Above pictures: A pic of the rooftop warriors, my interview, our US Habitat team, the next is Emil and family. Emil is the host team coordinator for Habitat Beius. The next picture is Jonout and his wife who is expecting their first child later this fall. The next picture is Andrew and his hair after a days work. The next is me, Jonout, Tani and Dianna and the picture of the river was taken walking through Oradea. (I'm not sure what order that these pictures will actually show but I have faith that you can figure it out.)

Well, the jet lag has finally subsided and life is returning to the normal routine. It is time for a final entry on this trip. I survived the final flight home. Getting up at 4 am Budapest time was not a pleasant experience :) But, all my flights were on time and my luggage made it home with me to that should count for something. I could have done without flying from Munich to London next two a couple who smelled like they hadn’t showered in a month of Sundays. Thank goodness for those airvents!

I have had some time to reflect on the team that met up on this trip. All of us were from different parts of the country and had different backgrounds. But each person brought their unique gifts and personality to the team which added to a great experience. I must also share that a we had a number of younger people on the team, a couple girls who were 19, one who just graduated college and 3 who were in their early – mid 20’s. These guys could have taken the selfish route to spend their money on a vacation at the beach or travel after graduation just to have fun, but they chose to give their time, money and talents to work for Habitat. They were so much fun to work with and I know there are good things in store for them all. Okay I must admit, it did make me feel VERY old when Andrew said “Man Cid, I wish you were my aunt! You’d be a blast.” I am going to take that comment in the context that I would be his young aunt – you know, one of those aunts who are around the same age as the nephew J The other team members were also adventurous and had some very interesting life experiences that they shared.

Speaking of showers – I am including a picture of our “shower” in Romania so you could get an idea of what we were talking about. No, there is no shower curtain. It was nice to use a real shower - with a shower door and everything – when I got home!

I included a few pictures of the guys we worked with, random pictures of Oradea and some of the guys we worked with too.

Things I have learned on this trip:
1. It is possible to communicate in ways that don’t involve the English language
2. Laughter IS the universal language
3. It is common in some parts of the world to place a shower head in the wall in the middle of a bathroom
4. Road maintenance is NOT a priority in certain parts of the world
5. Germans really do know their beer
6. Romanians really know how to PRICE their beer
7. Palinka is from the devil!
8. You can pull a team together from all over the US and have everyone get along
9. It is possible for me to use a hammer and NOT hit my thumb even once!
10. I really, really need my coffee in the morning
11. I will be ready to go on another Global Village trip next year

I do want to say a big thank you to all of you who donated to Habitat in order to make this trip even possible. It really was a terrific experience. Meeting the local Romanians – both the Habitat workers and the new home owners provided an experience that really can’t be put into words. Another thought that came to my mind during this trip was how much I think my dad would have liked a trip like this and how much fun it would have been to work side by side with him on a trip like this.

Seeing the local people find joy not in their material possessions, but in their family and friends reminded me just how “wealthy” I truly am with you all in my life.

Entry for Sat. May 30th

Well, it’s the last day being in Oradea. The day started off with all kinds of enthusiasm – see picture. As we drove to the jobsite, we were greeted by our friendly stork – we could see her feeding her babies every morning as we drove by. The nest was huge!

I found it funny that when I was preparing to finish the stucco on the peak of the house, Emil asked “do you feel safe enough to climb to the top of the scaffolding?” Since two days ago I had just been climbing and standing on little slats of wood on a 40 degree pitch roof. So I told Emil, yes I think I can handle a solid flat surface, albeit high off the ground.

One of the nice parts about the work was that two local girls came out to spend the day volunteering. This is a big deal because the concept of “volunteer” still has a bit of a negative connotation. The girls were great to talk too. One of them had gotten her masters in International Affairs in British Columbia. They spoke English very well so it was easy to talk to them. They were very candid too when asked a question. I asked them about the general feelings toward the gypsy population and she said there is a tremendous amount of animosity and prejudice still.

