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....