Saturday, October 1, 2005

The plan for today was to sit around and wait for Serghei to come pick me up, and the all of us (the GoodSeed clan) would go and do something. I waited in my room till about 12:30, then went down to call him and see what the plan was (so I could go to McDonalds for some lunch.) He said that we weren't doing anything today, so I could feel free to do whatever in town today. Also, that he would be here tomorrow at 9:15 to pick me up to take me to his church, where JRC will be speaking.

So, I headed on my 1km treck for lunch. Basically went straight there and had lunch. After the "Royal Cheese with Menu" value meal (39.50 Lei - or about $3.25 US) and a shake (12 Lei - $1) I stopped at a supermarket on the way home. Bought milk in a bag, orange juice, bananas and yogurt - for breakfast this next week. They can't call it a Quarter Pounder here, because it's metric. What would you say: 1/8th kilo-er?

After getting home, I spent some time trying to account for all the money I spent here in the country. I've been keeping receipts, but you don't get receipts at restaruants where everybody pitches in and pays for whatever. Nor for buying things on the street. So far, out of 1,241 Lei ($100 US), I can't account for 63.50, or about $5 US. At this point, I don't think I'm going to worry about it...

This evening the students were playing an interesting game. Everyone was paired off by 2's, and stood facing eaching in a big circle, in pairs, one in front of the other. Then there was a fellow that was 'it', and another that wasn't. The guy that was 'it' also had a belt. The object was to hit the other fellow that wasn't it with the belt. The one that wasn't it can jump in front of a pair of people, making it 3 deep, and the person in the back had to start running before getting hit. So, the object was to jump in front of a couple peolple right when the one 'it' was near, so the guy in the back got it. Once he got hit, he then became 'it' and the other started running to look for a place to jump in front. If that's not clear enough, give me a call and I'll do better.

Sunday, October 2, 2005

The day started out late - I overslept, but not a problem. It was 8:00 and needed to be ready at 9:30. Nickoli came to pick me up, along with the equipment that we were going to use at the church today. It was just the speakers, stands, mic and stand, and the assorted cables that went with that.

We made it to the church a few minutes later, and started setting things up. With these speakers, we were able to plug in the church's mixer which gave us the CD player and electric piano. It took longer to set up than I thought with the different levels coming in, but we got it figured out by 10 after 10:00 - which is when the service was supposed to start.

The service was very nice. About 2 and a half hours long, but lots of singing and things. Today was a fall festival / harvest celebration. I'm not going to relate everything that went on, because I didn't get much of it - it being in Romanian.

Lunch was after the service, and most everybody went downstairs. For some reason, the 2 pastors and I had lunch in the sanctuary. No worries, I was happy to eat, because I was ready for that. Stuffed peppers, stuffed cabbage, and a few other things. It was all very good, and I ate my fill.

Soon after, I was asked to share a little of what I do back home. Without the DVD series, and probably even with it, it's hard to communicate the amount of work and time that goes into a production like that. But I shared a little and the program continued. Lots more singing, Mihai on his accordian-type-instrument (forget the name) and skits and games. I think it was about 3:30 when everything was done and we started packing the equipment.

Nicoli took me home and we dropped the equipment at the chapel. I came home and worked the photos over, did some laundry, and added this here. I though about going to McD, but it was getting late when I finally got hungry enough, plus I was pretty tired to walk all that way for a burger. So I made porridge and had some fruit.

I found out today that Nicoli was going to America on Tuesday. New York, of all places. I told him I'll be driving through there on the 13th - perhaps we might hook up somewhere. It would be fun to drag him to CT for a couple days.

Monday, October 3, 2005

The morning went rather slow, not having a lot to do. And that wasn't too bad. I burned about 9 DVD's, trying to back up some of the data that I've been accumulating over the past few weeks - namely enough photos to fill 5 DVD's. Of course, when you burn DVD's, it's best to make a couple three copies each, incase one gets damaged.

Lunch was good - soup and chicken w/ rice. Dinner was chicken and potato wedges. Both very good!

