Back in the village! We arrived by train at 9 am warmly and excitedly greeted by Eva and her friend at the train station. We stepped out and it was COLD. It felt like snow. We stopped to get some groceries, winter gloves and hats for everyone. I forgot all about the money conversion here. The new and old Romanian lei game. Eva helped me out translating as my Hungarian or what little feeling I had for it was gone. We arrived to the village. The children were excited asking every few minutes how much longer. We passed Recsenyed the village before ours and Liam saw our church. He yells out in unison with Luna, “We’re in San Pal!” Driving down a very muddy street we reach our yellow house. Liam sees Domi Baci in his yard and runs over yelling “Domi Baci!” Esthi Neni comes over and hugs everyone tight thrilled to see us all.
It is not as cold as the train station but still cold. The village has changed drastically since we left when it was warm. The storks are long gone along with the leaves. It feels like snow and in fact snowed last week. The cows stay in and no longer go out to pasture. We can see more mountains with the leaves fallen and fields plowed. The children are bundled up. We barely recognized Atilla and Bella, Luna and Liam’s friends when they walked home from school today. They were bundled in their winter coats and hats.
Our house hadn’t been heated since October and James brought the keys otherwise Esthi Neni would have heated it up for us. James started the fires and one of the stoves is malfunctioning and smokes the whole house. Eva invites us to her house for the night where we can shower and do laundry while Esthi Neni and Domi Baci fix the stove and heat up the house for us.
We spent the remainder of the day at Eva and Csaba’s. We bathed and napped and again were welcomed with a nice lunch. Luna and Liam were thrilled to be back and have some space. Luna, Liam and Eszter played all day. The three of them have developed a chemistry since Barcelona. It was nice to relax and spend some time with Eva. We showed pictures from our trip since they left Barcelona. I had a great conversation about the differences in family in the village and the US. I asked Eva why there was no homelessness here after seeing so much in Rome. She said that if a brother is having a hard time, no matter what the family will take him in and care for him. That is just how it is. Older parents are cared for by their children. It is considered shameful to send an older relative to a nursing home. She said it is only acceptable if the parent really wants to go. Csaba thought about having church members over the age of 80 pay half of their church dues. The people said that it was not necessary as the older relative is on retirement. If they can not afford it their children will help. It is just expected that family will care for each other here. We too are treated like family here.
We are back home. The house is heating up. I am worried that the children’s room is too cold as there is no stove in there. We are hoping the wood stove in the kitchen along with an electric heater in their room will keep them warm. They are bundled up in a lot of blankets and warm pj’s. Luna wanted to wear her new winter hat too. We may have to move everyone to our room or the kitchen. Honestly I am concerned and having doubts if we can endure this cold for 7 weeks. I rapidly grew accustomed to our nice central heating once we stopped using the woodstove in Willits. Even when we did use the stove at home we had a system and knew how to warm up to rooms. Hopefully we will get it figured out fast here. Despite all of this it is nice to be back, to have some sort of roots, to be “home.” James and I were snuggling up and I asked, “Now what?” No more trip planning (except home and side trips). We have seen so much and are so thankful. We are all ready to be back. We can unpack tomorrow. Monday, I start my job search and phone calls.
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