Tuesday, March 30, 2010
The Birth of Team: "Did that REALLY just happen?"
So by a couple of mishaps which gave us many fun times, we ended up on a night train from Budapest, Hungary to Sighisoara, Romania. It was not easy to sleep, and after going through exit immigration in Hungary, and then Entry into Romania, we were finally able to sleep. Our team leader set an alarm to wake us up an hour before we were supposed to arrive in Romania…
To set the scene:
Compartment 1: Corban, Zach, Ashley, Cassie, Laura, and Hannah
Compartment 2: Jardena, and Bethany
Compartment 3: Irish, Dom, and Angie.
I was sleeping somewhat peacefully with Jardena in compartment 2. At one point Jardena gets up and asks Corban “Shouldn’t we be arriving soon?” He says no, and assures her he has an alarm set. She comes back and we go back to sleep. Not much later Corban wakes up at a train stop, and happens to look out the window and notices the train station sign says “Sighisoara” He yells out in comp. 1 “Guys guys, this is our stop!” The train only stops for about 30 seconds at a station.
Zach immediately turns into a robot and grabs his stuff and heads out. On his way to the door he stops in Car 2 and tells Bethany and Jardena “This is our stop” and moves on, every man for himself, he disembarks.
Corban is trying to corral the people in his car, each person grabbing as much luggage as they can before rushing off the train, but he realizes he is in the way of them grabbing their stuff. He leaves his compartment, and thinks, “If I get off the train, they’ll realize that people are getting off and wait.” So Corban heads towards the door. Cassie is then able to get into the car and sees that Corban has left his small bag which contains all the teams money, his passport, and some of our return tickets. She says “Corban really??” and grabs the bag. Although Corban planned on having the train wait while we got off, unfortunately the train doesn’t care if people need to get off, it will leave anyway. So as the train starts moving Corban and Zach are alone on the platform, watching the train move away. However, Laura, Ashley, Cassie, and Hannah rushed to the door to get off. Knowing time was running out Laura jumped off the moving train. Ashley hesitated for a moment, but as the train began to pick up speed she took a flying leap of faith out of the rushing train. Unfortunately she also happened to take Cassie’s bag along with her. From Cassie’s perspective her bag fell under the train tracks, however Corban in full superman style swooped in and rescued her bags from certain peril and destruction. The four of them stood on the platform watching the train roll away with the other seven members of the team. At this moment Corban realizes, “I don’t have my little bag. You have got to be kidding me. YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!” And begins to run down the platform after the train carrying Irish’s camera bag and Cassie’s large backpack.
Meanwhile on the train, Cassie was about to jump off after Ashley, but she was stopped by a train attendant who grabbed her and held her forcefully on the train. Cassie tried to explain to the Romanian man that this was their stop. And by explain, I mean she squealed in a high pitched voice, “This is our stop! You don’t understand this is our stop! The train is early! THE TRAIN IS EARLY!” While the full fury of her panic came out through her shaking hands. Hannah stood behind her, offering the small bit of solace that she could.
While this is going on, Jardena searched the train for Angie, Irish, and Dominic. No one knew where they went. Earlier in the night an angry drunk Romanian family came into their compartment which was next to the rest of ours and yelled at them til they left.
I never really understood that we missed our stop…I thought we were just approaching it. So I’m standing in my car putting my stuff together. Angie, Irish, and Dom’s stuff was all in our cart too. The train stops suddenly, because the train attendant pulled the emergency break. Another attendant came to my compartment and grabbed me and pushed me to the door. I resisted because I didn’t want to leave everyone’s stuff, but he pushed me down the corridor and to the door. As the attendant herded me down the corridor, Jardena came up, still not having found the other three. She began screaming their names hoping to wake them up, as she too was escorted off the train. I climbed out onto the middle of the train tracks. This was the first clue I had that we weren’t where we were supposed to be, when I climbed down the side of the train landing on rocks and saw no train station.
The eight of us who made it off the train began to run up and down along the tracks hoping to see our missing three team members in their car. People in the train were taking pictures of us and we ran around in panic. Finally a train attendant figured out that there were more people on the train and located Irish, Dom, and Angie. He barged into their car yelling for them to get out, (a theme for them for the night) and they in a half-asleep stupor landed on the ground, wondering aloud, “Guys, what just happened?”
The moment their feet hit solid ground the train screeched away into the night. The eleven of us (thankfully all eleven of us) were left standing dumbfounded, with nothing to do but breath, and ask “Did that REALLY just happen?”
Once we collected our wits, we began to take inventory, and give each other the belongings that we grabbed for each other. Irish had her camera which she thought she forgot. Cassie presented Corban with his little bag (that is most defininately NOT a purse) A few girls walked back to the platform where they had jumped off the train and found some clothes and Cassie’s wallet with her passport. After all was said and done, the only things left behind were a water bottle, and 6 return tickets home. Considering we nearly left half the team behind, we all agreed, we did pretty good. We walked into the train station, and realized that there had been a one hour time change when we crossed the boarder. As we sat down to catch our breath, Corban’s watch beeped.
“Hey Guys, it’s time to get up, we’ll be there in about an hour.”
"Did that REALLY just happen?"
Once we collected ourselves and our belongings we found our ride and headed to a small gypsy village called Soard, which would be our home for the next week. We were blessed enough to get to stay for free at the church in the village, the pastor and his wife and thier amazing gyps family opened their home and hearts for us. We didnt just get to stay there we got to experience life as gypsies. There was no running water in the town so we used a well outside our house to wash our dishes and brush our teeth. We didnt shower or change our clothes at all for the week and man did we stink. When we got back to Germany our other teammates couldnt even stand to be in the same room as us and i think on the train ride home we successfully cleared the car of all the other people in it. But that is all a side note...what we learned through this experience was more than we could have ever hoped. Just what God showed us in that week are lessons we will never forget. We spent a lot of time with the kids in town. They are some of the dirtiest poorest love seeking children i have ever see, yet they had so much joy. They took a liking to us immediatly and never left our sides the whole week. The first night we were there we went up on top of the mountain and all the village kids met us up there ( probably about 40 + kids) and we just played and played for hours. No matter how dirty they were we didnt hold back any love. We just poured out everything we had and hopefully what we gave them made a difference. Throughout the week we lead childrens bible school, preached at a hungarian gypsy church service, i gave a message to a group of young adults about finding your value and identity in God. We did other things like washing cars, carpets and painting the little girls of the town nails. It was such a great time. It was definelty good preparation for India and Nepal and just adapting to a developing nation and the things we will face.
I leave for India and Nepal on May 2nd. We have a lot of great ideas of what to do there. Lots of service stuff and seetting up a cafe and darkroom. Hmm I guess not only my photo background but my starbucks experience will be useful in this outreach too. We have a great team and great leaders. I think this is going to be a very fruitful experience.
Its weird that we only have a month left in Germany. Its hard to split of into 3 groups and to have to spend 2 1/2 months away from these new friends. But it comes with the territory here and we know that what God has for us is more important and its the reason why we are here. We come back July 15th and then have 2 weeks left in Germany and then its home sweet home. Which I am so excited for. I cant wait to come back share stories, photos and get ready to see what the next step is. Gods been speaking and there is a lot of exciting stuff he wants me to do, so we will see how long im back in good old Santa Barbara for.
Sorry this isnt very detailed but its something. The photos are what I experienced, there are just a few ... gotta wait for the rest for when I get back...the scanning job was bad so this isnt what my finals will look like when I get home. But they will work for now to give you and idea of our experience...they are all film, shot on my hassleblad, who has become like an extra appendage to me....
Its easter. I miss home.