After lunch we had class from 2:30 to 6:00. It was a long time, as the students are putting in 6 hours before lunch. Many are very tired (but I think some of that is staying up too late :). But there are many who are very interested and paying good attention. Some aren't, but that's what you would expect in a crowd of 150 or so students. I counted about 70 in class towards the evening, so I'm not sure where they all went. At first it was hard for me to take, but I would rather those that aren't interested to not be there, so we can teach those that are.

We finished today with the giving of the law, actually only 8 of the 10, before having to shut down at 6:00. No worries, it'll give them all something to think about. Well, except those that were plugged into their MP3 players!

Supper was good and Serghei joined us.

Tuesday, October 4, 2005

Took advantage of the empty chapel and finished wiring the other transmitter. We are only using one right now, so it wasn't a priority to get that done last week. Wasn't too bad, just a couple solder joints and a few wood screws.

Lunch today was beef and rice. They butchered a cow at the farm yesterday, so we get the benefit of that. Remember the guy with the grape juice? He was in charge of the butchering. It was very good beef.

Teaching went well today, the only exception being a handful of students who are unruly and disruptive. We will keep an eye out for the trouble makers and report them. It's a little harder for us, because not only do we not know their names, but if we heard them, we probably would still not know their names. So I'll shoot some photos of them and turn that in as hard evidence! We'll see how it goes.

Beef steak tonight - it was like deep fried meatloaf. It was good for sure, a little greasier than what I'm used do. I had 1.5 pieces.

After supper, another evening working on photos. Only took 140 today. It just takes time to get them together and whatnot.

Wednesday, October 5, 2005

We have a new schedule for the day - start classes at 12:15 to 2:00, then lunch, and 2:30 to 4:00. It seemed to work ok today. There are a lot of interested students, and that is always a blessing. The days are still long, but we are in the part of the teaching where interest is high.

I walked around this morning and shot some mats for use in future productions - like brochures and whatnot. We also took a couple folks out to pose for us with the Stranger. It was in English, and we'll have to put a Romanian cover on it when it gets published. I think all told, I took about 250 pictures. It's not tons, and things roll quickly when shooting different composures of a single scene. I also shot photos of the visual aids for the students - a couple requested copies, so I thought it easier to shoot them then try and get them over the internet from back home. Besides, the ones here are made out of plastic signboard, so it's something the students could easily make out of cardboard or something similar here.

Lunch and supper was beef again today - very good.

At supper we heard the testimony of one of the believers here. As always, it was very interesting to hear. This fellow came from Uzbekistan.

Thursday, October 6, 2005

Seems as though a cold is starting. Other than that, I forget any specifics that happened today...

Friday, October 7, 2005

This morning Jim and I walked to the Motel to exchange money. I've been told that this is the best place to do this, but found some places that gave a better exchange. However, I had a $100 US bill that had holes in it, so I though it would be best to try them first. She took it with no problem. $100 US exchanged out to MDL 2,506.00.

Saturday, October 8, 2005

Didn't cross the threshold to the room today - just stayed in bed basically. About 2:30 I got hungry, so I made some oatmeal and had a banana. Then at about 3:00 someone came over with a tray of soup and vegetables and a salad of what I thought was fish and some other things, and there was a plate of bread and some interesting deserts. Then I remembered there was a wedding in the chapel today, and I thought this was leftovers from that.

Anyway, I sat to eat again. I figured I better eat some and managed to much of it away. I put the leftovers in the fridge and washed the dished. No one came back to collect.

Tonight they must have had something going on downtown, because I could hear a band echoing through the walls. There is a stage setup on the main street that they were setting up yesterday. I'm pretty sure that was the place in question.

Sunday, October 9, 2005

John / Janice and Jim / Les went to Mihai's church today, with John doing the speaking. I didn't feel well enough to go yet, but making progress over yesterday. Still rather weak so I spend the morning in bed, listening to music and Charlie.

