Well, it is early in the morning on the first day of the build. We were able to spend yesterday morning in Budapest exploring the 'Buda' side of the river. We had a great time seeing all the old architecture and just walking around. Be ready to climb A LOT of steps if you choose to go up Castle Hill, but it is worth it.

We left around 1:30 for the 4 hour drive down to Oradea. Let me just say that neither the Hungarians nor the Romanias have road maintenance high on thier "to-do" lists. Our local guide, Emil, gave us a lot of great background information on the need here, the culture, and some of the animosity between the locals and the Gypsy population. There are over 700 ethnic Romas who have been living in just 96 apartments. People from Oradea referto those simply as the "NATO Blocs", as they look as if they were bombarded by NATO. Some of the apartments had over 25 people living in them. The community is ravanged by disease, illiteracy and joblessness, and have been caught up in the throws of cyclical poverty. Forced from their village into a communistic bloc apartment, the families, unaccustomed to urban life, were not helped to integrate. Now, 30 years later, they are a perfect representation of how Roma communities are marginalized and victimized by prejudice. In all, the project's construction goal is to build 20 new homes and renovate all 96 apartments.

One of Habitat's goals is to rehabilitate and integrate a community that has been cast aside. By inducing the community to work side by side with the Roma beneficiaries, HFH Beius brings those marginalized together with the normal Oradeans to work together.

Starting the program and finding community volunteers has had its challenges. This is a country where there is a lingering negative perception of volunteerism - Romanians were required to "volunteer" during communism. We hope that through our efforts we will demonstrate the usefulness and importance of volunteerism to the community.

Lastly, for those of you not familiar with Habitat for Humanity, I wanted to give you a brief description. HFH is a non-governmental, non-profit Christian organization dedicated to providing simple, decent and affordable housing solutions for those living in poverty regardless of their ethnic background, gender or religious affiliation, and in the way enabling them to leave a poor housing environment and improve the quality of their lives. HFH is guided by God's wisdom and 4 core values - Commitment, Respect, Integrity and Sterwardship. The families receiving the homes put in 600 hours of "sweat equity" on their house or another Habitat house. This lends to our goal of being a "Hand Up" not a "Hand Out".

Well, sounds like breakfast is ready so I am off to eat and start the first day of building. More to follow.