Training is over and off to the site:

I arrived in Nadlac on Saturday the 29th of July. It took a
8 and a half hour train ride and then another hour ride by
car to get here, but it all went smoothly.
It was a different trip from the site visit as this time I knew
that this is where I will be for the next two years. Well so far
it has been really easy. The counterpart I have is really super
and has been with me throughout the settling in process. I have
met the mayor, police chief, librarian, the priests, the head of the
local bank and many other people. My Romanian language skills
are lacking some at this point so the discussions are pretty basic.
Also, here, almost everyone speaks Slovakian and that is quite
something seeing as the Slovaks first came here 200 years ago.
There are 6th generation kids that speak Slovakian. It is
impressive that the people have kept their heritage this long. Of
course they all speak Romanian. So this gives me a chance to
learn the Slovakian language and I have picked up a few words.
But I will actually wait a few months till the Romanian
gets better then I will start on Slovak.
After 4 days here I did attend a Slovakian funeral, it was that
of a lady that died in Israel on the 17th of July. She didn’t die
directly as a result of an attack but rather indirectly. The story
goes that she went to Israel to earn some money. Supposedly her
husband drank a lot and had a hard time with money. So she
went to Israel to work as a live in maid with two older gentlemen.
I guess she had some heart problems and there were rockets
landing in the town or area she was in. At the seventh rocket
she started getting chest pains from the stress and between the
seventh and eight rocket landing she died of a heart attack. She
was 52 years old.
I received an invitation to attend the funeral and went. The most
distinct parts of the funeral was that it was all in the cemetery. There
they have what would be equivalent to a funeral home. They passed
out moonshine and sweetbread. The next day was the actual burial
and again all the ceremonies where at the cemetery. The priest
came and gave his eulogy. They pinned a white handkerchief to our
shoulders and we all (about 200 people) marched in procession to
the plot. The casket was lowered by rope and it was at that time when
everyone burst out in tears. It was sad.
Many of the Romanian people have asked me what do the people
from the United States know about Romania. It is the same old
answers they always hear, Dracula, Nadia Comaneci (the gymnast)
(I am not sure of the spelling of her last name) and Ceaucescu and
not much else.
I do hope through this blog that I can give you some insights to
Romania and it’s people.