So, as I mentioned, this day has been totally consumed with travel. We left Tyler Friday morning at 10:30 to catch a 3 PM flight from DFW to Amsterdam...arrived in Amsterdam at 7:10 am (just after midnight Texas time) and then caught another flight to Bucharest, Romania at 9:40. After that flight we had customs.
Customs is always a concern spot for us, especially on medical outreaches because we bring in our own medicines and supplies. Of course we keep all of our ducks in a row with documentation, only non-expired medicines, licenses, etc, but it can still be a hairy spot. Today was a breeze, however. Praise God. One of the inspectors asked Sunni what we had. She told him gifts and medicines. He asked if we had documents. We said yes, and were about to get them out and he just waved the whole group of 16 through with no bag checks.
From there we boarded a bus and took another 3 1/2 hour bus ride with another hour stop in the middled for dinner to finally get to Braila. It's 8:30 PM here (12:30 in the afternoon at home). We've all only catnapped off an on during the last 26 hours so we're all headed to bed. Speaking of the beds, our living quarters are plush! There is a new christian mission clinic in Braila that we will be using. The upper floor is "dormitories". Now when I saw dormitories, think Hilton Garden Inn rooms all opening into a central lounge space with free high speed wifi and in pristine condition. It's nice. I haven't heard the whole story, but I believe its construction was coordinated through a Christian dental mission outreach group in the Dallas area and pretty muh paid for my a single donor.
So, at the end of the day I'm thankful that though the trip was long, it went smoothly. I'm thankful for our nice clean, plush quarters. I'm thankful our boys are safe at home and havinI also enjoyed KLM airlines, which I'd never flown before, some Dutch chocolate in Amsterdam, and - though I never eat there in the States - a McDonalds double cheese burger here in Romania. Romanian McDonalds are much nicer than in the States: leather chairs in a cafe style setting, everyone (except for 16 weary travelers) all dressed up. But the food tasted the same. Here's looking forward to trying some home cooked Romanian fare tomorrow with some of the local church families.
A few snapshots of our day's travels in Romania:
Mickey D's
My first Romanian friend - just passed him on the street and he asked me to take his picture
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2 comments:
Oh my gosh! You have NO IDEA how glad I am to see this post. I have not heard from Larry since y'all were sitting on the runway at DFW. I was really hoping he'd call me (even though it was very early morning hours here) when y'all landed, but alas, he did not. It's 8:30pm Sat here, so it's 2:30am there. I know y'all are all sleeping, but in the morning (or whenever you see this), please tell him to call me or email me or something. I'd like to hear his voice, but seeing an email would be good too. Just to know he's OK, ya know? I miss my best friend already. Ugh...this is gonna be a long trip.
Thanks for posting pictures, too! It looks awesome! Can't wait to read the updates throughtout the week!!
PS Tell him I'll hold his shovel for him at the groundbreaking & try not to get any dirt on the camera crew when I fill my shovel. :) I'm not exactly adept with a shovel. I always end up accidently flipping dirt everywhere when I pull it up out of the ground. That might not be good tomorrow morning. ha ha!!
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