Romanian spontaneity

We wondered about our first weekend in Târgu Neam? — what we would do, how we would get into the community and whether we’d have the energy. Somehow, things just happened. Serendipity.

Yesterday afternoon, on a whim, I asked a few kids in front of our bloc whether they wanted to play cards.  An hour later, I was teaching 10 rowdy boys to play UNO using my Romanian skills. Their moms and grandmothers peeked out windows and watched from balconies.  David joined us with a yo-yo and every kid took a turn with it. It was great.  Granted, my brain hurt afterwards – 10 energetic boys + using foreign language = fatigue.  But it was fun and now the kids want to play with us every time they see us.

We slept in today and relished eating brunch in our PJs.  Midday, Larisa (David’s counterpart) called and invited us to “the forest.”  It was spontaneous, but of course, we said yes.  A little while later, we hiked up to a cave where St. Theodora lived for 2 decades and listened to a nun tell the story of the saint. Then we had a grill (gratar) in the forest.  While the gratar was going, Sabina (Larisa’s daughter), David, and I played and searched for frogs in a creek.  “Prinde-ma, daca poti” (Catch me if you can!), she shouted at us. She’d follow that with a “na na na na na na” which reminded us of “nanny nanny boo boo”  Funny how kid-sounds translate quite easily across languages.  We came home full of meat (which we appreciated since meat is pricey), tired, and happy.