Eurojournal - 1 July 2006

Today is Byron’s 15^th birthday and his last day of language school. After school we will meet him and go to the central park and ride the boats. Then pizza for his dinner. We decorated the dorm room. The children and I will be going to the supermarket to get some fresh fruit for a fruit salad after naps soon. Since we have no access to an oven, we need to be a little creative in the birthday cake. So fruit salad and chocolate goo. I bought a bar of dark chocolate with orange in London last week. Filling a small bowl with peanut butter, oats, walnuts, almonds, I lined it with the chocolate squares and a little honey nut sauce drizzled on top. Of course I tasted it and it was divine! This honey nut sauce we thought was the closest thing to nut butter when we arrived. It is like candy. Liam loved it on a sandwich and Luna thought it was way too sweet. Fortunately we found some real peanut butter hidden in another aisle days later. It’s not like home. It’s somewhere in between the unsweetened and Skippy.

As the children nap it is silent in our room with the background noise of an urban outside. The windows are open. It’s cooler today than it has been. It has been a humid high 80’s low 90’s since we have been here. The rains cool things off and I heard the temperature will be in the 70’s next week. Rare sound of silence outside with chirping birds. Bus driving by. No more guy whistling every other second from 5am until 10pm today. I wonder if he will be back on Monday. There is construction on our street. We wake up to the whistling guy, with buses and cars beeping and hammers going. I find it soothing. I have always liked the city that way. I don’t necessarily appreciate being in the midst of it but I like it as background.

I am easing into the Romanian and getting by fine. Lately I have been thinking in French and Spanish. We were doing colors and math yesterday and some phrases slipped out instead of English. The children understood. I was counting in French inadvertently. Liam tried to play the Hungarian language game on the computer but something is wrong with the sound cards on our computers. He still saw the numbers and counted to eight perfectly. I even mixed a few and he knew them. Impressive.

A few days ago after the park we walked to the Resource Center for Roma Communities. I have been reading up on the history and current European policy regarding Roma communities. The history is pretty awful as well as the existing discrimination throughout Europe. I remember a French friend of mine many years ago referencing the Roma (gypsies) as “You have to know who the gypsies are as they will steal you blind!” I asked “How do you know who they are?” She says, “They have a look to them. All of them.” “What look?” I ask. “They look different. You will recognize them. They are dark.” Needless to say that conversation never really sat well with me. So I see the Roma center in my Lonely Planet book and drop by for some information. I read some research on the plight of Romani women in both the community and society. I want to write more as soon as I finish my readings.

After the Resource Center for Roma Communities I just so happened to pass the Peace Action Training Research Institute of Romania (PATRIR). It was a little house with a poster of Gandhi on the fence. I went in with the one phrase I had down, “Vorbiti engleza?” “Ah yes!” So I asked what the center was and what they did. She tells me that another worker can tell me more. From there, I meet Jay from New York. She asked why we were here. I tell her about James’ UU internship. She originally came to Romania to study UU as well! We spent a while touring the library. Oh! Such great books (women’s issues, conflict resolution, world trade issues, politics galore) I was in heaven. They do peacebuiding trainings internationally. They focus on peacebuilding and conflict transformation, gender awareness and equality, training in conflict transformation and peace education. I hope to do some work with them next week.

Argh. can't get my photos to upload. Low wi-fi signal here.