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…..
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…..
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