Local Action Group Meeting

Today was the big LAG meeting which started about 11am and finished just before 7pm.
Here in Romania everything is debated endlessly, which is why an agenda of 5 points took 8 hours to discuss.
The main talking point today was a man from the Ministry of Agriculture, who came bearing gifts - and was promptly shot down by all sides as his ministry had manifestly NOT done what it was supposed to have done. He did promise to take all the complaints back and sort them out, but the concensus of the meeting was that we would need to get on and do it ourselves - something I heartily agree with. We were strengthened by several new Mayors who had just won their places in the recent elections. These men ( and 1 woman) had all wanted to be involved in the LAG but the previous incumbents had been very old school. Now, we are reinvigorated.
One of our LAG members is Willy Schuster, the only remaining Saxon in Mosna, who is seriously into eco everything. His brochure for different cheeses, cream, yoghurt, herbs and what not has a quote from the Bible - "The Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress and to keep it "( Genesis 2:15).
This really is the Garden of Eden come to life.I've never been more sure of anything but that we have to do our utmost to keep it if we are to deserve our primary place on Earth.
It's been a very busy few days, and will be even busier tomorrow and Saturday. The lawyer has really earned her money this week ( by the way, one standard contract translation today was Ron 25 - how does she make it up?) as has Alin, who has driven nearly 1000 miles ferrying people about. Work starts here at 7am, so quite often we have to be on the doorstep at that time. Bed is never until after midnight. I'm sure he is delighted when I go away again and he can get some sleep. If you have a look at page 2 here, Alin is in the bottom right hand picture with the dark hair and the sunglasses. But please have a look at the other pictures further down. You will get a feel for why I love it here.
The day ended with an excellent meal about 9pm ( it always takes a couple of hours to get the odd bits of business sorted after the meetings). Tonight was excellent celery soup, the most delicious garlic filled sausages, and, as ever, the cabbage salad. It's just as well we all had the same as we are all seriously pongy.
Tomorrow will be accountants,checking a couple of houses, builders and finally trying to conclude a deal for an old mill we want to turn into a packing shed. Saturday will be the best day - we are in the fields and hills again to check that the areas shown on maps correspond to the property titles.I enjoy this more than anything else here.
There are potential pitfalls to be avoided - there are for example 3 old woman all with identical names, who all live in the same street, and all in a row at 133, 134 and 135. They are not related at all. At some point they swapped various parcels of land for ease of working, and now noone really knows who owns what. Fortunately, City Hall takes a pragmatic view of these things - as long as we have a piece of paper saying we own such and such a piece of land, as certified by the Notary, they will register it. It's only 17 years since the land was returned to its owners, and it will take another generation for it all to be properly - as Alin says - "registrated."
I'm sure there will be a barbecue Saturday night before I am poured onto the train for Budapest.