We worked until about 12:30 today and then it was time for a few last pictures with the boys and head back to the hotel. I’m not going to lie to you, it was a bit emotional. A couple of us gave our hammers to the site leader Jonout. This was his first build as a site leader. He did a great job leading. We gave him our hammers and he came out later with a black marker and asked us to sign our hammers for him.

Then we headed back to hotel to clean up and make the hour + drive to Beius. The landscape along the drive was gorgeous. The road condition; however, left much to be desired. We made the drive and stopped off at the Habitat office where they explained what was being done in Beius. Emil then said “let’s walk down around the street and you can see the first Habitat street.” Well, what we didn’t know was the surprise that awaited us. We walked a few blocks and then turned the corner and were greeted by the neighborhood and about20 kids all in traditional folk outfits. We were greeted with the same ceremony and activities that they do for dignitaries. We took pieces of bread and dipped in salt and then the kids sang songs and did some great dances. It was so amazing and mere words written in a blog cannot do the experience justice. One of the biggest things I realized as I stood there and looked down the street is how Habitat had transformed that community – which is what Global Village is all about. Everyone was very proud of their house and they were all very well kept up.

After visiting the neighborhood, Emil took us to the Bear Cave. This is a cave that dates back thousands of years. It got its name because the bears would spend most of their time in the caves only going out to hunt. The bones of the bears in the cave are more than 10,000 years old. It was a very interesting site. We also stopped at a little museum which had some great antiques. However, I think my favorite site was what I saw when we were walking back out on the street. I looked up the road and her is this old woman taking her geese out for a stroll – seriously. They just continued on down the street. I thought for a minute that perhaps they were on a field trip to the museum as they looked like they were about to go in, but they continued on.

Then we were off to have dinner with the Beius team that worked on the build with us, their wives, the assistant director and one of the board members. It was great to be able to sit down with one another, break bread together and share stories from the week. There was a lot of laughter, which has become quite the norm with this group! I have also learned about a traditional alcohol drink here called Palinka (might have spelled that wrong.) Anyway, all I can say is “holy cow!” I think my insides are still trying to recover from ingesting what can only be described as a vicious deception of a “nice dinner drink”! I have some team members who enjoy it so I asked them to save me some so I could take it to the airport when I leave in case the plane needs additional fuel!

At the end of each day during this trip, at the end of the day we go around and each person gives their high point and low point of the day. This time when we did this at dinner, even the guys did a high and low of their day which was really neat. We then had to say our goodbyes and make the drive back to Oradea as the morning will be coming way too early! Tomorrow we will drive to Budapest for the day. More to follow…..

Update for May 29th -

They call me "The Stucco Queen". So today started out 40 degrees colder than the other days and a lot wetter. We had a pretty good bit of rain in the morning, but I was lucky enough to get a job working under cover. Angelina and I were on "stucco duty" which was great because we learned how to not only make the stucco, but apply it as well. Our 'supervisor' Nelu, spoke no English, but that did not slow us down. He was great and I just loved to here those words "forte beine" (pronounced fortey be en yay - and I am sure I did not spell it correctly). At first, I thought it meant "Dumbass, you're doing it all wrong" but thankfully what it means is "very good!" So any time he said it we felt good about our work. He did tell Emil - our regional host that "the girls are quick learners and did much better as we continued to work. One of the pictures above is of me and Jonut (pronounced "you noot"). He was teaching me how to hold the mixer and make the face just like Arnold in Terminator 2 - ha ha. I have also attached a picture of "Team Stucco" - me, Nelu and Angelina.

Okay, so at times I did wonder if I was getting more stucco on me or the wall. :) While Angelina and I worked on the stucco, The others were working on prepping the house for drywall and then working on the drywall itself.

Work almost had to come to a sudden stop for what I call an “injury timeout” when I thought I broke a nail. But alas I sucked it up and played through the pain! Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do!”

