Did I tell you in the last diary that the much needed rain finally
arrived yesterday? We had been praying it would come; Alex had told us how some
of the Mustard Seed land has not been seeded this year because it was so very
dry and there is no possibility of irrigation at the moment for those fields –
last year the plants in those same fields died for lack of rain (we hope to
obtain what is needed for irrigation in time for next year’s crops as water is
available but we did not have the means to get it to the crops). Now the rain
has come and still more is needed and it is much colder! The temperature has
dropped from the early 30s to the teens I reckon. Of course with the official
opening of the pensioners’ home tomorrow followed by a bazaar we do not want
rain tomorrow.
We have had a very “unbusy” day today. We had
a leisurely start and then went into town to meet Nicu
for a working lunch and that was really good – both lunch, the company and the
discussions. After that we came back towards Cefa and
went to a road-side place advertising antiques – what attracted us was the cart
wheels as we knew that one of the Christmas trip
drivers wanted one for his garden. The price was 35 euros but we got it down to
30 so we were pleased with that. The fun came when we tried to re-arrange the
car to fit it in! We are going to come back very full as we have a flat packed
stair-case to pick up for my parents in St Malo just
before we return to
This evening was the pensioners’ meeting at the little Cefa church and social assistance centre. We went to that
and both Phil and I were thoroughly kissed and blessed and thanked! At one
stage Alex was laughing as I saying Yes in Romanian to whatever was being said
to me (which I was guessing at but couldn’t understand!) and he wondered what I
was unknowingly agreeing to, so in the talk he gave before the distribution he
specifically mentioned that I do not understand Romanian, so nobody should go
to him and say that I had agreed with them when they said they should be given
x y or z!!
We gave out food parcels to all the pensioners on the Adopt a Granny
Scheme. A number (about half I reckon) had a box packed for them by their
sponsor so for the others Alex had packed a large bag of clothes so all had a
bag of food and something else. They listened very intently when I had to
explain through Alex that not all had a box but that it had nothing to do with
disapproval of the people who did not receive a named box. But seeing the
intensity with which they listened made me realise we must try to organise it
differently next time and if I ask that all boxes packed by sponsors are given
to us earlier then so long as we have the goods available we can pack boxes for
all those whose sponsor has not packed a box and then none will have the
obvious disappointment of not having a box with their own name on it. And when
it comes to Christmas we must check each pensioner has a named box, it is so
clearly important to them to have that personal touch of their name written on
the box. That way another month all can have a bag of clothes as well as their
food parcel.
Tomorrow is a big day with an early start so I reckon that bed calls! I
can still hear Alex and