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| You can see our house from here View from the hills - house is to the right about half way up |
I bought some running shoes yesterday and Kiki and I went out for a short run this morning. There is a general background sound of dogs barking just about all the time. They excelled themselves when we ran past - I am sure that every house has a dog.
The nights are getting a bit lighter which means that I should be able to get out and run straight after working at the hospital. Previous volunteers have reported being joined by stray dogs. Should be interesting.
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| I can't figure out the translation for this at all - but something happened in Tarnaveni in 2000. |
Romanian is a lovely sounding language. A number of the patients speak some English. However, many don't. It is taking longer to get to grips with learning Romanian than I had hoped. I can say, "I don't speak Romanian" in fluent Romanian with an almost perfect accent - this just causes more confusion. I have started saying, "Sunt din Anglia", (I am from England), which receives knowing nods as if that explains why I am coming across as a bit of an idiot. Also, many patients have Hungarian as their first language. I haven't managed to get myhead around Hungarian at all yet - it is famed as being the most difficult language in the world to learn.
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| Another view of the hospital psychiatric wing - it really is very large |
The Horse
It is very tempting to just smile and say 'yes' (Da) when someone talks to you and you don't understand. We have a session for 'open patients' once per week. I mentioned the closed wards last week. There are also two massive 'open' sections (men's and women's). These are far less restricted. Patients have the freedom of the corridors and the grounds. - Not that there is much for them to do; hence the club session. One of the male patients seemed to be a bit on his own, so I played a couple of games of connect 4 with him and chatted. - I'm honestly not sure if he was speaking Romanian or Hungarian. I was starting to do the nodding thing and saying "Da". Unfortunately, it turned out that he was trying to sell me his horse, plus 8 hectares of land. Luckily we didn't shake hands on it otherwise we might now have a horse in the garden along with the rabbits.
I really must improve my Romanian - or at least stop saying 'yes' to everything.
Health and safety
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| View of the infamous short-cut bridge taken from the hills |
Manhole covers are a constant nuisance as we all know; particularly if they are right in the middle of the path. However carefully they are laid, there is always the possibility that a little bit will jut out and cause an unsuspecting pedestrian to trip and fall,possibly hurting themselves.
The Romanian answer to this is brilliant in its simplicity. Simply remove the cover altogether. No chance of a trip. I can't see any downside whatsoever.
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| This was right in the middle of the path luckily it was daytime. There was another one exactly the same 20 yards further on |
Party time
We got it a bit wrong with Valentine's day the other week. The bigger 'romantic' celebration in Romania seems to be 'woman's day' which is the 8th March, but already seems to be in full swing. I am not sure, but I think it also welcomes in Spring. We have been invited to the hospital party (150 plus people) which takes place next Friday. We are really not sure what to expect, but it is lovely to be invited. Report next week.
Final thoughts for today
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| A dissapointing entry in the 'tallest house in Tarneveni' competition |
Internet still going a bit slow, so another short blog.
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| The famous Wednesday morning market sees 10's of traders and thousands of visitors - very colourful - unfortunately this picture was taken on a Sunday afternoon |
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| For sale with lovely views to the rear I think it is built out of chipboard |
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| If I did buy a horse, I would definately need to know what this meant |
Pe Curand
Paul
