Thursday and Friday in Bucharest

Florin, Pat, Nancy and I met for a strategics meeting early and then went to be present at a morning seminar on a clearinghouse for pro bono work among lawyers and then had lunch.  I went back to my hotel for a nap after that.

In the evening, Nancy was scheduled to give a talk at the University. There were about thirty in attendance, mostly young women.  It was, as expected a very powerful talk on MCC's approach to sexuality and faith and religion.  In the discussion period afterwards, which went on for well over an hour, it was clear that most of those present had decided that the church had little to offer them but that they were very anxious to discuss with Nancy the aspects of faith she described in her talk.  Florin, Pat and I also mingled during the wrap-up having very interesting conversations.  One couple approached me, a man and a woman.  His father and brother are priests.  Her father is a priest.  They really wanted to continue the discussion with us and asked for a meeting time.  I suggested that they come to our meeting on Saturday evening and they agreed to do that.

Picture of Nancy preparing for her talk:

Picture of Florin introducing Nancy:

Picture of the techs using a fire extinguisher as a microphone stand:

We went out to dinner afterwards to debrief and all of us felt very good about the lecture and especially about the participation of those attending.   It was after 11 when I returned to my hotel.

On Friday morning early, Florin met me at my hotel and we walked up to Nancy and Pat's hotel to go together to a meeting at the Romanian council of Churches office.  we met with a woman who was vibrant and passionate about her work with women.  We were joined by a priest who in former days had been one of Florin's professors at seminary.  He was difficult.  He was a sender rather than a receiver and liked to hear himself talk.  We had no common ground and it was a most difficult hour.  We all wanted to strangle him.  The woman got so frustrated she left the conference table.  Although the four of us are generally easy-going, we weren't kind in our assessment of that priest.

My companions had lunch with a government official and a physical in women's health issues and I chose not to attend but went back to my hotel.  I wandered the city for a while in the afternoon but the heat and humidity finally drove me back to the hotel to nap.  Florin picked me up around 7:30 and we walked over to pick up Pat and Nancy for dinner.  We went to a "country" restaurant and ate outside while the peacocks cried their eerie calls and on the other side of us, folk musicians played with gusto.  I finally had sarmale  (cabbage rolls) and mamaliga (polenta) and reveled in the taste. After dessert and coffee, we did a walking tour of the city.  the heat and humidity had me soaked.  I got back to my hotel at almost midnight.