My walk to the Orphanage Today

So many times the ordinary events in a person’s life don’t get told to anyone. They are just private memories that bring a smile to the owner’s face if they remember them and that’s it. Today, I walked to the orphanage but instead of just holding the memories of that walk inside, I’ve decided to share them.

One of the things I love about living in Romania is the pace of life...it is slower and more enjoyable. The fact that I can leisurly walk to work in the morning is a joy in itself. It has been raining quite a bit lately, so everything has that fresh rain smell and as I walked, I took deep breaths and enjoyed the cool clean air. As I walked I noticed a large group of people walking towards me all engaged in conversations with each other. As they passed I couldn’t help hearing a few words and usually I don’t pay much attention to them as they are little snipits of conversation in a different language...basically just noisy voices. Well, today as they walked by I realized something. I actually understood the few words I heard....a woman was talking about her sister needing some medicine. My vocabulary of Romanian words isn’t that large yet, but in that moment I heard a few words that I recognized and in that split second of our passing...I understood! What a thrill it was to actually hear and understand!! I spent the next few minutes reflecting on how good that felt and then it was time to cross the street. This, of course, requires a little more concentration because the cars here are supposed to stop for pedestrians in crosswalks, but you must make sure they see you and are able to stop before you just head out. Today, it was easy...the cars were far enough away that I could readily cross without fear. I had only walked about 20 feet when I heard a child’s voice calling my name in Romanian...Natalia, Natalia! I turned to look and saw a group of children...six of them...walking behind me waving hello and practicing their English. Hello!!! I smiled because this group of gypsy kids are what my grandmother would call “street urchins”. No matter where I go or when I go in town, it seems I always see one or more of them running around begging for money. Usually they call me Tanti (rhymns with Auntie...which is also what it means). Tanti is an affectionate name that children call women...even if the woman is not their aunt. Apparently, they know my name now and have graduated from Tanti to Natalia. They came running up to me and encircled me. I’m sure we made quite a sight...me wearing my long black rain coat standing in the middle of these children...and all of them wearing orange track suits. I can only guess that they must have found a good deal on them...or they all really like the color orange! They kind of looked like a team of gymnasts waiting to compete. They all started talking to me and I understood enough to have a short conversation with them before they started using words outside of my vocabulary. At that point they decided to switch to English and started singing “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”. They didn’t quite have the pronounciation correct, so I joined in to help them. I had to laugh as one elderly woman passed us and smiled. I wasn’t sure if she knew we were singing a Christmas song, but since I did it made me laugh. I’m surround by orange clad gypsy kids singing a Christmas song in April. After this we had to get going because they were headed to school and I needed to get to the orphanage. They then took turns telling me they loved me both in Romanian and English and kissing my cheek. One little boy must have kissed me 5 times before leaving! By that time, I was at the driveway of the orphanage and as I walk toward the building I was excited to pass along a little love and kiss some cheeks myself!

Winter Update

123 Auto Drive
Boise, ID 83709
208.321.7440

Str. Ion Vidu Nr. 25
Bistrita -JUD BN Code 4400
Romania, Europe
40.075.118.3962

The weather is warming up and I’m finally writing my winter update! I bet you all thought I fell off the face of the earth! I'm so sorry I haven't updated my blog lately. My computer died and I have been without it for months now. A friend of a friend of a friend here (it's all who you know - ha!) is a computer guru and he has been trying to fix it for me. Sadly, everything he's tried has not worked and it is looking more and more like I'm going to have to get a new one. In the meantime, I've been trying to borrow other housemate's computers...but sadly, one by one, they are all dying too. Brian and Cynthia's laptop died shortly after mine. Then the big desktop computer that we all share has started having trouble. The CPU fan is going out and it just shuts down without notice and lately we've kept it turned off because of its complete unreliability. So, now we're down to Nicu's laptop and he's been really nice about sharing it with all of us...but, well....he likes to use it a lot. So, needless to say, with my computer time severely limited it has made it tough to spend much time communicating like I'd like to.

The winter was a little colder and snowier than last year, but not unbearable. We took the Open Doors kids (the gypsy kids who come to the after school program) to the mountains again in January for a Snow Camp...three days of sledding and playing in the snow...and roughing it without running water. It’s amazing how clean melted snow ISN’T! Ha! Once it’s boiled, it’s good enough to wash dishes though and the boys were happy enough to oblige me by bringing in buckets of it several times each day. It’s amazing how much snow it takes to make a pot of water...and since it takes so long to get the water it is amazing to learn how little you can get by with when washing dishes. It was so awesome to be back home and able to have running water. Sometimes it’s the littlest things you take for granted! I got to play the role of “cook” again on this adventure. It’s amazing how appreciative these kids are with hotdog and noodle soup! I have to admit, it wasn’t half bad...and I don’t really care for Romanian hotdogs much (the outer casing is a little on the tough side for me). I do make a mean hot chocolate though...of course, it helped having fresh milk from the neighbors. Now that was some creamy hot chocolate! We had a really fun time and the kids all wanted to move there and live with us permanently.



















