Chicken in a bag

I’d like to tell you about our friend Catalina.  Catalina knows the ministry we work for and used to help take care of the house that we are now living in when no one was living here.  Our first encounter was the first weekend we were here with two translators and our fridge stopped working.  We called our friend and somehow the word got to Cathy and she came over to look since she lives in town and I believe her husband works on fridges.  Well, she took one look at it and said it was old and not worth fixing.  Now, being the thrifty person I am I knew that it could probably be fixed, but that is the Romanian thinking.  I’ve heard stories of people throwing out their old, hand-made, solid-wood furniture for new particleboard stuff because it was new.  (that house had two other smaller fridges, so we are using them.)  She did not stay long that time, but as she left I told Eli I wished I could talk to her because she had a nice spunk and seemed like she would be fun.  Ever since that day she stops by a couple times and week and she invites us to her house from time to time as well.  She does not speak English and we speak few Romanian words, but it is fun to try to talk and figure things out…we have also learned to use online translators a lot.

We are blown away by Catalina’s generosity.  She is always bringing us vegetables from her garden.  One day she brought us some chicken legs from the chickens she raises.   Another time at her house she asked me if I wanted a chicken.  Of course being an American I think to myself, “No I do not want a chicken,” but how do I tell her no.  She told me it was a gift and she would kill it and pluck the feathers for me.  Well, I told her maybe because I happen to know the words in Romanian, “not now, but later.”  She said to let her know when and I actually hoped it never came up again, but when we left it turns out that later meant the next morning.  I figured she would come with it already dead and I thought she said something about soup so maybe we were going to make the chicken into a soup.  When she arrived with a live chicken in a bag the next morning I was a little scared.  I grew up on a farm, but we never had chickens and I had never gone through the process of killing one.   My chicken always came from a store and to tell the truth I like it that way.  Well, she went around back and killed it and then pulled off the feathers.  I think she was a bit surprised when she asked if we did that in America and I told her no I get my chicken from the store.  I’m pretty sure she knew I never had though by my reactions and face through the whole thing.  Next we went inside and she got the chicken all cut up for cooking.  Turns out though she was just leaving the chicken for me to do what I wanted with it.  I did make soup though after all because this was not a big chicken and did not have a lot of meat on it.  That really was the first time I’m a little ashamed to say that I have cooked a whole chicken.  I am the pathetic person that only buys boneless, skinless breasts so I do not have to deal with the bones and skin.   I know pathetic.  This whole ordeal made me feel like a spoiled American. 

Last week we went to the Pentecostal church that she attends because he husband was getting baptized.  The service was, well, I really do not know because it was all in Romania, but the people were real nice.  We walked to church and afterward she said they would take us home.  The local bread store is about a block from the church so Eli got some bread before we went home.  Later that evening she brought us over some homemade bread.  Then two days later she brought us another loaf and said not to buy bread from the store.  Now, I am a bit of a baker, but when the bread from the bread store is $0.30 you do not even think of baking your own.  It is cheaper to buy it in my eyes.  We told her if she wanted to bring us bread we were going to pay for it, but she will not let us pay her for it. 

We owe her so much as she keeps giving and giving to us.   If anyone has some good ideas of ways to repay her please give suggestions.