After lunch (of which I had left-over food from the day before) John and Mihai came over and asked if I wanted to go to lunch with them. I thought it would be good to get out of the room and hang out with the folks, so I thought it would be a good thing. So I did. We went to Mihai's place, and I had soup with everybody else.

After getting back at around 5:00 pm, I borrowed JRC's computer so I could back up the photos I've taken on DVD. I basically burned DVD's till about 11:00 pm. The good thing here is that it gave me some time to pack as much as I could tonight.

Monday, October 10, 2005

Today was a busy one. I was asked to help one of the teachers from England to record his lectures. But first I had to set up the sound system (we took it down on Friday because of the wedding on Saturday.) We were going to use his computer, but he didn't have enough space on his hard drive. So I used mine, and that lasted till about 2:00 pm. It worked out ok, because I would start it, then leave, then come back before a break. It worked ok, so there was no problem.

I recorded Mihai playing the accordion from 2:00 to 2:30. Here's a few songs that he played: (1) (2) (3) (4)

After, there was another class using the translation equipment. So I helped set that up again, and finished packing. There was the last minute cd to burn (one for Mihai on the accordion) and another of pictures of the visual aids to one of the students. Basically there was something to do until I hopped into the car to go to the airport.

Even then, on the way, I remembered that there was some tea I was supposed to get, as well as another CD. So Andrea stopped to look for the tea (out of stock) and stopped at his house and he got me a copy of the CD in question. We got to the airport in plenty of time, which was good.

After getting through security, clearing customs, checking in for boarding passes, passport control, another security screen, I had about an hour to wait. That wasn't a problem. Gate 4 (of 4 gates) was the one to be in.

When my time came, Gate 3 had the attention. I noticed that it was flashing both Air Moldova and Austrian Air, so I got in line (they are 2 competing airlines.) They took my boarding pass, and I got on the transfer bus. I was relived to know that the bus went to the Austrian Air airplane!

We all got to Vienna in good time, and it took a bit, but got a room that night (part of the flight.)

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Woke up, not on purpose. The alarm clock was set to 5:30 and went off at the same time. I didn't know where I was then (I thought I was in the college and it was the fire alarm going off!) Needless to say, that was a good way to get up.

Had breakfast and took the shuttle back to the airport. I got there early, but didn't get in line soon enough. I was told the security before the gate opened at 9:30, but it opened at 9:00. By the time I got to the gate, there was a long line of people waiting to get through the security checkpoint. (This part of the airport has a security screen before each gate - for about 10 gates.) It took me 45 minutes to get through, and when I did, the line was still just as long as it was when I first started.

Needless to say, we got off the ground about 1 hour late. They said that the luggage was holding it up, which could very well be the case, but I still had questions concerning the organization. It's the old problem of having an airport handle more people than for which it was originally designed.

So, one hour on the tarmac, and 9 and a half hours in the air, it was time to land in Dulles, Washington DC. About 3 hours here and another 30 min flight landed me in Harrisburg, PA.

Palmer was there to pick me up, and we stopped at a restaurant on the way home, in which Joan met up with us.

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Got up at about 7:30, which was good. Palmer and I hung out a little, and got some loose ends figured out. He then drove me to go pick up my truck. Alex and Denny were there, and everything was in good order. So thankful that it's fixed and ready!

On the way back, we stopped at another place for lunch - the Country Connection or Kitchen or something. It was good for sure.

Took a quick look at one of his trucks. He was having trouble with the shift linkage, and I was able to get him rolling again with minimal effort.

Palmer had a contact to get a video tape transposed into a DVD, so he gave me directions and I headed out. After dropping the tape off, I headed down to Mark and Jane's. Tom and Jen was there with their two boys, as well as John, Mark & Jane's son.

Thursday, October 13, 2005

Drove up 81 to 84 to 684 to 66 to 16 to 2 to 2a to 12 to N Glenwoods. Got home at about 4:20.

