3 September 2018 - Week 74

This week began bright and early on Monday morning with a trip to "La țară" the countryside in English.  The Elders have been here for 3 weeks and were anxious to visit the castle ruins at Soimos in Lipova.  We wanted to beat the heat.  It is so humid here that when we get heat mixed with it, it's hard on the old folks.  Elder Andersen has climbed the hill many times, but it is steep and he gets tuckered out. Here they are discussing the trail diagram.

Because I am TERRIFIED of going to the hospital in Romania, I don't even try to climb the hill.  There are lots of slippery steep spots and I have trouble on flat ground, so I opt for a walk up the street where I made a few Romanian friends.  The country folks are very friendly.  

In the USA we would probably say these are free range chickens.  They live down the bank, across the stream, up the bank and over the road from here.  They were very busy. And I could not resist taking photos of they little Romanian ladies doing their everyday chores. 

 Here are a few of the sites along my walk. In the middle of the picture below you see a private well with a shiny new bucket hanging from the pulley.  Ready for someone to lower it down for the household water.

Romanian beekeeping hives. 

The corn crib is full and ready for winter. 

Beautiful foliage and flowers climbing along the fence.

A very nice home and yard.

Wildflowers growing along the bank of the little creek. 

And of course, we have to stop at the monastery that is on the way because the Elders have not been there.  The Pope is there to greet us. 

This statue of Mary and Jesus is in a dark stairway.

One of the Elders picked up some authentic church souvenirs for his family.

Another good day in Lipova.

Brent has made friends with the ladies at Urban Wash, a dry cleaner under our apartment.  The owner recently purchased an embroidery machine, so Brent asked her if she could make some hats for him to bring home.  She was new to the machine but thought she could do it so we went out to the market and bought some hats.  It was a bit of a learning curve for her, but she got them done.  Here they are with the finished product. 

Our sweet friends in Oradea, invited us to their home for dinner as a thank you for all the help we gave them with their Family History.  I forgot to get pictures of it, but they gave us soup, and rice and chicken.  It was very good.  While we were in their town we were able to see one of the old beautiful buildings on the town square that had a fire in the top floor and roof.  It was amazing to look at and see the roof was missing.   They think the roof will be able to be rebuilt.