October Greetings to you!
I’m real bummed out about the Oakland A’s playoff woes, so this email update will be dedicated to complaining about baseball 
Actually, I’m partly joking. NO more talk about baseball for the rest of the email.
Since I have been in Beius, I have heard people talk of Stana de Vale, the local ski resort and mountain get-away……
Stana is the word that references the summer grazing grounds for sheep, while Vale means valley. Last weekend, our family caught the bus that headed up the mountain to Stana at 0700. Arriving close to an hour later, we crept off the bus into a cold fog and early morning semi-darkness. One large lodge under construction, an empty and dirty looking restaurant, a concrete foundation of an old barn, and an abandoned lodge with a caved in roof composed the majority of the resort. Mom and Jana were ready to hop back on the bus back down the mountain, but the driver just parked it for the day until the afternoon return trip. Together we interpreted a posted map and discovered that any point of interest besides the dirt and grass ski hill were over a 15 kilometer hike away. With 6 hours to kill on a chilly, misty mountain top, we made the predictable decision: let’s eat. After
our picnic breakfast, we hiked up a logging road into the fog and mixed spruce and deciduous forest. The rain held off, the fog became much thicker, and I had a really nice time. The air actually did taste a little cleaner than the typical Romanian haze. We built a small fire, ate again, shot some eerie pictures and then took the afternoon bus home.
The weekend prior to this adventure, Dad, Clark, and I went and cheered on the local soccer/fotbal club. The semi-pro Beius team plays in the third of four Romanian leagues.
Playing a club from Oradea, the home team won a comfortable 2-1 before about 300-500 fans. I was surprised at the lack of intensity in the fans. Except for a group of rowdies supporting the opposing team, the Beius fans sat back and just observed for most of the game. Only in the final three minutes did they stand up, and I believe this was because they were anxious to leave. The fan demographics were unusual: the majority of spectators were men over 45, with a scattering of teenage and younger boys, and only 10 females in the whole crowd. I had never watched a whole fotbal game before, but had an enjoyable time.
Those were the biggest events of this last month. But to give you your money’s worth, I’ll fill you in on some of the details and interesting tidbits of daily life in Beius, Romania.
Notable Item 1: the 2 liter plastic bottle. Often times, the day seems to revolve around this common object. The day begins on the weekdays with 2 liters of fresh milk delivered to our house. My family, and my host family as well, have an arrangement with a friend who owns a milk cow. Wonderfully creamy and pure, it makes the morning cereal a treat. One of the last duties of the day is setting an empty, washed, plastic bottle out on the patio table for the milkman to pick up in the morning and replace with a full bottle. This exchange of plastic bottles is also expected if you buy milk in the market. Once or twice a week, we pack a different set of bottles a kilometer or so to the local spring to stock up on drinking water for the next few days.
Notable Item 2: Doorknobs. I haven’t seen one doorknob in all of Romania. They have doors, and they do open and close and latch, but all are operated with a horizontal handle instead of a knob. Handles are much easier to turn than a knob, especially when you have your hands full. While on the subject of doors, I have to mention the proliferation of skeleton key locks. Nearly every door has a lock (even the inner doors of a house) and a matching skeleton key. Funny/Interesting. The doors that Jeff and I have built in the woodshop follow this same standard.
I continue to learn more about the Good Samaritan organization and its relationship and service to the orphans. The organization appears to be at a critical turning point. The family has been acting like advisers, critics, and idea machines to the staff, giving our input on which direction Good Samaritan should be headed. Two or three times a week we have family discussions about our work: brainstorming, sharing information and ideas, fitting pieces together. The executive director has told us he really values our input, outside perspective, and experience. Dad is going to be involved in the screening of new staff this fall.
Good Samaritan has a group home, called Noah’s Ark, for 6 young women with developmental disabilities. This house is located in the village of Finis, 4 kilometers away. On the property are pigs and chickens, a large garden, and greenhouse that the orphans living at the home tend. Improving Noah’s Ark has become a specific family project, as this part of Good Samaritan has been somewhat neglected. Two weeks ago, Dad worked there in pouring a concrete floor. Tomorrow, we are headed to Finis to start working on the drain/sewer system. Jeff, Jana, and I have taken down the window dimensions in order to build screens and frames to help keep out the flies. We are also investigating the possibilities of Good Samaritan hiring a full-time “mom” for the girls at Noah’s Ark.
My raincoat has gotten some use in the past two weeks, and this morning I broke out my stocking cap for the bike ride to work. Clark has nearly a month of Romanian school under his belt. All the grapes have fallen off the vines outside my window, and leaves are following suit.
Check out pictures from the month of September:
I hope you are having a great autumn, exercising your positive attitude and smile muscles. I’d enjoy hearing news of what you’re up to, the best thing that has happened for you this month, etc.
Peace,
dominic
Check out pictures from the month of September
Note: Frank, Sheila, Jana, Jeff, Dominic, Clark and Aurelia are on a one year mission to Romania.
They need our prayers and support. Links to Dominics website:
