Date: Fri, 22 Dec 2000 07:02:34 -0800
To: fishbreath@somewhere.net
From: ef
Subject: house
X-Originating-IP: 195.179.246.238
i am trying to find a house or an anything for these people to move into... fucking hard. here in town, way too expensive, village okay for price but grandfather cannot move there as his pension is 138,000 lei a month which makes for about 7 bucks so he has to supplement his income somehow which is by repairing ancient tv sets. so if he moves to a village, the little money he gets from this will be taken up by the busfare to and fro. which means we have to find something within 5 miles of the town limits cause then, as he says, he can walk. i am buying him a new pair of shoes for x-mas but that is to be a surprise.
i am sitting here, at the netcafe, with mihaly-misi, the kid mihaly, the eldest boy. he is to stay with me for a couple of days, as my "official helper". translating from romanian when the need arises, yes. but also because he is so sad... i thought i would cheer him up a little. which is working. he can even sleep in my hotel room so it's totally exciting for him. *and* tonight we will take the train to cluj-napoca or as it used to be known, back in hungarianess, kolozsvar. i am going there to visit zoli, that's where he lives with the wife-and-kid.
back to the housing situation... problem being is that unless i do find something on the outskirts, they will be forced into hüvösvölgy, which is the so called gypsy quarter, in other words, the ghetto, the slum. mihaly the father thinks we would be able to find a small oneroom+kitchen house, but then there is no running water, only a tap in the street, tho mihaly thinks he might find a house with a well in the yard. that is if he finds one with a yard, haha, sob.
so you see how it is.
but we will have a good x-mas! grandfather walked in with a huge hen, alive and kicking. when i went back later, melinda was busy plucking. so there is to be a feast, i think.
and there will be presents under the tree too. all the kids are ecstatic, what's in this package, which one is mine, dancing around.
in case you are wondering. yes, i did make peace with the parents, many of the things i found out were true, yes, there were some lies, but not important ones, only those that a father might make when his children are starving. the beatings turned out to be untrue, tales from across the courtyard, another family wishing me theirs. also understandable, i am the miracle and there are so few to go around.
the lies were discussed, yes. melinda cried. it took mihaly two days to dare to approach me to apologize, asked zoli to ask me first if i would accept it. of course i did. i always forgive.
so now we are different. you know, maybe more real. maybe the bullshit is over with.
haven't gotten the ruling from court yet, it's in the mail. so we don't know how long we have, before all options run out.
i figure on 30 days. gotta have something in place by then.
misi just looked what i wrote and he says, hü, milyen sokat irtál!
-e
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