Thursday May 30th 2013 30/05/2013
The main event of the day is the unloading of the Mustard Seed Jersey aid trailer at Cefa. It was brought over by a Romanian haulier.
But before that I had an easy morning, declining all suggestions of trips out as I felt utterly shattered, having not slept well. However I had a very interesting discussion with Florina at Vineyard. She began by telling me that she knew of a forthcoming wedding, involving 2 young people (one of whom I know) both have come up through the state orphanage system, who have been assisted through various programmes and succeeded. To hear of such a marriage is always fantastic news as we know it means the possibility of breaking out of the cycle of an unloved child unable to give and receive love, abandoning their own children so the cycle can continue.
The conversation then continued to weddings. To my surprise Florina said how she dreads weddings because of the cost involved. It is expected that all guests will give a gift of money and the expectation would be that it would be the equivalent of probably more than one month's salary and how at times to give a smaller gift would be greeted with very clear displeasure. So for many this is a financial impossibility. This is obviously the culture, but I was quite shocked to realise that what I would have viewed as a celebration here in Romania for financial reasons is often dreaded.
It was pouring with rain in Oradea, but Ken and Florence of Vineyard prayed that it would not rain in Cefa for the unloading. And straight after lunch we set out to Cefa. And sure enough the closer we got to Cefa the brighter the sky came. Virtually all the unloading took place in the dry, except for the last quarter of an hour when the heavens opened, lightning flashed and thunder roared.
It has to be admitted that some of the aid was slightly damaged in the accident, but 98% was unaffected. The aid had moved when the vehicle went off the road and the door was tight jammed shut but it was opened eventually by persistent charity workers with various levers and bars.
It looks like the rain has stopped so maybe I shall make it over to Casa Mabel without getting soaked again in search of a hot cup of tea, before we go out to do a pensioner distribution, though unless the rain stops it will be cancelled as no sensible pensioner would venture out in this as the drainage is so poor there will be deep puddles in places!!!