Free Time ~ Romania 🇷🇴 Mission ~
April 29, 2020
During the Pandemic there was a bit of free time so I decided to spice up the Bulletin Boards in the Panduri church building. We have one board in the front foyer and 2 down the corridor.
~Before, During and After~
I tried to add the picture's chronologically but decided on the more symmetrical look; it is not quite as easy to find decorations in Romania but I did the best I could with what I could find. I had to use wrapping paper, stickers and plain paper but I will be on the look out now that I know what I am looking for.
I thought I'd insert the pics of our Ambulances here in Romania. When we are driving around we will hear no less than 10 ambulances within a drive to the church or in any 20 minute direction from our apartment. It is crazy. I know we live in the middle of the city but we are not even that close to the hospitals and yet there are ambulances everywhere either on their way to an incident or on their way to the hospital. We don't see many accidents on the road so this always seemed like a quandary to me. Well, come to find out, because of their socialized healthcare the ambulance rides are free so it is more like a taxi service even for the slightest medical need: stomach cramps, broken arm, etc. Because the mode of transportation is mostly the subway, busses, trams, Taxi's and Uber it is less costly and much faster to just use ambulances. In America we would most likely drive ourselves to the doctor verses going to the hospital (in an ambulance). Thank goodness the traffic is semi-good about letting the ambulance get through (unlike Thailand and Cambodia).
Speaking of traffic, I'll just segway into "Romanian" traffic. First off, the parking is hilarious. Everyone parks on the sidewalks ~ everywhere. #1. You can see that on the far right the cars are in an indention parking spot but since there is no more parking spaces they just drive up on the curb and park half in the lane half on the sidewalk. #2. This street is a 2-way street but you can't get passed each other so you have to wait until no cars are coming to go through.
#3. The motorcycles feel like they are cars and just park wherever is convenient. Sometimes you'll find them on the outside of parked cars by the drivers door.
#4. This is also 2-way but we share it with the trams.
#5. The vehicles play "chicken" but they are good to stop on the drop of a dime.
#6. They park parallel or they just back in.
#7. Just parking on the sidewalk.
#8. It's just totally normal to park on the sidewalks.
#9. Parking on the sidewalk either direction.
#10. This one cracks me up. It is on a busy intersection and the light is still green and this truck has just stopped in the road in the turning lane. He put the truck in park, got out and went and grabbed a sandwich. No one thinks a thing of it ~ no honks, key scratches, etc. But if you are at the front of the line at a red light; the second it turns green everyone is honking for you to go . . . but no worries if you just leave your car "driverless" on a busy street. This goes on everywhere (we've even now embraced it a time or two 😉).
#11. Just more cars on the sidewalk.
I am not exactly sure how this car got in or how it will get out!
Under the freeway is some good parking!
They just squeeze in anywhere - Bill has gotten pretty good at this!
My favorite is the double parking! Sometimes they really get wedged in. You can see that far back are all the cars parking on the sidewalk and then these two just park on the street and trap the other cars in 😲!
I'm pretty sure this was a one-way 😏. We did this a few time when we first arrived as the street signs are quite confusing.
I love this! It is usually 5, 6 or 7 cars trying to get through the intersection in this way ~ this is every intersection. Everyone just jimmies for an opening and slides right in!
Most of the Senior Couples won't drive here because of the bizarre traffic rules (or lack thereof). Most will rely on public transportation; of course, the Humanitarian Missionary's have to drive as their projects reach far and wide all over the country. 
The flow of traffic gets some taking used to but compared to Thailand and especially Cambodia, it is a piece of cake! 
The first couple months Billy did all of our driving. I had been sleep deprived (twice) and feeling physically and mentally run down. He was worried that if there was any "incident" with me driving it would push me over the edge (or land me in jail). I agreed and felt like he was prompted and when he felt like I was stable enough I'd start driving as well. For anyone that might feel this is a chauvinist move please be assured that it is not; we both have different driving skills and we both feel we are the better driver but we try very hard not to be critical of each others driving. For Bill to even suggest this I totally took heed and felt like it wasn't just coming from him 💙😇💙! We have a hilarious story from when we first moved to Chicago (almost 30 years ago) where I learned to listen to Bill's "righteous" advice 😉! Every year when the kids would get their yearly, beginning of the school year, Fathers Blessing, he would also give me a blessing. This year (1992) during the blessing he mentioned something about my driving. Needless to say, this did not go over well with me as I thought he was taking a "safe" popshot at my driving through the blessing. I did not take heed to this counsel (from the Lord, through my worthy husband) and so in the next few days I was pulled over (in a school zone of all places) for going over the speed limit. It goes without saying that I am not the only one who receives inspiration for me. I learned a great lesson that in my own self-righteousness I was driving like I knew best and since I wasn't listening to my own promptings from Heavenly Father, He needed to bring in the big guns (and a consequence that cost me $$$ but thankfully had not harmed anyone). So from then on out I was extremely careful and cautious about my lead foot!
I've been driving (carefully) for the last 3 months here in Romania and realized how much I missed it; this alone time is when I do a lot of my praying!
