Pilgrims’ Progress

Brasov, Romania

You might meet a bear and you could go by cable car.
But true to our tradition, we walked.
And when you’ve walked to the top, you don’t want to take the cable car down; you want to run, trip and tumble your way through the brown leaves, across the stony ground, zig-zagging twenty-two times to the bottom. The path criss-crossed the mountainside, making a much longer path than a direct one would have been. We observed that the hills we climbed in Thailand were no less steep – but there our guide just led us straight up!

Threats of Bears Who Should Be Hibernating (but just might not be) kept us on the paths. We had watched a video of bears scavenging through the dumpsters not ten metres from Leo and Lili’s apartment, we had heard of the young man mauled to death by a bear as recently as last summer on the very hill we were climbing, and today we saw his memorial at the edge of the path.
Perhaps understandably, Bear Conversation accompanied us up up up to the top.

Wouldn’t it be cool to meet one? What if we DO see one? Should we climb a tree? Where do they sleep? How long do they sleep? Can you wake them easily? Would they be hungry if they woke up now? How big are they? When do they have cubs? Wouldn’t it be great to come back here on a day that we had lots of time and there were bears around and we could watch them and if they didn’t come out we could come back the next day coz we wouldn’t be in a hurry and maybe then we could watch them and it wouldn’t be dangerous because we’d stay at the bottom of the hill and we could get away if they came near and don’t you think that would be fun?

You should try walking a hill with a five-year-old!!!! Thankfully she then raced forward to Jgirl15 and the last thing I heard before I slowed my pace to put a few more footsteps between us was, “I was just saying to mum that wouldn’t it be…..” At that point Mboy6 returned to my last-man-on-the-trail position with the loving declaration that, “I like walking with you coz time goes so much faster when there’s someone to talk to.” I think what he really meant was, “No-one else grunts back at me when I chatter on almost as endlessly as my little sister, and they certainly don’t even *attempt* to answer my questions, especially the one about do raisins help ulcers get better, and if they do, how?”  
When we returned home we decided a google search was in order to discover whether it’s an urban myth that bears can’t run fast downhill and that you shouldn’t climb a tree. We are none the wiser. We read four websites and discovered five opinions. Bears have poor smell. Bears have excellent smell and sight. Climb a tree if you have time to get higher than ten metres. Don’t ever climb a tree, unless of course you wish to be stuck up there with two cubs while the Mama waits at the bottom for you all to come down. Fight back a black bear, even with bare hands if you have to, but don’t play dead. Website three says play dead. They all agreed never to make direct eye contact. That’s a start I guess! Good thing we didn’t meet a bear.

Not that they were hibernating. We have now discovered that they simply enter a state of “winter lethargy” – they do not truly hibernate. Real hibernators (like squirrels and frogs) zip into dream land quickly and drop their body temperature significantly (frogs can freeze completely). Bears doze off slowly, cool down only a little and are EASILY aroused from their zzzzzz-ing.

But our knowledge all came later.
For the better part of the day, we climbed the hill (3km to get to the base, an hour and a half to get up the two-and-a-half-kms to 960m, lunch at the top in the biting wind, views appreciated – Brasov town is so pretty from atop the hill and there was snow on the distant mountains – forty minutes to get back down, and then another 3km back home again. Only two kids had the energy to manage the trek to market for food, and although the Father boasted he could walk for another week, he was discovered prostrate on the couch upon our return <wink> )

We didn’t take a picture of the Brasov Hollywood sign from a distance, but that’s where we walked up to, and we DID get a picture to prove *that* - lucky for us some other traveller took a pic that we have commandeered:

pic removed due to copyright - we’ll pop out and get our own today

up up up

up and turning another corner

and up some more

“Looks like a 3-D map,” one of the kids said.

If you’d like to see the bears foraging for watermelon and other goodies right outside Leo and Lili’s apartment, you can watch this video – it was shot by their friends just a few months back.

Brasov, Romania

Yesterday there were twelve children from two families, all shy-ish, the older ones managing to extend polite civilities. The adults enjoyed the peace, expecting it not to last. Two of our boys stayed the night with the other family, while the rest of us collapsed exhausted into beds in our temporary accommodation.

