Sensory Overload

Yesterday the sun reemerged and gave us all relief from the rain we’d been having since Sunday. Some would say that there was a bit of pathetic fallacy going on in my life this week. My gloom from the beginning of the week was echoed in the weather. I had been gradually feeling better as the week progressed (even with the rain), but the sun emerging from hiding yesterday sealed the deal. I think I feel 110 percent better! =]
Over the past week I’ve experienced several things that seem to have hit on each one of my senses individually in one way or another.

Taste: Every time I go out to Tsigmadru I’m offered a walnut. Right now is the beginning of walnut harvesting season and so everyone’s got them in their pockets and you can bet that at least one of a group is busy breaking, shelling, and eating them. They all laugh when I’m handed one because apparently, I don’t know how to do it right. But I get right to work and stomp on the walnut to try and break it, if that doesn’t work you get another one and squeeze them together in your hands, and if THAT doesn’t work, you resort to your teeth. Now mom, I know you would highly advise against this, but you do what you’ve gotta do. =] So yeah, it’s a lot of work for a little bit of nut. But they’re pretty good. And I can’t deny that I like the challenge.

Touch: This morning Karen, the boys, and I went over to “Miss Dorothy and Roberta’s” house to pick apples. Roberta told us that they were just going to go bad if they weren’t picked, so we went over and got them. It required climbing, balancing, stretching, and yanking on branches. It was a lot of fun. I was just thinking the other day that I wished we could go apple-picking. And so we have!


Smell: One of my favorite things about this time of year here in Romania is the grapes. I love the sweet smell of them! It’s the best when we’re walking somewhere and a waft of it comes from “nowhere”. Of course, with investigation it’s usually easy to locate the source. The running joke before we moved was that I wasn’t coming if we didn’t have a grapevine in our backyard. =] And guess what? We have one! =] So now I’m afraid I’ve been spoiled. Grapes from the vine is the only way to eat ‘em. And I think I'll always miss the smell, once we go back to the states.

Hearing: Yesterday I heard that there would be a pipe organ concert at the local German church. So when 6 rolled around I made my way over to the church. I figured that it was something I’d never really experienced and it would be interesting, even if I didn’t really enjoy it (I wasn’t planning on liking it really.) Wow, was I surprised. The man who played was amazingly talented and it was quite the experience just to sit in this old, beautiful German church and listen to him play for about an hour. The organ was up in the balcony and everyone sat down on the floor facing the opposite direction of where he was playing, but the reality is that it didn’t matter where you sat because the music engulfed the church. You could feel it in your bones. So after I had taken in the surroundings of the ancient-looking sanctuary, I put my head down on the pew in front of me and just let the music fill my head. I can’t explain just exactly how it made me feel, I can only say that it was an experience I won’t forget. I tried to “record” some of the music on my camera. Of course it doesn’t come close to the real thing, and there’s not much to see from the recording because there were actually “no cameras allowed”. I figure you won’t rat me out though. If you’re interested in hearing a bit of it…here’s a link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxA0jLRwZag

On squat: Okay I know “squat” isn’t a real sense. But if I could’ve had a 6th sense for these past two months, it would have been a sense of “squattage”. Let me explain. Any time anything was needed from the refrigerator, one would have to squat to get it. You better believe my legs were feeling the burn from that, sensing that if food was involved, so were they. Some would say that is an advantage of having a mini-fridge. In fact, that should be a selling point… “Will give you quads of steel!” Well anyway, although my sense of squat was highlighted the past two months, my legs have recently been relieved of that sense. We got a big refrigerator! With more than one shelf! And a freezer!! I was so excited. I’m not sure why, because we’ll probably get relatively the same food and plenty of people live without fridges everywhere. I guess it's just a comfort of home that I'm grateful for (and wasn't really before I had lived without it).

Last, but definitely not least...
Sight: Well, I had an experience this week in Tsigmadru that left an impact on me. On Thursday I went out to practice music with Karen and Hordu (not sure how to spell his name) because we are going to be helping lead worship at the Sunday night service out there. The service will actually be a special memorial service for Magda’s mama. We practiced in the afternoon and then I stayed out in Tsigmadru with Nelutu for teens later that night. We had a break before teens and so Nelutu told me that we were going to bring food to some people from the village. He told me that they lived in the poorest part of the village, and that their daughter had some mental problems. That daughter was actually the one we were bringing the food for. I thought that was awesome that Nelutu did that for the family and was pleased to go with him. However, I don’t think anything could have prepared me for what I saw. The house (if you can call it that) was about the size of a small bedroom and was made of brick, although there were holes and gaps in the walls everywhere. The roof was made of sticks and recovered sheets of plastic. The floor was dirt and none of the children (of which there were at least 4) had shoes. There were about 4 beds scantily clad (does that phrase work here?) with dirty, old blankets. There was one wooden cabinet that was old and broken against the wall. It was hardly functional, but it held the one piece of meat that I’m sure had served as food for the past few days. The girl was obviously thrilled that Nelutu had brought her food, although she could not talk and was bed ridden. The parents looked thankful, but sad and tired. There had to be at least 8 people living in this tiny space. I describe it not to degrade the people, but to try and covey just how sad the condition is. When we left I couldn’t help but cry. How can I be even the slightest bit unhappy with my life? God has given me so much and blessed me beyond what I could ever need. And yet my heart is ungrateful and selfish, always requesting more. The realization that I want to use my life to help others was cemented that night. I can’t imagine doing anything else.