing worship songs. Within minutes, he was surrounded/joined by Issa on the shakers, Uche on the drum, Trevor on the guitar, Anita on the tambourine, and Christina on some other random instrument, and yours truly just filling in.
African worship songs + hyperactive, overstudied med students + random assortment of instruments = a truly memorable worship experience.
It's been a sweet time for ministry as well. The students are right in the thick of exam season, and we don't see them around as much, so Christina and I went to see some of them yesterday and we had a lovely time praying with them and delivering some goodies we found somewhere.
My tickets are booked! I'll be back in the good ol' US of A on July 22nd.
Prayer Requests:
*Wisdom in discerning God's will for the future/life post-July 22nd.
*That I would finish strongly here and be all here until I'm physically no longer here
*That the believers would set a good example during this high-stress exam season
Picnic at the Kosobuckis with Rovina and Kim
2 comments:
No need for pics in your posts, Chelle -- it's so entertaining reading them all on their own. lol. You sure had some fun adventures with Thea, but I think I would have been too scared to have enjoyed it (the elevator story sounded quite interesting)! Blessings as you press on!
Oh, honey! I LOVE your version! And I love you. :-) And I'm so stinkin' excited that you're coming home on the 22nd!
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