Cluj Napoca, Romania

Hello everyone!

When we were in Timisoara, we thought that it would be a smooth process to get a visa.  Because it is our first time as missionaries for more than five weeks, we had no experience with this concept.  We found out that especially in Romania, getting a visa is a LONG process where you have to visit many different offices and fill out many different forms.  You also will have to secure a sponsorship from an organization based in Romania, and this kind of agreement is something that must be done way in advance.  Oh well - we have learned from this experience, and it's not something that hampers our mission effort, because we wanted to visit THREE countries and document the orphan situation in those three countries, so this will make us go up to Ukraine/Moldova.  We expect and plan to go up to Ukraine by the end of this month.  We are now in touch with a few different organizations that work with deaf orphans and asking if we can work for a few weeks in each one of those orphanages.

We recently was in Cluj Napoca, an awesome city with really great deaf people.  We enjoyed the time there, and we met three older deaf orphans, and their story touched us.

Here are the pictures! :)

Train between Timisoara and Cluj.  Took us around 7 hours.  

Classroom at a deaf vocational school.  The deaf church group is able to minister to the students every Wednesday afternoon - something that is very uncommon in Romania.  

Signing songs.  It's a big part of deaf churches in Romania, we've noticed.  They emphasize it here more than they do in the States.  

Our guide, Sardon, with Alex telling the audience a bit about ourselves.

The three deaf orphans we met.  Basically - they enjoy the deaf school during the year, but their worst times are during the summertime and Christmas.  Why is this?  Because they can't stay at the deaf schools, and they would be sent to a children's home (orphanage).  Those three girls are split up - they are the only deaf in a big building with many other teenagers.  They are subject to abuse, loneliness, and have no interaction with other deaf people.  Being deaf ourselves, we know that this is one of the worst things that one can do to a deaf person - force him or her into a place where s/he is utterly lonely.  We will keep this in mind for our future plans to help orphans... We believe that a summer camp program will benefit the deaf orphans of Romania greatly, because that is where they are the most lonely - the summertime.  

The entire class.  Only three out of this group are orphans.  All the other students have parents and families.  

Sardon taking us on a walking tour of Cluj.  Sardon was so easy to understand because of his strong expressions and big signs.  He's a great personality.

The center - Cluj.  

In front of a statue honoring a Hungarian king.  The Transylvania part of Romania was occupied by Hungarians up till 1918, so there are a lot of Hungarians in Romania, especially in the Transylvanian region.  

Alex and Sardon.  Hot day!

Typical European street - full of people drinking coffee/wine/beer/smoking cigarettes on the sidewalks.  

Found our third Romulus and Remus statue!  

The "Romanian" square.  

Good shot, Sardon!

We climbed a big hill and was able to get a great view of Cluj.

Sardon took us to his apartment and we had pizza!  Pizza is so cheap.  Both boxes here for only around 11 bucks.

Sardon and his wife.  Both of them are deaf!  They have three deaf kids.

Two of Sardon's kids are pictured, and the woman on the right is a friend who came for a visit.

Deaf club

Deaf club.  Old building, but it still stands!  

Cluj Deaf people!  What was unique about this setting is that a lot of young and old people interacted.  We don't really see much of that in the U.S.

We went hiking with the deaf group from the deaf school.  Fun!  One of the associate ministers of the deaf church took the children for a hike, and we naturally wanted to join.  

Lazios, the deaf man, is on the right.  He's the one who took us on this hike.  He's a very strong Christian.

Abandoned train.  Homeless people will sleep in them during the nights.

We see a lot of this in rural Romania.  Burning hay to clear them out.  

Right left Right left Right left

Playing around with huge cut stones, probably for a building project of some kind.

If you see a dog inside of a fence or a yard in Romania, it's guaranteed that they will bark voraciously at you.  Even the little puppy on the left didn't approve that we were passing by their home.  

We found an abandoned hotel.  Great news for Alexa!

Broken glass everywhere on the floor.  

Dare ye enter?  It's in the heart of Transylvania!

Outside of the abandoned hotel.  

And we merrily went on our way towards beautiful pastures.  There were sheep in the far background.  The two white dogs you see are guard dogs, barking at us and then they happily scampered back to their farmhouse.

We saw a lot of frog eggs.  A lot of them.

Alexa is taller than Alex.  

If you look at the upper left corner, you'll see the really adventurous boys who dared to go all the way up a hill.

Lazios chilling out amongst the rocks.  You would think he was one of the children with the pace of his walk. 

Another dog, a Doberman, letting us know we weren't allowed inside of his lair.

The roosters didn't seem to mind us.  

Neither did the three cats on the tin roof.

One of the boys found a salamander.  

That's all for now!  We went to the deaf church on Sunday but we weren't able to get pictures because we left our camera in the room!  Ahh.  But it was a great worship, and many of the kids you see above went to church.  Cluj is an awesome city, and a great place for anyone who want to go on a mission trip to Romania, because of the overall experience and the high number of deaf Christians here.  

We will now try to wrap up our last few weeks in Romania.  We will keep you all posted through this blog, of course.  Take care and God bless!