A Day In the Life.

I have already been hear a month and I can't believe how quickly the time has flown by. I have somewhat settled into a routine, and I know you'd all love to know how I spend my time, so here goes...

I get up between 7:30-8:00, eat breakfast, which most recently has been bread and cheese and warm milk. I try to make it to bet bus stop around 8:30 to meet Laura (the team member I live closest to). We have crazy bus rides because there is usually standing room only that time of day and in a 20 minute bus ride you get prodded and shuffled around quite a bit.
We walk about 5 minutes across a parking lot, down some steps and past about 11 dogs and some ducks and chickens to make it to the center by 9:00 for chapel. Chapel is different each day of the week, but there is always singing (in Romanian) then someone either shares or reads scripture or a combination of both.

The kids start coming a little after 10:00. In Romania different age groups go to school at different times. Some kids come before school, some after. There are about 35 kids total who come to the center each day. They range in age from 7-20. Individually the team is still trying to figure out how we can help the staff in working with the kids. For example, one day a week I do a craft with a group. This just started last week, but they seemed to enjoy making tissue paper flowers.

We eat most everyday at 1:30 at the center. You have to eat everything on you plate so I'm glad that the food at the center is pretty good. (if it is not so good one day you mix small bites of the food on your plate with big bites of bread) The kids rush though their meal in order to start play time ASAP. Most kids go outside to play basketball or some version of dodgeball. There is also a swing, jumpropes, hoolahoops, etc. etc. I usually opt for staying inside to play games or work puzzles with the kids.

Play time ends at 3:00 so that is the time the team has meetings if we need to or sometimes I help with office work that needs to be done. We are also free to read or study Romanian in the afternoons.

We are officially done for the day about 5:15 although more often than not the team hangs around to use the computers or hang out and play a game or something. Most nights I make it home between 7:00-8:00 and my host mom will heat up my dinner which is almost exclusively soup plus something else. She has only served me a handful of things I haven't liked. It can be tough at times not knowing what you're eating, but I am definitly fed well here.

We also have book study twice a week. We have already gone through In the Name of Jesus by Henri Nouwen and we will finish Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger this week.

Three times a week we go to language lessons with Simona. She works at the art museum, so we take a bus there and we crowd around her office desk for an hour and a half while she holds up 8.5 x 11 sheets of paper for us to copy down what she has written. I am usually looking at my watch 30 minutes into the lesson, but I have a random american radio station playing November Rain and End of the Road by Boyz II Men through out the lesson, so that helps keep me sane. Simona truly deserves her own post so that is all go into now.

So that is what my time looks like here. I honestly can not believe it has been a month. In just another 2 weeks we'll be leaving for our time in Moldova!