Romania Trip Log: September 29-October 2, 2005

Romania is home to a large number of ethnically Hungarian communities. In late summer a particularly isolated and impoverished area called the Sélykéföld was flooded due to unusually heavy rains. A retired pastor friend invited us to accompany him on a trip he was taking in order to offer some economic aid to the region. This became our family’s active response to the floods caused by Hurricane Katrina. We had not been to Romania in over 12 years. The following is our trip log, which gives observations and reflections of what we found.

Thursday Sept. 29, 2005

We left early in the morning by car from the home of Pastor Nagy. He lives west of Budapest. We drove from there into Budapest to pick up a traveling companion, Emil. We then proceeded on small roadways across the country to the border with Romania. We arrived at the border about 11:30 in the morning and found that we were hardly delayed at all by crossing the border. This was a significant surprise to us since 13 years ago when we last crossed this border we needed a visa and the process usually took about one hour. This time we were through in about 10 minutes. We needed to exchange money and purchase roadway permits. These are becoming common throughout Europe now. We dropped off several packages to people in Nagyvárad, the main town just over the Hungarian-Romanian border in this area. Emil was born here and we visited his mother’s home as well as a couple of others.

We ate lunch at an orphanage and mission center in Nagyvárad. This is private orphanage currently home to 13 children. The home is supported by foreign gifts primarily and about 10% of its budget comes from the State. Concurrent with our visit there was a conference taking place in the main meeting room. Obviously this large building had many purposes. After lunch we were shown around and we saw a large gathering room on the top floor where camps and youth programs are held. Again this building serves as more than an orphanage. It is part of the Dorcas Mission, which is a Hungarian mission to the surrounding countries, particularly to the ethnic Hungarians in these countries. Tammy and I enjoyed our tour by the director. They both were physics teachers before taking on this orphanage center.

After lunch we drove on to Cluj, Kolozsvár. The road quality in Romania is significantly better than it was, but still much worse than in Hungary. The roads tend to be narrower, with less shoulder and the variety of vehicles on the road is shocking and scary at times. At times we were passed by powerful Mercedes cars at high speeds, at other times we had to slow way down for tractors or horse drawn carts. Trucks are large and in varying states of repair. They spout massive black clouds of diesel right at passenger car level. I don’t mind driving in Romania in the day but driving at night is to be avoided at all costs. In the course of the four day trip, we drove 1672 km (1000 miles). I got a screw in one tire and damaged the brake guard on another. The bottom of the car was significantly dented by washed out village dirt roads and I ran over a pile of foot-long metal spikes. Other than that the trip was easy driving.

We spent the night in a Dorcas Mission Diakonia Training House. The rooms were very nice, but the price surprisingly high. We had a fantastic breakfast the next morning.

Friday Sept. 30

Today we started out in Cluj and ended up in Tirgu Mures, which is only about a 100 km drive, but we visited the two flooded valleys which took all day to get to. Because of our tire and brake trouble, we didn’t arrive in flood areas till early afternoon. This meant that we had to finish our trip that evening in the dark. This is something I always try to avoid because nighttime traffic often includes, pedestrians, horse and carts, tractors and slow moving automobiles. It is treacherous during the day but without street lights it is only by grace that we don’t hurt someone.

The impression that one has of this particular area of Romania is one of deep culture, deep poverty and deep isolation. It is very hard to get to these villages by road, both because of the quality of the road and also because of the mere distance to other major crossroads.

The area is strongly agricultural, with much of the practice dating from the turn of the century. Hay stacks perch along the hillsides in rows of mounded grass. It was not uncommon to see horse drawn carts with their winnowing tools departing the villages in the morning and returning at night mounded high with hay for their farm animals. I am sure most of the animals boarded in the rear of the homes. The village roads were lined with intricately carved wooden gates, the telltale mark of the Székelyföld. These long standing Hungarian villages are known for their traditional woodworking and decorative houses. Despite their dilapidated condition, they held a traditional look that spoke of personal pride amidst economic and social challenges.

Since our trip was very fast, we felt we did not have time to visit with people in a way that would have been more meaningful (at least to us). Many of our impressions were the result of quick dashes through the villages on the main roads with little or no time to stop.

The areas worst hit by the flooding were already experiencing some rebuilding. The amount of rain that struck the area in one storm was so unprecedented that the water came sheeting down the hillsides, overwhelming the low-lying villages. Multiple homes were destroyed. We saw several people cleaning out their homes. Others were rebuilding. Some homes had been abandoned. The water line was consistently above the first floor. One woman said, “You cannot recover from something like this.”

In the style of Nagy János we distributed clothing and food supplies to whomever happened to be present at the time. He would take handfuls of clothes and pass them onto anyone in the villages where we stopped. It was an interesting system. He shies away from organized service for he worries that the people with the most need will not get the supplies. Instead he relies on the Holy Spirit to bring those in need to him. We wished we could have spent a little more time actually talking with the people, but the light was fleeing and we had to rush on.

Saturday October 1st in Tirgu Mures

Today was a day of rest. The past two days had required over 12 hours of driving each day. Irregular eating and little rest. The place we stayed in was a guest house and Dorcas Mission center. The house was beautifully renovated and was very comfortable. Many diverse ministries emanate from this building to the area surrounding this city. It is a strategic way station for help to the area and this help is almost exclusively conducted by Hungarians. They had ministries to the disadvantaged in the area. They said most of the resources they distribute (clothes and food to the poor) comes from the local area.

This city is deep in Transylvania and has significant Hungarian history. It has been interesting to see many cities and villages in Transylvania post the names in multiple languages. In the past this was never done. However, since Romania is seeking membership in the EU it has to respect the ethnic minority populations in it country. One way this is done is with multiple languages for location names, another is by allowing education for students in different languages. Today we had the car looked at and toured Tirgu Mures Marosvasarhely. It was beautifully sunny and warm. The city had been renovated significantly in the past 13 years. Together with the renovation and beautiful weather, we hardly recognized a place that we had been to before.

Sunday October 2^nd.

Today we decided to leave Pastor Nagy and drive all the way back to Balatonfüred. It is a drive of 500 miles and we spent most of the morning driving through Romania. Fortunately, the weather was beautiful again and trucks are excluded from the highways in Hungary on Sundays. So we were home by 7:00 pm that evening. It was an exhausting, fascinating trip. Too fast, but yielding significant insight into this as a mission locale. The kids were amazing. They never complained about having to be in the car 12 hours on three of the four days. What they got out of the trip is hard to say.