Friday, October 14, 2005

I asked my mom fix my jacket - and we thought that we should go up to Maine to go shopping. So, since we were driving right by Topsfield, MA (where the homes of our ancestors used to live) we thought we better stop and see if we could still find their houses. I had an old map from my grandmother, so after getting on maps.google.com, we headed out.

It worked out ok - the streets are a little different, and when you compare a map made in the late 1800's and compare it to an ariel view, you do have some discrepancies. But we did drive around a little more than I wanted, but eventually found 3 of the houses on the list. We could have done more, but time wasn't on our side. We also stopped in at one place and found that it was the home of the Bradstreet's - another ancestor. So all in all it was pretty neat. Also, I found the map in a book at the local library - a copy of which I got from Grandma.

After shopping for about an hour, we headed home. The drive is a 4 hour trip one way, and we got home at 12:30 if I remember correctly.

Saturday, October 15, 2005

Around the house this morning, then to church for the wedding of Julianna Preston and Jason.

Sunday, October, 16, 2005

Spoke at church the first hour (9:30) and sat in on the second. After church ate lunch at Larry and Gayle's place w/ Dunk.

Monday, October 17, 2005

Headed out to Indiana - left at 6:15 am and arrived at about 8:00 pm. Stopped in PA to drive around the mountain a bit.

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Took pictures for Andy and Marie over lunch, then drove up to West Allis, leaving at 2:00 pm, arriving at around 6:00. Drove up 294, paying a total of some $5.00 or so.

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Basically took the day off. Rather tired after last few days!

Thursday, October 20, 2005

Today I worked with Joe in the shop - helping get the shop ready to paint. Today was removing all the old wires that were left over from the previous owners. Telephone wires / thermostat and old electric that wasn't used anymore.

Friday, October 21, 2005

Worked in the shop again - moved a couple electrical conduit lines so Scott could come and build some stairs to get to the messanine. Today I think Jow and I put in about 12 hours - each.

Saturday, October 22, 2005

Joe left for IL to be with his buds, and I headed out. Leaving at around 11:00, I arrived in Cataract, WI at about 2:30. Spent about 4 hours there with the Amstutz family before heading West on 90. Made it to South Dakota before retiring at Motel 6.

Sunday, October 23, 2005

Drove all day, stopping in Billings, MT tonight. Again at Motel 6.

Monday, October 24, 205

Left at around 6:00 and arrived in the GoodSeed office here in ID at about 1:00 - but I forget exact times. Staying with the Legers for the time here.

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Spent the day in the GS office in a Creative Meeting all day, pretty much. After people left, I re-routed an 8" AC line to the conference room as it was getting too hot in there.

Wednesday, Ocotber 26, 2005

Spend the day in the office again, re-routing some electrical and fixing some flouresent lights (replacing balasts in 2 units.)

Not feeling the best today, not sure what it is.

Thursday, October 27

Worked on research for a new computer / audio equipment for taking to India / Korea / Singapore.

Friday October 28 - Sunday, October 30, 2005

We had our annual Bible Camp at the Twin Lakes, Idaho. It was a good time with Charlie and Carol Clough and many of the GoodSeed folks.

Monday, October 31, 2005

First thing was to wake up at 4:30 and drive Gaetan to the airport. All went well (as far as I know!)

Back at the camp, we had a little trouble getting going because Andrew's truck wouldn't start. It was raining (and had been all night) and we eventually found out that the plug into the coil was wet. So I dried that out with a hair dryer, and seemed to work ok after that.

Crossing the border was another story. Simply put, they didn't renew my visa, and they were kind enough to let me in for 7 days as a visitor. I'm supposed to leave the country by Nov 6th, 12:00 midnight. She was saying that it would take up to 2 months to apply for another work visa through Seattle, WA. We'll have to figure this out later I reckon!

The drive home was uneventful after that. Stopped at Subway for lunch and Prariefire (I think it was) for supper in Cochrane.

On this trip, I had Kathleen and Julie with me. After supper, we dropped Kathleen off at her apartment and then I dropped Julie off at hers. Made it home I think at around 9:00 or so.