August 31, 2008: Viaţa, Day One – Romanian Theatre Games

Dear Friend,

I had a wonderful day today that once again ended with utter exhaustion. It may have to do with my six-thirty wake up times, but those are convenient as no one else is up using the shower. I went out by myself this morning for a hike. It was nice to be hiking alone and picking blueberries, reflecting on the past couple of days and thinking about the upcoming week of camp.

Janelle was up when I returned and Chelsea eventually woke up to make the pancake mix. I then volunteered to make the pancakes. Janelle and I had a conversation about denominations while preparing breakfast, which seemed appropriate as we were planning on attending the Orthodox church just up the road. I’m reminded of a chapter in one of Slavenka Drakulić’s books, where she writes how the kitchen is one of the best places to have conversations because it’s a natural environment for most people, primarily women of Communist and post-Communist societies. The denominations conversation was one of many conversations I was having in the kitchen throughout the week. Yesterday it was about taking liberties with theatre and art. I was explaining to Janelle and Daniel how some artists seem to think they have the liberty to say and do whatever they want, and then use freedom of expression in defense of such liberties. I then shared my thoughts of how, from a Christian perspective, such liberties do not mean freedom. By the way, the pancakes turned out very well.

The Orthodox service was interesting, despite the fact I couldn’t understand a word being said. Apparently the service starts around 8:00 and ends around 11:00. People come to the service and leave whenever they please. We spent an hour at the service. Before you enter the church building you walk through a separate hall dedicated to the church calendar. Every day of the year is a saint’s day (except February 29, which was interesting.) One wall had paintings of all the saints with their corresponding days and months. The church calendar begins in September and ends in August. There was a lot of kneeling and standing, praying and chanting in the actual service, all of it liturgical.

Dana, Brandi, and Brianna came to visit us after we returned to the Cabana following the service. Janelle and Brandi made lunch while Dana spoke with us about some aspects of Orthodoxy and its similarities/differences with Protestantism. Orthodoxy, from what I gathered during our group discussion, focuses very much on the Trinity. Also, Orthodoxy holds a different view of the Incarnation, one that emphasizes more than just the forgiveness of sins. According to Orthodoxy, the Incarnation (God coming to earth in human form as Christ) was always God’s plan, even before the Fall. I don’t know how much involvement I’ll have in the class this semester on Orthodoxy, but it sounds very interesting.

I once again exhibited my talents in the kitchen by doing the dishes. There’s a section in the New Horizon’s contract that requires its volunteers to have a “How can I help?” attitude. I’m trying to practice that attitude as much as I can. Again, the kitchen is a very happening place. Some of our new Romanian friends popped into the cabană for awhile. Janelle and Brandi were still making lunch when Ilie, Claudius, and Tibi (whom I met last night at Dana’s party) showed up and socialized for awhile. Ilie (whose name is Romanian for Elijah) is a coordinator for the Viaţa camp. Each of us is going to be paired up so work with a Viaţa group. Claudius, someone Andrew and I met a couple days ago and played Frisbee with, said Anne and I were chosen to be members of his Viaţa group. We weren’t going to meet up until four, though.

My apprehensions about co-leading a camp group were only half justifiable. Sure the whole experience was somewhat difficult (it was mostly conducted in Romanian), but it was also very enjoyable. Our head leader Ana led us in some very familiar improv games as group ice breakers. I felt right at home. The exciting, confusing, even awkward games were very much the ones I played back at Northwestern. I really hope I may have the opportunity to introduce other games to this group.

Since our meeting was at four, we didn’t have much time to really do anything as a group. The kids had to have physicals of some kind before entering into the week of adventure. Soon supper came along (we had schnitzel) and the night was over at eleven. Anne and I had some time to hang out with our fellow leaders. We were all tired by this point, so interaction was somewhat lethargic. At the end of the night Ana wanted to discuss tomorrow’s plans, which took quite awhile to get around to. By the time I got back to the cabană I only wanted to shut down and go to bed.

As I reflected on the day, I noticed how much the language barrier was bothering me. I guess I had been hoping I’d be able to brush it off. It made sense there would be some difficulty with language, so I had been preparing myself to just deal with it. At the end of the day, though, I began realizing just how much I hadn’t been prepared. I’m hoping I’ll be able to adapt more throughout the week, use Romanian as much as I can. I also hope the language barrier won’t keep the group from meshing anyway.

Blessings.
Kailen