Along that same line, several of us volunteered to “take one for the team” when it became apparent that we were going to run out of bottle caps – you see, we uses bottle caps when nailing on the Styrofoam insulation to the OSB along with using the cement. See the picture above. Anyway, we were willing to go drink enough Ursus, the local beer, to provide us with the bottle caps necessary to finish the job.

We continued to play with the kids at lunch - they loved the bubbles that Carol brought to the site. As the week went on, more and more kids would show up.

Thankfully the rain slowed down in the afternoon and we were able to get a lot of the

house done. I can also tell you that soup for lunch that day was a much bigger seller then it was on the first day when it was 90 degrees :) I also noticed that we were each drinking 8 - 12 bottles of water every other day, but today we went through A LOT more coffee :) Speaking of coffee, Valer - one of our supervisors -noticed early in the week that I was A LOT more productive if I had my morning coffee!!! He would say "you have coffee yet?" before he would correct my work, ha ha.

One of the more poignant parts of the trip came and the end of today. Emil, our local Habitat host, got two of the guys to take me, Andrew and Angelina on a tour through the blocks and their apartments. Walking over to their side of “the blocks” you could see a pie of garbage (see picture) that had formed from people just throwing their trash out their windows. One of the men told us that once the pile was nearly 2 stories high and someone rode a horse up it. The land where we are building the houses had to be cleared of garbage and it took 150 truckloads to do it. The ground was then disinfected – twice. So we go into the far side where Romero and Zoli have apartments. They are two of the families that are seen as somewhat leaders in the community. They take good care of their “apartments” to the best you can in that situation. They don’t throw their garbage out the window, but take it to the dumpster and they are trying to help change the culture around there of the proper way to take care of your property. The only pictures of the inside of the apartments I took was that of Zoli’s family kitchen and one of Romero and his family. I did not think it was right to take pictures of the inside of their homes. Suffice it to say, the rooms were small and there were only a couple of them – the kitchen, a ‘living room’ and one bedroom and bathroom. It is not uncommon to have 10 people living in one of these apartments. I love the picture of Romero and his wife and kids because of the pride on his face – both in the picture as well as when he showed us his apartment.

Laura, I gave the toy tools you gave me to Romero to give to his little boy as a thank you for taking us on the tour. That was neat because I did that back at the work site and had Emil translate for us. As depressing as it was to see how these folks had to live, it was inspiring at the same time to work hard on our house – not that we needed much more inspiration. But you really realized how Habitat’s Global Village impacts and rebuilds an entire community. Granted, they have a long way to go, but it’s a good start.

As we threw our tired bodies into the van to head back to the hotel we realized it was Friday and therefore, we had earned the right to happy hour. Andrew, Marsha, Scott and I headed down the street to one of the local places. And, as you can see in the picture, the sun came out! It was a nice way to wind down the day. Well, off to dinner. More to follow....

Update for the 28th -

This update is actually from a couple nights ago. We had a terrific experience at a new kind of orphanage. There is an organization called Caminul Felix. Because the orphanages were so bad during the communist era, two missionaries from Sweden started this concept of family communities. In the old orphanages, there would be 3 and 4 times the number of kids that were supposed to be there. Children were often given medicine to make them sleep for hours on end. This stunted their growth both mentally and physically. We were at a community of 10 houses. The concept is that these orphans should be raised as a family - with a mother and father. This is similar to "foster parents" but so much more. For example, the man and wife who hosted us for dinner moved into this community at age 26, after one yr of marriage. They were given 17 children over that year! To see that family together was very heartwarming. The support goes beyond raising the children, it is for the rest of their lives - their weddings, their education,and so on. They end up breaking a cycle poverty as well. Two of the girls in this "family" were adopted at ages 8 & 7. They were living on the street because their mom had committed suicide. To talk to these girls now was really amazing. One of them is about to finish her last year in college in Cincinnati. The two pictures are of some of us with the family the other picture is of George (one of the older kids) sitting next to Scott.

