well yeah despite last night's loss to South Africa in the rugby world cup final, I am pleased to say the night itself was a great one as we turned our street into a rugby carnival for the neighbours... more to come on this...
I have been touched this week by further incidences of friendly neighbours and local people, who are willing to be hospitable within minutes of meeting me, or offer me things irrespective of how poor or busy they are at the times I have been talking with them, let me explain...
I'll start with Sunday night, after leaving the internet cafe I met a friend of mine Ana Maria (sister of our interpreter's brother) for a d rink in the main bar 'Infinity'. Her good friend Angela joined us shortly after I arrived, and after a swift couple of beers and some superficial chat, not only had I learned several things about her, ( some of which I could happily live without knowing) she invited us to her flat around the corner to watch TV, and chat some more... to make me feel at home, she had walked, on what was a freezing night, to a shop to buy some 'suc' (juice) as she had no drink in the house... just a small gesture, but appreciated none the less...
Tuesday:- whilst on way home from work, I stopped to speak to three of the kids on the street, as I often do, I was talking about the upcoming rugby final, and asking them to invite their parents to our rugby party on the coming Saturday... whilst talking, a guy about 28 or so pulled up in a van, and was going to enter the house I was stood outside, he introduced himself and had excellent English... he was from a charity that visited this house, as it was one of only 2 houses in Tarnaveni, which housed kids that were previously in orphanages... it was a bit of a revelation as I hadn’t thought about the number of kids I had seen in the house before. The foster 'mum' then came out of the house and introduced herself, I invited her to our party, but she explained she was busy on Saturday... however, she insisted on me coming inside the house there and then, to look around, and showed me the kids rooms, lots of photographs of past and present kids, and then insisted I sit with the kids whilst the guy from the charity showed them a film on his laptop... offering me crisps and juice...
Wednesday:- after watching a very disappointing England vs Russia football match, there was a knock on my door, and there stood four of the Hungarian sisters, asking me to join them for drinks for one of their birthdays. How could I possibly refuse such an invitation.... but again just being invited for drinks for a birthday of someone I didn't know so well was great...
Saturday:- well this is where the week ended with a great night, ( despite the result...) we decided to have the rugby party and invite neighbours, so with the help of the patients, who happily painted English flags all week.... we put the flags up around the house, and I made two signs (one in English, one in Romanian) saying 'rugby world cup, Saturday, live at the English house"!!! See attached pictures. Actually yesterday afternoon, I tied the Romanian sign around my neck, and knocked on a few doors in the street inviting the neighbours in broken English/Romanian to come to our house... I only got ushered out of one house, because they were a bit unsure why this guy had a big sign round his neck and was speaking in some weird language.... however, most of the neighbours found this highly entertaining, and some even turned up!!!! We had beer, juice and usual party food, and had guests from 12 years to 55+ including some people we knew and some we just met last night.... it was really interesting talking to everyone that came, as we had all ages and both Hungarian and Romanian nationalities and it was nice to kind of give a bit of hospitality back to our lovely neighbours... even if they think I am slightly mad now..... still, I have seen some neighbours today and they offered their condolences for England's defeat... (most of them don’t even like rugby!!!)
Anyway, I'll say goodbye for now, and hope to hear from you all soon.
Regards from Romania
Dan
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