So much has happened since the last post! Most notably, we were invited to a real Romanian barbeque on our last night in Buteni. GREAT night! We got to help make (and eat) something like a doughnut called a gagosh (sp?). We also had mitz, a sort of sausagey/ground-meat-and-spices kind fo thing, plus steaks (since the host of the BBQ was the town butcher) and tons more. The night was finished off by some lovely karaoke-ing that surely made for some good memories of our trip (and possibly even some amazing video footage...).

We've been in Sighisoara, the birthplace of "Vlad the Impaler" (aka Dracula himself), for 3 days now. Luckily, the only thing that's been biting so far are the mosquitos :) Yesterday we got to be tourists in this cool little old town. We checked out the clock tower and a really cool old cemetery. We also got the most gorgeous view of Sighisoara and all of the hills surrounding it from the top of the hill in the oldest part of town. This place is by far the most beautiful and unique we've seen so far! We'll try to post pictures soon :)

After our two days of rest and tourism, today it was back to work. We traveled outside of Sighisoara to a nearby village called Tigmandru (pronounced more like Sigmandru). We filled the morning again with taking blood pressures, checking out patients with various health concerns, and giving short presentations on hygiene, not smoking, exercising, and eating well. Most of the people we saw here were Roma or gypsy, and didn't really have regular access to healthcare. I saw one young mom who came in with her young son and daughter, complaining that they had coughs and fevers. I listened to her daughter's lungs first and was relieved to hear that they sounded normal. Her brother on the other hand had the most raspy-sounding lungs I've ever heard and was obviously having a hard time breathing while just resting. His mom told me had been hospitalized for pneumonia a month ago, but wasn't feeling better. I had no idea what to tell her except to take him back to the hospital as soon as she can, and try to keep her daughter away from him if possible. I kind of doubt that either of my requests would be followed through with though.

The most frustrating part of this entire trip so far--even more so than the language barrier and getting along with a big group of traveling companions 24/7--has been seeing the need for healthcare yet feeling helpless to do much to provide it to our patients here. We have to keep believing that the small amount of help we can offer with a bit of Tylenol or some advice to lay off the salt to ease hypertension will leave the people of these villages at least slightly better and more healthy than before. Additionally, my experiences in Tigmandru and Buteni have inspired me to want to come back in the future once I know more and have more to give to these people.

Tomorrow should be fun. We're planning on visiting an elderly social activity group kind of thing in the morning, offering blood pressure checks and visiting with the people. The afternoon will be similar but with the local kids. We'll try to keep you updated soon on how this this all goes...otherwise, talk to you all again from Cluj (our next destination)!