Wednesday over all went pretty smoothly, in the morning we had a good sized group again and we learned all about Word and the kids all had a chance to write a letter to their mother. They all greatly enjoyed this, especially adding clip art and playing around with the font, color, and size of the text. The girls got a little more into it so it took them a little longer then the boys. All in all it was a very successful morning.
Normally we ate at the church thanks to the wonderful cooking of Coca, the pastor’s wife; however Wednesday afternoon Pastor Ion had to go back to Câmpina to take care of some important business, so in order to do that and get to Brādāşanca on time we were unable to eat there. Instead we packed up as quickly as possible and started back to Câmpina where we met up with Dan, one of Pastor Ion’s sons, who brought us pizza which we ate while Pastor Ion took care of things. In the end everything worked out great.
Upon arriving in Brādāşanca there were a few kids ahead of us all ready to use the computer. About as fast as we could set up the computers, they were filled with children playing their favorite games. In the afternoon we once again went over Word and did Draga Mama letters. It took a little bit of time for everyone to get the hang of it, and a few of the boys struggled with staying on topic. In some ways the afternoon seemed long, since the kids were very energetic and didn’t always want to listen to us but in the end the day was a success.
Thursday, also went very well. We once again had new students in the morning which was exciting. Giving the students the letters that they had written the day before was also a highlight of the day. They loved seeing what they had made actually on a piece of paper and not just on the computer screen. We also went over Power Point, which they had a lot of fun with. As a group we went over a lot of the basics and then let each student make one slide with information about themselves on it. After break we continued with Power Point and showed them some of the cool effect that they could put in and the older ones especially liked that part.
Our numbers reached around 35 on Thursday afternoon and we had some new fairly young ones too. The teaching style had to be modified since we had so many kids, and such a large range of skill level. So after doing a short intro to Power Point we mostly taught each group individually. Though some of the younger kids didn’t totally understand everything I think they all had a very enjoyable time.
That brings us up to today. We arrived to find almost all of the students waiting for us which is very cool, since most of the time the Baptist church is looked down upon. Dr. G did his lesson on the internet and the children greatly enjoyed sending e-mail and instant messages to each other. Since it was Friday it was also the day for graduation, which is always bittersweet. After many hugs and goodbyes we saw all the children off. It was Filip’s (the pastor’s son) birthday and so him mom had made a special lunch for everyone and we had cake and ice cream. There were many thank yous that went around the dinner table and before long it was time to leave Pitulicea for the last time.
As we arrived in Brādāşanca we were swarmed by students, there were 44 students in all, which made for a very full and exciting class. Once again the students loved sending IM’s and e-mail, though we had a few problems with the e-mail on a couple computers. During break all the kids went outside to play and Krista worked very hard on getting all the certificates together since there were so many new students. Then it was time for chapel. It was very encouraging to see the children remembering the previous lessons, and the major points from each day. Then all too soon it was once again time for graduation and goodbyes.
This evening we had the opportunity to spend with Pastor Ion’s family. We all went out to eat so that we could give Elena a little break from making us dinner every night. It was a lot of fun to just relax with the family and remember some of the more memorable events of the past few weeks. We also said our thank yous and gave them our gifts. The Romanians are very giving people, and so we also got a gift ourselves. It was a little sad thinking about how this was our last night with this wonderful family.
Tomorrow we head out. We are unsure if we will have internet access or not next week. If we do we will be sure to keep the blog updates as much as possible. Please continue to pray for the students that we have had the opportunity to come in contact with these past two weeks and also for those who we will work with this coming week.
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