Ruth School, Parks, & Shopping

Hello everybody! I hope you all are having a great start to summer now that school has let out where most of you live. I feel like I'm always saying this, but...I've had such a busy few days! :) Friday, Saturday, and today especially were filled with activities, ministry, and of course some fun.

Thursday was not so productive and fun. We weren't able to go to the Ruth School as we had hoped because they were on a field trip. I had also planned on going to a clinic in order to get a checkup to ensure that I have no communicable diseases and such in order to receive a slip of paper that is one small part of the paperwork I need for my six month volunteer visa. (Wow, what a sentence!) Unfortunately, the clinic we went to was not open and yesterday I actually found out that it wasn't even the right one to go to in the first place. :( So that took an entire morning and by early afternoon I hadn't accomplished anything. Later that afternoon, however, I did manage to do a few intern bingo challenges. So I guess the day wasn't an entire waste. :)

Friday was much better! We (Me, Ana, and Ruth) went to the Ruth School and spent a solid four hours playing, coloring, and watching a movie with the kids there. At the end of our time, we managed to squeeze in a few pictures.

This is the entire group we worked with. Excuse the black borders...I pulled these pictures from messenger. :/

The outside of the school.

After Ruth School, Ruth and I walked through Tineretului Park again on our way home. It was about to storm, which made for some very pretty pictures.

Saturday was a day of running errands and shopping for camp, which begins in 3 short weeks on the 27th! It's coming quickly. :) We went to lots of huge stores in the Bucharest area, including Jumbo, a department store selling craft supplies, toys, dishes...pretty much everything! Here are some picture of it.

We scored some decor for camp, which has a jungle theme this year. We're going to use the jungle to illustrate the fact that Jesus is the Way and the true path to follow, which is mentioned in verse like John 14:6 and Proverbs 3:5-7.

On the drive home, we went past the Arc de Triumf, a model of the one in Paris.

I also wrote a different kind of blog post Saturday for the intern blog at Stepping Forward Ministries' web site. It's on worrying and peace and you can go check it out by clicking here.

Today we ran more errands (after watching a podcast sermon) and Ruth and I also visited another park. The first place we went was Carturesti, a bookstore of sorts selling mugs, art supplies, books, clothes, etc. It's a super interesting shop and I kind of fell in love with the smell. :)

I thought these teapots were so cute!

After Carturesti, Ruth and I split up from Cami and Ellie (another intern) and found our way to Cismigiu Park ALL BY OURSELVES. We were on foot and in a part of the city I was super unfamiliar with, so I shall brag on us a bit here. ;) It was a nice part of town, so here are a couple pics from the walk.

Of course, Cismigiu Park followed the example of all other Romanian parks, in that it was gorgeous and woodsy and perfect.

Here is the sign. I've heard that people like to see signs, so there ya go.

Here is me, so I can prove that I actually was in fact present in all these pictures. Hi Mama!!

That about wraps up the past few days! Tomorrow morning (Monday) we're (Me, Cami, Ruth, and Ellie) are going back up to camp to start preparations. We'll only be there until Wednesday, so expect a blog post that night, and not much communication until then.

Praises:

-The car is back!!!! We were able to drive places and it is such a blessing.

-Ruth School visits were awesome. The kids hugged us like crazy and we loved spending time with them.

Requests:

-My visa paperwork. Man, I can't wait to put this as a praise. It is such a trial but hopefully will all be finished in the next three weeks before camp starts.

-Productive days at camp.

-Safe travel to and from camp.

Thank you all for praying! As always, please do comment on this post and let me know you read it. :) I seriously, honestly do not care if I know you AT ALL. I just love hearing that you care about what I'm doing for six months of my life. ;)

Love,

Maria