Early Musings about Romania

Greetings,

We have been in this country for two weeks, just enough time to make some initial observations.

Emanuel University - The school was an underground Bible Seminary prior to the Revolution in 1989.  After the overthrow of the Soviet system, it was free to grow and pursue its vision of being salt and light to the people and community of Oradea, Romania, and beyond.  The school has added programs in social work, literature, business, and music to go along with its theological studies.  It has about 400-500 students.  Resources are scarce and they literally have to watch each dollar (lei) they spend.  Professors have to work other jobs and many other professors will come and teach one-week intensive courses.  I am a novelty in that I am here for the entire academic year.  The education here at Emanuel is very high quality when compared to other Romanian institutions.  The impact they have with what they have been given is truly inspirational and convicting.

Romania - This truly is three different countries within one country.  For those of you that have to get out your world atlas to recall the geography of eastern Europe (like we had to when we first began thinking of this venture), I have added a map of Europe.  I think Romania has the shape of a fish, similar to Nemo.

You can see by the map that it is quite far east.  It is somewhat of an island when it comes to language. Romanian is a Romance language and is surrounded by countries that speak Slavic languages to the south, Hungarian (Finnish) to the west, and Russian to the north.  By looking at the Romanian map below, you can see that the Carpathian Mountains cut through the country like a backward L.  The area to the north and west of the Carpathians is Transylvania.  The area to the east of the Carpathians, including the now independent republic of Moldavia, is known as Moldova.  The area to the south of the mountains is loosely known as Wallachia.  It includes the capital of Bucharest.  Historically, Transylvania has primarily been influenced by, and was a part of, the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  Moldova has been mainly influenced by Russia.  Wallachia's main influences have come from the south--Orthodoxy religion and Ottoman Empire administration.  The Romania that we know today mainly came into existence after World War I.  Oradea is located in the northwestern part of the country, and thus has more of a western European feel (though mainly in its architecture) than in the other two regions.  This brief description is quite black and white, but it gives you a general feel for the country.  When introduced, people will tell you which of these three regions they are from.




















Time - Well, in Romania, the calendar is divided up into days, weeks, and months; and there are 24 hours in a day.  Even so, time is treated differently.  As most of you know, Cheryl and I live a bit less "scheduled" life than most of our contemporaries in the States.  This is sometimes out of choice, but more often due to our somewhat bumbling natures.  We do enjoy spontaneity and flexibility.  We certainly get that in Romania.  As you can imagine, this has its pros and cons.  For example, when inviting people to go out to dinner, the response we get in the States is something like, "I will check my calendar and get back to you."  When they finally get back to you, it may be one to two months into the future.  The Romanian response to the same question is something like, "Yes, how about tonight."  For us, this is a pro.  On the other hand, when I inquire when I will be teaching next week, or even what I will be teaching, the answer usually shows up the day before.  I guess the two go hand in hand--if you don't know what you are doing today, you are always free for dinner!

On a personal note, we are doing well and have been welcomed with open arms.  The cook at the cafeteria always gives us extra helpings and extra desserts.  We certainly will not lose weight while we are here.  We have met some very wonderful and dedicated Christian men and women.  We will introduce you to some of them on our next entry.  In true Romanian style, I don't know when the next entry will be posted.

Pace,

Cheryl and Tom