I have just spent a week in the mountains
of Romania camping with 17 children.
There were 11 girls in our room and 7 boys in the other room. Each room had one toilet, one shower, and two
sinks. Hot water was available for two
hours in the morning and three hours at night.
The water was heated by burning logs.
The invitation to eat each meal was made over the loudspeakers by playing
First Call. This is the song played by a
bugle at horse races to call the horses to the starting line. The food served there was EXACTLY the same as
the food served here in the care home.
Breakfast was salami, bread, tomatoes, cheese, tea, and Nutella. Lunch was soup with bread, followed by rice
or boiled potatoes and a cookie snack. Depending on the day, dinner was one of
the following: Sarmales (stuffed cabbage rolls), sauerkraut
with sausage, corn mush, schnitzel, or boiled potatoes. Pickles and bread were always on the table.
There is a river that flows next
to the camp. These Romanian children
simply stripped down to their underwear and jumped in and nobody thought twice
about it. Some Romanian children were
taking sticks and prices of string and making bows and fishing poles out of
them. These were young kids, maybe six
or seven years old. The best part was
that their creations were functional and they had no help from their parents
while they were making them. I was quite
impressed with their workmanship.
A couple of times, swept-wing
military planes flew overhead and I began to wonder if there was something
going on outside of our little corner of the world. There wasn’t any internet signal available
during the entire week so I was very out of touch with the rest of the world. And then I began to wonder if Romania even
had an air force…they do, as well as an army and a navy. I’m always a little uneasy when I am in
Eastern Europe when I see the military in action.
During the week, the children
were kept busy with crafts, Bible study, riding zip lines, playing in the
river, learning new songs, playing new games, playing on swings, and climbing
on an actual rock wall. We finished the
week with a nine foot tall bonfire. Some
of the children were singing and playing guitars, while others were watching
the fire. Some of our group slipped away
to watch the night sky which was crystal clear and filled with stars. We even saw several shooting stars. The best part for me was being used as a
pillow by several children who were eagerly searching for shooting stars. It was incredibly peaceful just laying there
on the ground contemplating and enjoying God’s magnificent creation.
It was a fantastic week filled
with children being children (fighting one moment and laughing the next), bug
bites, scraped knees, stickiness, cold coffee, ice-cold rivers, and new
friendships. It was a great experience
for me. It was a privilege for these
children to be able to escape to the mountains and forget everyday life for a
week and I have been blessed to have been a part of their summer.
