Diary 5 July 29/30 Sunday / Monday 30/07/2012
Well it is delightfully cool now at 9.30 pm and I am sitting outside with the girls Flori and Estera and Adela.
But let's start with Sunday which was unbearably hot; some places were 39 and I feel sure where I was, was close to that temperature; it really knocked me out and I slept in the afternoon!
It was an early start to get into to Oradea to meet Alex and Rody and then go to their church at Pergiai (may not be spelt correctly) which was made very pleasant by the presence of a lovely youth orchestra who seemed to make up well over 50%of the congregation. They were excellent with a variety of instruments- but especially a 7 year old girl called Estera who is so TALENTED musically. She plays 7 instruments. When I askEd Alex about it he said that a university lecturer had been amazed at her talent able to do what some university students studying music are unable to do and had given her some free tuition because he was so excited at her talent.
I hope we may manage to find sponsorship to pay for music lessons for her as her talent is truly inspiring. But her family cannot afford to pay for lessons for her. In the village of Pergaia there is very high unemployment and most families will have at least one potential bread winner unemployed because industries stopped at the fall of communism leaving some densely populated areas with very little employment. On the surface it looks reasonably prosperous as in the good old days most purchased their houses and so they have them and all work hard cultivating vegetables for food but they have not the cash for extras like medicine or music lessons.
In his church Alex knows of a number of families whose children have the ability to attend high school in the nearby small town of Marghita but literally cannot afford the transport costs to get their children to high school. He asks if maybe we could help as all the young people except for one on our high school sponsorship programme in Cefa and Berechiu have completed which is really encouraging.
I was overwhelmed by the heat - yes that was quite seriously overwhelming I found - also by the hospitality and generosity of the people especially the family with whom we had lunch.
Today is Monday and thank heaven it is cooler. It was hot during the day but a bit cloudy and now it is deliciously pleasant just the right amount of breeze, still warm but pleasant. Today I went into Oradea to see Ken and Florence for lunch and a game of Upword (I think that is the name of the word game w played so much while I was there), then I went to Alex and Rody's to see Raisa again (she is utterly adorable) and Alex and I worked on the reports for the sponsors.
Tomorrow is my last day and I plan a fairly quiet day but I will try to write another instalment either tomorrow or Wednesday. Now a cup of fruit tea and maybe my bed calls me.