I still have a couple days to update, but will need to do that in a bit. More to follow....

We might have started off slow this morning - everyone was a bit tired and sore from yesterday's work - but we got our 15th wind once we got a little coffee.

Ah, another successful day at the office! :) Today it was a bit cooler which was actually nice. The rain in the afternoon put a slight "damper" on things but we were able to finish what we needed to and be ready for tomorrow. Today's work consisted of putting 2 coats of mud/cement all over the house, finishing the stryrofoam coating, insulation and prepping the interior for drywall tomorrow. Hopefully it won't rain so we can do the stucco on the outside. My legs are already feeling it from climbing up and down and up and down the scaffolding. I lost count how many times we did that! I think at this time my body is starting to become numb to the pain. Whoever invented Advil is one of my heroes! Is it wrong to take 8 at a time???????????

One of the pictures today are of Alex - our new friend in Romania. We ran into a few of the guys again last night that are staying here at our Peninsea (hotel). Speaking of hotel, let me share with you a few facts. It is a small hotel - only 4 rooms on each of the 3 floors - then another building the same across a small parking lot. The bathrooms are a sink, a toilet and a shower - but the shower drains into a drain in the middle of the bathroom floor. Oh, did I mention there's also no shower curtain??? We are paying what would amount to $20 a night per room at the hotel so clearly there is not enough money to buy shower curtains.

Another picture is of two puppies (you can look, but don't dare touch because there's no way of knowing what disease they could have). I feel as badly for all the dogs and their living conditions as I do the people.

Another picture is of me getting to use the power saw - yea! That was a lot of fun. It was a bit ironic that two of the men were holding the board while I - a female - used the power tool. I guess you could say I was a cut above the rest! :)

Today's 'phrase that pays' as I call it for the Romanian team was "It's not my first time to the rodeo". The guys seemed to like that one as well. Every day they joke around a little more. I think they are finally understanding my humor - that's a scary thought I know! They are just great to talk to and get to know.

One of the neat things we did was that last night my roommate and I were in charge of the evening "reflection/activity" (these are activities to help get to know each other etc.) We had each person write down something about themselves that no one on the team knew, but would be interesting) We wrote each persons statement on a big piece of styrofoam and then as a group went through each one and had to try to figure out who it was. For example, one person said "I once had to bail my mom out of jail" - yes, we had a lot of fun with the stories that came from each statement. Anyway, we ended up putting the names of each person next to their statement and today we used that Styrofoam as one of the pieces on the house. The Beius Team (the guys working on the house with us other than the Habitat home owners) got a real kick out of it.

One of the people, Angelina, on trip is celebrating her birthday today. The guys sang her a Romanina song at lunch and then "Happy Birthday" at the end of the day. I have attempted to add video clips of the song at lunch. I think the other clip might be too long. The one with just a few guys are Emil (Habitat regional leader), Clau (Beius team), Valer (Beius Team) and Jonuet(Beius Team site leader). I think I named everyone.

Tonight we will go to an orphanage to play with the kids and eat dinner. It should be very interesting. We did bring some toys to leave with our team leader to give to the kids. We have one more full day of work and then a half day on Sat. We will then drive to Beius Sat. afternoon to see the town and have dinner. It is about an hour away.

I hope the picture I attached of the horse drawn wagon and colt running behind shows up well. It was so cool. This was right out in front of our hotel. The cars didn't seem to bother the young colt at all. We commented that it is so weird that we are in one of the "big" cities with all the industry, big trucks and so on yet just off the main streets you'll see cattle roaming, horse drawn wagons and other random things.

Well, it is time for me to go get ready to leave for the orphanage. More to follow....

Well, we met a few Romanian men last night from Bucharest. They are staying at the same hotel and doing construction work for the cable company. I think it was when one of them - Alex - saw a group of 9 women and 2 men attempting to unwind a "human knot" that he decided to stick around. Then his friends came out. Needless to say, we invited them into the group and ended up talking to them in a blended language of us butchering Romanian and their decent use of English. It really was a lot of fun and a wonderful thing that laughter is a universal language!

