After a slight delay, we were able to board our flight from Munich to Timisoara around 3:25 pm, about an hour later than planned. I had the pleasure (and good fortune) of sitting next to a guy who was from Arad! Definitely not a coincidence. During our short flight, I peppered him with questions about his country and culture, and he graciously answered all of them.
Our team was greeted at the Timisoara airport by warm sunshine, a gentle breeze, and red, yellow and blue leis, courtesy of Lorena Martin (the general director Ovi Martin’s daughter) and Becca Welke (our teammates’ daughter/sister who is interning with RCE this summer). Ovi and Mimi, the (male) director of the RCE adoption placement program, were also there to greet us, and each of them drove a van filled with us and our luggage to Arad, which was approximately an hour away from the airport. The passengers in my van especially enjoyed the ubiquitous fields of sunflowers that dotted the Romanian landscape that we passed by. Hearing Bruno Mars playing on the radio in the van was also pretty funny.
Once we arrived at Sunshine School, RCE’s special education school where we’ll be staying all week, Ovi showed us the classrooms that each of us had been assigned to stay in. We dropped off our luggage and then embarked on our first Romanian culinary experience. The school’s cook made us a delicious medley of chicken, rice, and cabbage slaw. It was very tasty, especially after a long day of travel. After dinner, Ovi briefly went over our schedule for the week, and then we commenced our 2nd team volleyball practice. Personally, I’m a little nervous for our team to face those Romanians…haha.
Before heading to bed, we gathered together, and our team guitarist Steve Welke led us in singing some hymns that we’ll be performing tomorrow at the Romanian church we’re attending. In my opinion, we sounded pretty good!
At this point, everyone is turning out lights, so I think I’ll say goodnight as well. Thanks so much for all of your prayers about our trip over here; God definitely answered them! Stay tuned to hear from other teammates starting tomorrow.
Chao!
– Mary Rachel Robbins
Adventures In Arad 
Mar,
I’m loving these updates! Praying for you and your team and can’t wait to hear more 🙂
LikeLike