October 27, 2008: Further Detoxification

Dear Friend,

I took another day off today to rest and recoup. That pizza (or whatever it was) really did a number on me. However, I did do some work, mainly on KINGDOM WORK. After all the events of the past week – culture shock, Boal paper, A.R.T. Fusion workshop, food poisoning – I’ve gotten, shall we say, a little behind in my blogging. I also rediscovered my affection for Star Trek, but don’t worry. I wouldn’t dare bore you with those details (ha!)

Diana was also staying home from the office today. The office can be a very distracting environment, so being able to work from home can be a major benefit. Diana’s sister, Corina, teaches Romanian at a nearby high school, so she’s usually up and out the door rather early in the morning. Sometimes she has private lessons at home, but those are after school gets out.

Diana and I got the chance to talk over lunch. It’s been such a blessing to be able to talk with someone I’m living with. Granted, I can’t blame Iris, Vali, or their mother for not being able to give me a whole lot of attention. During the day, each of them was working, and as I’m not much of a night person, we weren’t really able to socialize much when they all were home. What interaction we did have, though, I greatly cherish, probably more so because it was so infrequent. Being able to have frequent conversations with Diana, therefore, has been really nice. Our discussions of late have been about our families, our family drama, Christian schools, living in the city, and theatre. We connect on many levels.

I expressed a desire to go grocery shopping at some point in the day, so later in the afternoon we went. I had been planning on buying my own groceries, but that didn’t happen. Romanians are very adamant about serving their guests, something I noticed with Iris’ mother. Grocery shopping is very expensive here, and compared to the kind of grocery shopping I do with my family in the States, we didn’t get that much. When I’m home, we’re usually able to stuff and heap up two grocery carts full of items, making our price quite high. Today, we filled maybe half of a cart, which is only about three-quarters the size of one in the states, and had to pay quite a bit. Diana even paid for my new toothbrush.

Janelle had called me a couple days ago about some mishap the Lupeni students had during their midterm break in Greece. You may find out more on their website (http://nwcromania.blogspot.com/) in a couple days, I’d imagine, but apparently one of them had their passport stolen. Beginning this week, they’re all supposed to be in Cluj, so when we returned from shopping I called Janelle to find out what the status was. The student whose passport was stolen had remained in Greece with another student, and the other three managed their way to Cluj. Everyone was alright, and a passport was going to be provided soon, but the whole ordeal still sounded quite outrageous. When I called, they had all just sat down to supper, so Janelle promised to have the students call me in awhile to chat.

After awhile, my cell phone rang (I would never have expected those words to ever be associated with me.) I had the chance to speak with Anne, Solita, and Hollyann. As Solita had gone to Hungary for her break and hadn’t been in Bucureşti that day I met everyone else, we had quite a bit of catch up to do. It was wonderful to have the chance to speak with each of them. Apparently the Bulgaria/Greece group bought a present for me, but I told them to keep it a surprise.

I’m hoping I’ll be rid of all illness by tomorrow. I hate “skipping out” or “playing hooky” when I know there’s work to be done, but I think these couple of days off were needed. Tomorrow I’m back in the saddle and have to start fleshing out the forum theatre curriculum. That’s a considerably huge project that is going to demand quite a bit of my time.

Blessings.
Kailen