May 22

This morning Dejan woke me up at a quarter till 8. I got up, splashed some water on my face and set about packing up the last of my clothes. Before long, I had everything packed and Dejan was yelling up the stairs to come get breakfast if I wanted some. After another delicious breakfast, I gave Andre, Matej, and David each one of the little flashlights that I got from Opa. They said thank you, and Matte seemed quite delighted. Then I headed back up to the room and put away the last of my stuff in time to hear Dejan call: "Benjy, uh, we should go." I carried all my stuff down, only to be told that I didn't need it yet. So Dejan, Daniel, and I headed off to church. When we got there, they had already been singing. We went up to the front of the men's side in time to sing one song. I had forgotten my English book so I sang in Serbian to the best of my ability, which wasn't very good. Then the minister got up and preached. The service was set up very similar to our services in Wolcott, except he read only out of the new testament. After the service, we had to leave as the greetings were given. After chatting for a while with Monica and the others in front of the church, we headed back to their house. After chilling for a while, we beaded back to the church. Dejan, Danijel, Natalija, Andre, and I joined the rest of the young folk in sandwich making. By working in assembly line fashion, we made 600 sandwiches in less than an hour. First, I helped Dejan carry tables and benches down from the lunchroom to the foyer. The second job given to me was to figure out how to work the air conditioner. The instructions were in English, so they hoped that I could figure it out. Unfortunately, I was not able to accomplish all that they wanted, but I got it set on high so that it would be cool when all the people arrived. Then I set to work wrapping trays of sandwiches with Dejan. We made a great team! Finally, we headed home again. After a bit of YouTube watching, my group showed up. I felt quite loved as I received hugs all around. I asked Opa for another light so that I would have one to give to Natalija, but he couldn't find one. Instead, he had a pen with an LED light on the end. I figured that would be as good, if not better. We were in a hurry to leave, and I couldn't find her so I left it on her desk with a little not that simply said: "For: Natalija From: Benjy :)" and rushed off to church. When we arrived, people were flooding in from all over. There were visitors from all over Serbia, Hungary, Australia, America and maybe even Romania. The church was packed with at least four hundred people. Church started at 3. After a service, we sang from about four fifteen or four thirty until about five forty. The singing was spectacular. At first, the singing was very slow but very good. Then another leader took over and it sped up and got even better. I wish I could have recorded it. After the congregational singing, the kids all sang several songs for us. this lasted till six. Then a minister got up and had a prayer for the meal, and we all went and ate. I got to talk to a lot of people who can speak English, and got several email addresses. Unfortunately, I cannot remember most of the names. Finally it was time to say goodbye to all my new, but very dear friends. It was very sad. I was very disappointed that I didn't get to say goodbye to Andre, Natalija, and Matej. Philip Augustinov took us back to the Murtins to get our stuff. Much to my delight, I found a not on my luggage that said, in very neat handwriting: "thank you. Natalija" At least I know she got the pen. Then we loaded everything into Philip's van and we left for Vladimirescu. The drive was fairly uneventful and we arrived at our destination by midnight Romanian time. We are now seven hours different than home. The older portion of the Augostinov family was waiting for us as we arrived. Oma and Opa greeted their old friends with enthusiasm and introduced me all around. After a little conversation, they headed home and we all went to bed.