Days 16 and 17

Another horse and buggy pic

Trevor and Monica at the map pointing out how far away Romania and the US are!

Me at the children's library

Paula holding up a blank patron record at the children's library

The last work week is finally here! It has taken me two days to recuperate from our trip to Bucharest. I've had to take a nap both Monday and Tuesday afternoons, and I'm still tired! School continues as usual. We still have quite a few students showing up for each session. The eleventh graders tend to show up for the first session, and sometimes the ninth and tenth graders stay for both sessions. We work from 9:00 to 1:00. Surprisingly to me, the most difficult thing I've found about this trip is working with some of the volunteers to plan activities. I guess different people have different ideas about how to do things and it can cause conflict. Who knew.

I also think it's important to understand that this isn't a vacation. We're not in an area frequented by tourists. That means some of the amenities we're used to as Americans aren't here and there's no point in complaining about it. I knew going in that this was not a vacation, so I was surprised that some people had the same expectations they would have if they were on a vacation. My advice, for what it's worth: if you want a vacation, take one. If you want to immerse yourself in another culture and you're willing to serve and you're flexible and open-minded, then volunteer. Don't bother to complain about the food, the service, or anything else because it isn't going to change. We're the oddities here, and we have to find a way to fit in.

I've enjoyed working with the students for the past several days. We talked about jobs on Monday, read an article about the top careers that are still good in spite of the economy, compared them to Romanian jobs, and talked about the sad fact that our college experience doesn't give us the technical skills that we need to compete for these jobs. I find over and over again that we share the same problems, frustrations, and concerns. Today the girls took me to the children's library. Again, there must not be a Romanian word for the concept of weeding. The library was full of very old books. I don't think I saw a book that wasn't yellowed with age, dusty, and quite worn. I think the Romanian librarians would be horrified if they saw what I have done for the past two years at the QVMS Library! I'm sure they would love to get the books I had to remove from the collection to make way for new ones. I have lamented not having as much money as I like to buy new books, but after seeing these libraries, I am more thankful for what I have.

We're headed back into Barlad tonight for a little shopping and our second to last dinner out. Time is flying by. Soon it will be time to say our goodbyes.