WOW the things i have witnessed the last few days... for those of you who are going to be offended at run on sentences, misspellings, and lack of punctuation..s top reading now.. because this entry is going to be a stream of consciousness... :) Let's see... well first of all I went to visit the towns that were often mentioned when my dad, uncle, aunt and grandma talked about "the old country'... They aren't far from Timisoara - my 'home base' and really close to a monestary where Cora and her dad like to go ( 35 km ).
Side note 1- cora's dad is a computer programmer / informatics graduate in the university library here in timisoara.. he likes to get away from the hustle and bustle of city life and heads to this monestary... the nuns there rent little rooms for extra income... and he is good friends with the priest there.
Side note 2 - everyone here if they practice any sort of religion is romanian orthodox... this past weekend was pentecost for them... let's see long story short.... Saturday night 2 hour service Sunday morning 5 hour service... yes I went to both ... that will be another entry :)
Ok back to the villages... so Cora's dad is really interested and he wanted to go with Cora and I- turns out he knew a lot about the German settlers in the region... ( history lesson in yet another entry to follow) So on the way there we have to take a million detours because roads have washed out and are impassable by car... all the horses and carts were being used for gathering hay and since it was raining it wouldn't have been very comfortable for us... ( yet... believe it or not... it came to be a very close possibility- for those of you thinking WTH? yep... that'swhat Ithought.) We aren't talking muddy road we're talking BOGS !
We finally reached Semlacu Mic ( Klein Schemlak as it was called prior to 1946)
Turns out that on the way there Cora's dad knows the place because on the outskirts of that town is a monestary that he has been meaning to visit. He got so excited that it was the same place....
The town itself is maybe the size of my subdivision.. with half that many people living in it.
When we arrived, I had no idea how emotional it would be for me.... to walk on the streets that my dad walked on was absolutely heart wretching... I imagined things to have changed and be much different... but the street has not been touched since 1944 when they left Romania. Its like when they left, time stopped...The church ( Lutheren) absolutely huge.. ( the size of st. vincent in Elkhart, st jude in south bend- to give some of you an idea) stands without a roof.. the clock stopped at 11:30 the doors are chained shut and the crows have built nests in the bell tower. But... in front of the church and along the side the chestnut trees that they talked about still stand. Cora's dad had a great expression that translated into English means "the tooth of time has been here"
I just want to say you are incredibly good at blogging and your words bring tears to my eyes. Thank you so much for taking the time to share what you are seeing, doing and feeling.
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