Monday, June 24th
Geez Louise today was emotional!!! Sleepy, nervous, excited, fun, sad, thankful, hopeful, guilty, and wondering.
We visited 3 gypsy villages today. They were full of poverty and joy with some meanness and darkness mixed in. The kids are so happy to have someone come and see them and want to show off big time.
The first village Cherechiu and full of believers which is so awesome. They are building a church there but are lacking a piece of paper to start. The government is very corrupt and the Bruskis (family that started BIM) is sure the mayor is waiting for a bribe but that is not something that they won't do. Almost everything works through bribery over here.
There was one family there where the adults are not believers. There is a lot of abuse in that home and some precious little kids. One of the girls stayed with the interns the previous week just to have a week of food, sleep, peace and unconditional love.
We visited with the families and children and many so graciously allowed us into their homes and showed us their gardens. So much hospitality! We did music our skit/lesson and crafts and the kids loved it. I met a girl, and by meet I mean as soon as I got off the van she grabbed my hand and demanded I play. She was a trip. Sassy and sweet. I'm fairly confident she was trying to teach me some inappropriate words because when she was asking me to repeat something the kids around her laughed. I didn't repeat it just in cases :)
The second village, Salacea, was a much more difficult place to live in. BIM has not been working there as long so the prayer is that they will reach the point the other has and progress as much. The biggest difference is Salacea has a strong leader among the gypsy people that the Bruskis can tryst and depent on. Her name is Leah and she has a very cool story.
We didn't stay there as long but did the same songs, lesson and craft. Three little girls captured my eye. They were not gypsies. They are poor Romanians who live further up in the village. This was the second week their parents had walked them down to see what was going on. Leah is fairly confident their father is abusive. Their faces are etched in my memory and will remain in my prayers.
The last place we visited was an extension of the second village. It's farther down the road in the middle of cornfields and only has four houses. This was only the second week they had visited. Last week Leah had told Robin (Bruski) that she wanted to show them some poor people who needed help. Quite ironic knowing Leah's immense poverty but so precious that her heart saw their needs. There were four homes and about 12 kids total. They had almost nothing. One of the homes was basically without a roof and inside lived a single mother with six children.
There were twin boys in another home who were just plain adorable. Their names were Valentine and Sebastian and were about Logan's age. One of them tried to eat a sucker through the wrapper because he was just so excited.
We did our kid songs, skit, and craft time and were rewarded with precious smiles and laughs. Oh pure joy is such an amazing thing to witness. During craft time I had the sweetest little girl sitting on my lap. She was probably around 2 or 3 and had the darkest curliest hair and no diaper or underwear under her pants. I'm pretty confident that she peed on me. It was warm that day but my legs don't sweat that much! It's cool though, I've been peed on my little boys before and it didn't kill me.
The last house in that village was the hardest. There was an older man and his wife. Zolt (the man) found out he had cancer a few months ago. He basically went to the doctor they told him you have cancer and are going to die so go home. The prejudice against gypsies is widespread in every area of their culture and apparently doctors have no hippocratic oath over there.
It was a long drive home for me and a long night that night. This was the first time in my life I personally witnessed poverty like that. Walking away was the hardest because all I could do was visualize their night in their beds and then think about what I was going home to. Even being here in my camp style bunk bed was a palace. It wasn't really guilt so much as a burden on my heart. God showed me this now what does he want me to do about it.
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