Traditional craft fair in the square

Last Sunday there was a craft fair in the square behind the theatre in Arad. There are several such events in the square throughout the year. At Christmas there is a small Christmas fair and we enjoy sitting in the below freezing temperatures eating grilled 'mici' (a kind of small grilled kebab made from a mixture of beef and pork with seasoning) and drinking mulled wine. A few months ago there was a wine festival and a couple of weeks ago there was a traditional Roma music festival. We had a look round after church with Irina and Daniela (pictured above with Rosie and Yasmina) but didn't stay long because Johanna was at home ill.

Philip bought some honey - you can get a huge variety of lovely honeys in Romania, all produced by small family run 'busineses' (not even businesses most of them, just families). He also bought some quince syrup ...

not tasted it yet but it sounds good! Philip is from Australia but he is happy to settle in Romania and just loves all the traditional aspects of life which still exist here. He hates all the pre-packed, mass produced food in the West and he and Johanna have already bought chicks, duclings and two goslings (for Christmas dinner ... traditional roast goose, none of that modern turkey nonsense!!!)

There were a couple of stalls with the beautiful hand painted eggs which are displayed around homes at Easter. The eggs are first blown and then intricately painted and the designs on them are incredible.

Before we left we bought some mici, some smoked sausage and kebabs and took it all home to eat together. Had we not had a sick daughter at home we would enjoyed to sit at the wooden tables and benches and eat in the square, but the next best thing was to take it home ... mmmm yummy!

Riverside terrace!

Yesterday we had a busy day (when don't we?) ... I was at the Secret Garden (our day centre for for poor and homeless people ... or SG1 as my husband fondly refers to it!) with more than 20 young people from our church here (Metanoia Church Arad) and a visiting youth group. They wanted to visit and have some time with our street children and young people. Before the street people arrived I talked to the group about our work on the streets and what we hope to offer at the drop-in centre. Some of them expressed an interest in volunteering with us ... we certainly could do with the help, especially Romanians, as they would be able to help with basic education as well as spending time talking with young people on a one to one basis.

It was a great time, the church young people brought food and tea with them and made mountains of tasty sandwiches. 'Our' street people feasted, laughed and joked and generally enjoyed all the attention. One of the guys from church had brought his guitar, so they sang together and I think a good time was had by all! meanwhile Kenneth stayed home to get on with admin work, Amy went to an American family's house to spend some time with their daughter and a few other young folk. Johanna studied for exams - she's much better than she was though still quite rough at times. Kenny was in Timisoara probably sleeping most of the day away as it was his friend's birthday party last night.

Late afternoon we decided to all go into town and have a coffee and a cake for a treat. We went first to a sports club terrace by the river. There is a section actually on the river but it was being prepared for a small wedding party so we went on one of the other terraces. As you can see from the photos it's a delightful place and we had a relaxingng couple of hours there, watching the river go by and the occasional fish jump out of the water and listening to the birdsong.

Rosanna and Yasmina had a great time too. Rosie found it fascinating just to sit looking out at the river and to watch the occasional fisherman and one brave young man having a swim. Yasmina wanted to wander and kept trying to get nearer to the water so we had to keep a careful eye on her, the river Mures is quite fast flowing even though the terrain is so flat in Arad and has dangerous currents.

From the riverside we went to a lovely 'cofetaria' for coffee and cakes ... ahh, such indulgence! We often think that it's quite a shame we're so busy all the time ... Arad has some truly lovely places to go and we rarely take advantage of them! We joke about giving up the work with street children so that we can have more time to enjoy ourselves - but it is just a joke ... honest!

Too busy to write!

No time to write much ... far too busy the last few days and I have no energy left. We had a delivery of clothing, toys, vitamins and various other items on Saturday and were busy unloading the truck, sorting and organising things from 1400 until 2200 so as you can imagine we were exhausted.

We have all gone down with a nasty cough/cold, but Johanna has been hit the hardest and today I had to take her to the doctor ... she has Pneumonia. Not good at the best of times but she is in the middle of exams and really rough. Tomorrow she has an exam at 1200 so one of us will take her to Timisoara and then wait for her to finish as there's no way she can go by bus and train. Obviously she shouldn't really go and is not really in a fit state but she doesn't want to end up with re-sits.