Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 12:02:53 -0800
To: fishbreath@somewhere.net
From: ef Subject: dec 21
X-Originating-IP: 194.195.227.36
Reply-To: fishbreath@somewhere.net
i'm in a netcafe, it's late, i'm coughing like crazy and i have forgotten my fucking glasses so this might be a tad spellingly challenged if you know what i mean.
i haven't had time to write, arrived here to vasarhely 3 days ago, arrived at 4 am after a harrowing busride, seeing as the bus seat in front of us was broken and kept sliding back as the guy in front - really a very niceish guy, but then asleep so he was neither niceish or unniceish - stretched out, right into our fucking knees so we spent 14 hrs with our knees around our necks, covered in crumbs, cause, like, what the fuck, if ya can't sleep ya might as well eat, whaddaya say, another sandwich, sandwiches bought it budapest, sorry no reservations on romanian buses and yes, no, they have to load in the parking lot - which we found out the hard way, me and lajos-the-hun. as we had to pick up zoli who was coming to b-pest in order to pick *me* up to backgo with + bigheavy packages + the computer i scored for him from spencer in return for having made spencer's ubergeek webpage (geek being a compliment where i come from or hey, were i'm going) so information booth at bus depot says stand 15 at 7.30, me and lajos-the-h. standing freezing, 7.30, 8, i go again, information guy (different): nono, 8.30, yes yes, stand 15, me and lajos-the-h frozen in the wind, 8.30, 9, 9.30, lajos-the unstiffs, information woman (different) looking at wall sheet, oh it's late but coming, where, stand 15, fucking hell, clutching lukewarm vinegar-passes-for hot wine, 10am, am beyond pysical sensation, lajos-th leans me against wall, then staggers to bathroom to distil in the pisswarmth, out, eh-lizabet, eh-lizabet (hungarian pronounciation) most beszeltem egy emberrel aki ezeket ismeri, azt mondja hogy az a nyavalyas busz nem ide erkezik mert csak hatra, a parkingba engedik be es hogy hazudtak, es hat az is van hogy hat a busz mar regen 7am-kor megerkezett csak hat persze nem mondtak eg nekunk, baszd meg.
lora please translate.
na ja... zoli wandering b-pest with nary a cent, since he owns none and came on borrowed 200,000 lei for busfare, about 5 3/4 cents, but hard come by in romania, lemme tell you.
end of this story is that zol is debrouillard en hostie (genevieve please
translate) and found lajos-and-eszter-the-hungarians-and-me's address, so then
we are back at the beginning, ain't we, and off to romania, broken kneed. 
have been here for 3 3/4 days. many things are befalling me, but none are as hard as the families in the courtyard being evicted. i have made my peace with mihaly and melinda more or less. it is much heartbreakinger oh yes, to have become part family, kinda, onlyhope, verily. and now for others too. two other families in there, nowhere for them to go. one family of 9, one of 7, fathers working men all their lives, jobs now gone in happy capitalismland, you know this already, gypsies first to go.
mihaly's family only ones we are able to care for right now, but at least we are, yes, if we can find little cheaphouse for grandfather (katika will inherit, he says, bigsmiled) who would keep daughter husband 8 kinds in room with him. little house with one room, and a kitchen, we hope.
we have been running around to halfway scum unreal estateors to find. one we can afford. mihaly: if it had a bit of earth, you know, just a bit, around the building, i could plant a carrot or two, or potatoes. you don't starve if you can plant he says, but oh yes you can, tho perhaps prouderlier.
anyways, me, i am hoping for a bathroom. i have been giving the kids baths in the hotel room i am staying in till tomorrow and then dressing them in their new finestuffs i lugged all the way from canada! they say. you should see them. how proud they are and how beautiful.
also many other things, but netcafe shutting down, have to go, tomorrow i am going somewhere else, will continue, oke. tomorrow i am to check out the misery that is zoli and his. but as i say often enough, everything is relative. when we were talking with jeno downstairs, he with 6 children, oldest daughter pregnant + her husband makes 9, zoli almost broke down. misery is relative, you know, yes yes yes yes yes.
we drank a glass of wine with mihaly, after. talked of the house. felt a little better. but still.... so many more.
gotta go.
-e
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