I had some problems with renewing my visa in time, so I had to leave the country again in February. The timing turned out to be perfect since we had a visiting pastor from Hungary here to do a pastor's conference and I was able to travel to Hungary with him and stay with his family for a few days. Surprisingly, there is a newer airline called Wizz Air and they have specials frequently. I was able to fly round trip to Budapest very inexpensively. From there we drove about an hour to the village where Andrew and Dori McCall and their new baby Matei live. The first thing I noticed driving to the village were the roads...they’re just like the nice roads we have in the States. Since Budapest is only an hour flight from the Cluj airport in Romania you wouldn’t think the roads would be that different. I made a comment about the roads being so nice it was like being in a different country...then Andrew reminded me that we were in a different country! Duh! Wow...you don’t really think about how bad the roads are in Romania until you’re driving on nice ones. It’s such a huge difference! Andrew is from the States and Dori is Hungarian. He met her at the Bible college in Hungary and they married a few years later. God has gifted him tremendously...he is only 25 years old and pastors the Calvary Chapel church there and is also working full-time (without pay) as an apprentice learning woodworking. He's really good...in fact, he made all the furniture in their house! He also speaks and writes Hungarian fluently (the Hungarians don't believe him when he tells them he's not Hungarian!). Dori is a soft-spoken, tender-hearted beautiful woman of God. It was such a blessing to get to spend time with them.


I've been keeping busy with my volunteer work. I have seen such a huge change in the orphanage since I first started going there. Initially, the workers just left the children in their cribs and took them out only when they had to because they felt that if they held one baby, they would have to hold them all and they just didn't have time to do that and get all their cleaning chores done. Now, I've noticed they not only get the children out of their cribs more, but they actually play with them. It's so awesome to see them softening towards the children and loving on them. I am having a wonderful time loving on them myself. They are just so precious. The coolest thing is that I got permission for my gypsy kids to come and visit the orphanage and play with the children. They had an amazing time! It was so cool to see these little girls (9 - 10 yrs. old) carrying the babies around like little mommas. The babies weigh almost as much as these skinny little girls, but that doesn't slow them down as they flex every muscle they have picking them up. Sometimes I worried they would topple to the floor with the babies, but somehow they managed to get them into "hip position" like a body-builder straining to lift the barbells overhead. The little boys surprised me by holding even the toughest of the kids...Adriana who is rigid and Georgel who is so easily upset for example, but they were awesome with them. It made such an impact on those kids that they all told me they were going to pray for them every night and one of the girls begged me to let her come on her breaks while she's in school. I also have some of my Sunday School kids asking to come with me when they get out of school. It's been cool to see my volunteering endeavors kind of merging together and overlapping.

Georgel is the little blind, autistic boy that I’ve been so worried about. God has been answering our prayers and he has been doing so much better. Unfortunately, it looks like it’s going to be one of those situations where we will need to continually lift him up. He has begun to regress again and they have had to begin restraining his hands due to the severe damage he is inflicting upon himself. His left ear is especially wounded...swollen with the skin behind his ear completely ripped open. It looks so painful and yet he still twists his head around to try and hit and rub it against my shoulder when I am holding him. I have to keep his head completely away from my body so he doesn’t try to hurt himself. Amanda Towle is a social worker who has worked with special needs kids for many years and she just moved from Boise to Brasov in January. She is a wonderful friend of mine who recently spent a few days with me here in Bistrita. She came with me to the orphanage and was able to evaluate Georgel a bit and offer some helpful suggestions to minimize his self-destructive behavior. Apparently, it all has to do with his senses. She explained that if we apply pressure to his head or other parts of his body (feet, hands, etc.) with our hands, it helps his body regulate itself better and reduces the need for self-inflicting the pain. The other workers and I have been doing it and we’ve seen some improvement.

During Amanda’s visit to Bistrita we had our annual Easter parade and craft piaza. We got to see traditional Romanian dancers and tons of brightly colored painted and beaded eggs as well as other handmade crafts. We got a few souvenirs and enjoyed the festivities and the people watching.

















I also got to visit Amanda in Brasov for a weekend. It’s a 5-hour drive by “maxi-taxi” (a van that holds about 13 passengers) to Brasov and a great way to travel for only $15...as long as you don’t get car sick. Fortunately, it wasn’t a problem for me, except that the seat I chose didn’t have an armrest and I didn’t realize it until after we got onto the winding mountain roads. I kept sliding sideways out of my seat into the aisle and provided some good laughs for the other passengers I’m sure! Amanda and I did some site-seeing around Brasov’s “old-town” which was originally built in 1235 by the Saxons (Germans who settled in Romania). You can definitely see the German influence in the architecture of the buildings. You can also still see portions of the fortress wall that surrounded the original city. For a few dollars you can ride a tram up the side of the mountain and look down over the city. Like Hollywood, Brasov has a big sign on the mountains above the city. Now whenever I look up and see that sign I can say that I actually touched the backside of it! We also visited “The Black Church”...a huge church that was named the Saint Maria Church before a terrible fire in 1688 destroyed most of the town and killed 3,000 people. Because of the extensive smoke damage to the church, it thereafter became known as “The Black Church. The huge plaza in the center of the city attracts hundreds of people each day and it is a wonderful place to stroll and shop and eat. We ate at a restaurant called Clatite one day. Clatite are Romanian crepes, so you can just imagine what a great variety of dinner and dessert crepes they serve there. They ones we tried were delicious! Overall, it was a wonderful and relaxing weekend!!























Again, I’m sorry for the delay with the update. I am going to try and post smaller posts more frequently, so keep checking back!

Please continue to pray for:
• Learning the Romanian Language
• For some reason fleas and bugs really like me. Please pray for relief from the continuous bug bites I am afflicted with
• Teaching the conversational English classes at the Community Center for Youth
• The children at the orphanage…that we will be able to help them develop to their full potential and for the workers to actually show them love.
• That I will continue to learn to work with children with special needs.
• That I will have a greater servant’s heart to be a blessing to the Romanian people


With His loving grace & peace,
Natalie Bridges
natalie926@hotmail.com


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