Ah, Romania in spring.

We had three purposes in mind when we left Fort Wayne May 17, 2000 en route to Vurpar: to deliver medical aide, to make arrangements for the visit of the Indiana Lions Club in August and to observe the changes in Romania.

Thanks to various organizations and people we were able to take approximately 250 Lbs. of medical supplies to the village. Friends at Whitley Manufacturing Co., Inc. in Fort Wayne, www.whitleyman.com, helped us package the bulky containers for the trip.

In Bucuresti we were welcomed by members of the Romanian church and representatives from Vurpar
and driven north-west to Sibiu with in a vehicle bulging with boxes and two very tired travelers.

After a night in Sibiu we drove to Vurpar in the morning carrying the boxes of supplies and other items for the village. In the summer Vurpar is lush and green, surrounded by miles and miles of fallow ground, some of it used for grazing, much of it simply idle.

Our base in the village was the home of Emil and Rodica Dragan.

The home is an old-style farmstead. The big house, the summer kitchen, the barn and a variety of smaller buildings all surround a central court yard forming a sort of walled citadel. Chickens and hogs are raised in pens within the court yard. Grain is stored, wood chopped, bread made. On the other side of the barn is a garden where cabbage, tomatoes, onions and many other vegetables are raised.

The first few days we visited old friends in Vurpar and Sibiu.

Then, a couple days after we arrived we took part in a village wedding at Sf. Gheorghe Romanian Orthodox Church. The ceremony was proceeded by a parade through the village. A bearer bobbed a wedding standard up and down, Romanian folk music echoed through the village from an accordion and a saxophone, and a string of celebrants followed behind.

We went on to the ceremony at the church where incense and candles burned in the gilded sanctuary.

By the way, Romanian village wedding receptions last two and three days. In a rather poor country the priority is still on hospitality and paying the appropriate respect. Vast amounts of food and drink landed frequently on the long tables.

The cooks with the Mayor	And they dance!

Unexpectedly, fox trots, sambas, jitterbug and waltz, punctuated the whirling, dynamic area folk dances. It seemed everyone had come to a cast-party after the opening of a successful Broadway musical. They were simply that good. People could dance.

Meanwhile, the kids enjoyed themselves outside the wedding hall.

And at four in the morning people were still dancing. The crowd had thinned, but the music blared on and the pace was just as energetic.

After recovering from the two day marathon wedding we went to Vurpar Scoala Generala, the grade school in the village. We met the kids and staff of the school

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