 

This morning we all met in the town centre, and as predicted, the dozen children chattered non-stop. All Day Long. We suspect this will not change for the rest of the month we are here. Already there are talks of child-swaps and plans have been hatched for the kids to spend as much time together as they can.
”It’s so nice to have friends here,” Kgirl10 commented.
We adults are enjoying stimulating conversation too, and pause only to contemplate how miraculous it is that we are here together.

Ten years ago Rob and I had a friend over for dinner. She had been living in Romania for years (actually she was there when we were in Poland and she came to visit us once – crazily, she carried two Big Macs from Vienna – I think it’s the only time McDonalds ever tasted good!)
Anyway, there she was on the couch telling us about a family in Romania, who she *just knew* we would get on with. Like us, they had had four children in very quick succession. According to our friend, we shared many interests and aspirations and even though they spoke next-to-no English, she assured us they would be encouraged if we wrote to them. Using this friend as a translator, we made contact. And she was right. We did seem to *click*
Five years ago, the same friend was to marry a guy she had met in Romania. The wedding was to be in New Zealand. And the Romanian couple we had been corresponding with was to be at the wedding. The time had come for us to meet face to face. They had been learning English, and in the three days they stayed with us, we learnt our first Romanian, exchanged recipes, compared families, shared our lives.
Now, here we are with them in *their* country, their town, their home.

We came in November, hoping for snow, but today all we got was drizzle-that-turned-into-rain. Not that it stopped us wandering around town together, seeing the pretty old buildings and in contrast, the bullet-hole-riddled building from the 1989 revolution, marvelling at the outdoor ice skating rink, stomping up the hill through puddles and admiring mountains rising above orange rooftops up into the cloud.

We nibbled on pizzas (topped with Liliana’s delicious and distinctly Romanian garlic sauce: lots of crushed garlic, some salt and thick fresh cream), the kids played board games, we all learnt some Romanian songs; we sat companionably, just enjoying being together.

As darkness fell, more friends arrived and the table was pushed to the middle of the room to make space for all. Church was about to begin.

We have been *in* plenty of churches this past six months, but not for an entire service. We didn’t intentionally set out to not go to church, but it’s what has happened. In Malaysia our itinerary was dictated by others. In Thailand, as I recall, we seemed to be travelling on Sundays. Once we got to Luang Prabang, and knew we had three weeks stationed there, we determined to find a church to visit. Only there wasn’t one. In fact, we didn’t find one anywhere in Laos. This naturally prompted lots of thought and discussion. By the time we got to Cambodia, we *could* have attended church services, but for various reasons (having friends over from NZ, child collapsing in the marketplace and other kids sick too, travelling again…..), we didn’t. After three months, a new habit has been formed and we stopped even looking for churches. We continued daily family devotions and listening to sermons on the Ipod (in fact, many a preacher would be envious of some of Mboy6’s reactions: “Can we listen to that again?” and “Can we listen to another one right now?”), we continued marvelling at God’s creation, talking with believers we came across and with others, who did not share our faith.
Of course, when we got to Europe there was no shortage of churches to visit. And we have been in a lot of them. We have sat in the pews and feasted on medieval artwork, we have gained an appreciation for Byzantinian art, which we did not previously possess, we have studied sculptures, we have wondered about icons, we have listened to the awesome majesty bellowing out of organ pipes, we have wandered under enormous domes and turned our eyes upwards.
And today we gathered with a small intergenerational group of believers in one of their homes and shared Scripture, song, discussion, prayer and fruit.
As someone, who struggles with the immense amount of time and effort that is often spent maintaining the practices of “Sunday”, I appreciated the simplicity and personability of this encounter. There was no cathedral, but there was authenticity. There was no set-up roster (indeed, there were not even enough chairs for everyone), but there was hospitality. There was no organised choir or multimedia presentation, but we made a joyful noise together. There was (shock, horror) no sermon, but there was grappling with ideas (and to be fair, the discussion was based on notes from a conference attended by some of the group, so there kinda was a sermon!) There was no creche or children’s ministry, but over a dozen children sat around listening and contributing (OK, so the baby didn’t say much, but she brought a smile to everyone’s face as she was passed around the group).

Soon a couple of hours had passed and we were donning raincoats and pulling on boots, hoping that the temperature might drop and the rain turn to snow.

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