[thenightwriterblog] The Night Writer: A Little Slice

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Posted by The Night Writer:
A Little Slice
http://thenightwriterblog.powerblogs.com/posts/1185786422.shtml


   [1]Here's the bldg. Salem Church has built. It has dorms we're staying
                                    in. 

   Hello from Romania. We arrived safely after about 27 hours of
   traveling. We slept the first night about 10 to 11 hours. It wasn't
   enough. The young missionaries have been doing a little training here
   in country and tonight (Sun.) will run their first Vacation Bible
   School (VBS) event in two park locations in the city. We have two
   teams to do VBS, and starting tomorrow morning each team will run VBS
   twice daily in two different locations. One will be done in the
   morning, and one in the evening because parents generally will not let
   their kids out during the afternoon because of heat advisories. This
   evening we'll see if all their training pays off.
   As for myself, I have been busy running errands, doing administrative
   activities and trying to be helpful wherever I can. I am in the
   fortunate position of being part of what's going on, but not being
   directly responsible for any young people. Today I got to do one of my
   favorite things while in a foreign land, and that is going to the
   store.
   The market, which is family-run stands, is closed today because it's
   Sunday, but the large department store is open. Itâs always fun to see
   how these things run a little bit differently in different places.
   Here you have to rent your shopping cart for 50 lei (maybe 29 cents).
   You put the coin into a device with a coin slot which is attached to
   the cart itself and then itâs released from its chain. The store is
   huge, maybe the size of a super Target and it sells everything from a
   drill press to women's underwear to food. I had gone in first, without
   a cart, to scope out where everything was, or so I thought. When I was
   ready I went to the Information desk (like customer service) and got
   some change because I didn't have any Romanian coins. I got my cart,
   looking just like I belonged there, I'm certain. After all, someone
   mistook me for a Romanian yesterday. I went and gathered up my items,
   including six big loaves of bread, for our daily PBJs. I got some red
   paper for one of the VBS projects. Then I went looking for some
   personal items. Sunblock: Patience had hers confiscated because she
   put it into her carry-on luggage, mints, Kleenex. Why canât I find
   Kleenex. I decided to ask a woman I saw wearing a store smock. I asked
   her first if she spoke any English. No such luck. So I acted out
   blowing my nose and she caught on right away and took me to the
   correct aisle. An aisle which I had already been down, of course, but
   the Kleenex werenât packaged the same as at home and 90% of them
   arenât the Kleenex brand.
   Its great fun looking at all of the different products and packaging
   and I could spend a lot of time in here. I also came across an
   espresso stand so a bought a cup of espresso for less than 50 cents.
   It was interesting. It came from some kind of automated machine, not
   an espresso machine. It tasted ok for someone who hadnât had any
   coffee in two days.
   When I got to the check out I unloaded my items onto the belt, but the
   woman didnât start ringing them up. She looked at me and said âyou
   must have cardâ. I motioned to my stuff as if I wanted to leave it
   there and she indicated that was fine. Back at the information desk I
   gave them my passport. They made a copy of it and input some info from
   it into a computer. What in the world is this all about? They gave me
   a sheet of paper with my name (spelled wrong) and some other
   information and I gave that to the checkout lady and she rang my stuff
   up. Then I was stopped by security on the way out so they could match
   my purchases to my receipts. I know I look pretty suspicious. But at
   least I got my 50 lei back when I returned my cart.
   Itâs interesting how they track foreigners. They got my passport info
   when I exchanged currency earlier, and now they know what I did with
   some of that money. This is supposedly a âfreeâ country. Well, at
   least itâs no longer communist.

References

   1. file://localhost/files/thenightwriterblog-IMG_1828.JPG