Today we were hard at work again. Someworked on the outside while several of us worked on the roof and getting it ready for the tile. It involved placing long rows of boards across the roof that the tiles would hook onto. You had to be precise with your measurements so the roof was even - no pressure! It took a little while to get to where I felt comfortable walking around up there, but then it became quite fun. And yes, we pounded A LOT of nails today! After lunch it was time to start putting the tile on the roof. We formed a chain and passed tiles along and up to the guys on the roof. Let me just tell you, passing 1700 pieces of roof tile that each way about 9 lbs is hard work. Pretty sure I will have to use a straw to drink my beer tonight because at this point lifting anything heavier than a toothbrush could prove to be a challenge!! Attached are a couple pictures of our prep work for the tile and the house, the "chain gang", us playing with the kids and the house at the end of today. It was a great sense of accomplishment to see the roof done, but at the same time I think we all felt even more tired.

The 'phrase of the day' that I taught the Romanian guys was "The ol' gray mare ain't what she used to be" as i tried to get up and down the later and crawling over the roof rafters! They got a big kick out of that one. It was great spending time working with a couple of them and just talking about our lives, families, cars, countries, etc.. It is just amazing how other people have grown up. These guys all live in Beius and drive up to our Oradea site - about 90 minutes away. The other workers of course are the men from the families that will live in the house.

At lunch, several of the children that live in the Nato Blocs came over. We played games with them and took pictures - showing them the pictures afterwards which they loved. It was still sad to see the children playing in and around the garbage and living in those conditions in general. We are going to leave some toys behind, but we are not to give them toys directly as it would encourage them to beg. Instead, we will leave them with the local Habitat affiliate and they will give them to the kids. That also builds good will for Habitat. Tomorrow our local team leader is going to have one of the family member's take me and Andrew (one of the other guys on our trip) take us through the blocs and see them close up and take some photos.

We went to a local place just down the road for dinner last night. Can I tell you that their "English Menus" just don't translate certain items very well. For example, I did not order the "Pork Butt" for dinner!

One thing I learned today is that the Habitat building of houses has slowed because people just aren't able to make the trips because of our economy. Last year at this time they had already had 5 teams over for the build. This year, we are the first team. Maybe that's why there have been so much TV coverage.

Well, my battery is about to die, so I will cut this post short. Oh, a couple of us were recognized from being on the news! I'm an international star! HA Ha HA. More to follow....

It is with every last bit of energy that I type this entry! :) The good news is that the house is still on schedule! There's really no bad news except that there's no cold beer here yet - but a few went off to get it! We had a busy day. I was on the Styrofoam detail. You put cement on one side, then applied it to the outside of the house and then nailed it to the OSB. It was a lot of walking, carrying, applying, etc. I have attached a picture of the back of the house in progress. There is a lot of measuring and cutting that must be done. We will do the stucco on the outside tomorrow. I have also attached a picture of today's progress.

I was interviewed this morning for "Transylvania TV". It was pretty interesting. The lady asked "Isn't this hard work for a woman?" "Why did you choose to come to Romania" and a few other questions. I was going to answer the last question with "To find a husband" but wasn't sure my humor would translate, ha ha. It is very unusual for women to be involved in the building here. When the locals and the Habitat families are involved in the build, it is only the men. The women stay at home with the kids. They may come over to visit, but never expected to build. The guys we work with are just great and funny. I love making them laugh or blush - which turns out is quite easy!!! ... at least the blushing....some of my humor still gets lost in transation :) We have learned to communicate even without the language. It is really amazing how easily everyone works together.

We certainly have not gone hungry this trip. We have been taken to local restaurants every night and had the local food which is terrific, but probably not the healthiest :) Lard is very popular here, ha ha. The lunch that has been brought out to the site is also quite good.

Well, I am off to clean up. More to follow....