HABITAT FOR HUMANITY IN ROMANIA

PROLOGUE:
I went ....I was at Nancy's place (come to remember) to talk to a couple of her English classes about how it is to be a "young" American and to talk about fashion and food and films, etc...
It was fun. Anyway, on my last night there I got a confirmation from Melissa that Habitat for Humanity Was organizing a volunteer program for foreigners (non-Romanians), and I was to be part of the pilot group.
So I told Nancy and Dan, and saw their enthusiasm and envy, and asked Melissa if there was more space, and Nancy concluded that bringing me to her village equaled a week's worth of work, so she decided to not teach the following week and come with me instead.
We then told Dan that if Nancy wasn't going to work, and if I wasn't going to work, then Dan really didn't have a reason to go to work too. He said his colleagues hate him anyway, and there was someone on call to sub for him, so after too little reassuring, he decided he wanted to come too.
WE HAD A BLAST!! ONE OF MY FAV. VOLUNTEERING EXPEDITIONS EVER!

We stayed at a "sports hall" so a gym, and unfurnished gym besides lockers. We slept on relatively inflated mattresses and we had a boys' side and girls' side too. We were 6 PCVs. Oh, and we paid our own way there = true altruistic volunteers (you never know).

These were the houses we worked on building. We were working on 3 townhouses. (Where's Waldo? the pork)

We were going to work with lots of fiber glass...but first. So we were to be "foreign" volunteers from another country, to come assist this Habitat branch with building houses with families that applied. The families were also there building the house (a requirement as part of the program). Besides the coordinators, the people spoke no English, but it didn't hinder our work.

We had to go through a quick training program so we didn't hurt ourselves and each other with Mihai (in the blue). He was a quick man but a strong and organized leader.

So, the boys really wanted to wear the jumpsuits...so we let them. I wore the clothes on my back, goggles and a face mask. Ouch! to the fiberglass after our work was done for that day. And DOUBLE ouch! when I had to put the same clothes back on for another day of working! and then the 3rd day too! (I didn't bring that many change of clothes, and where do we wash them?, oh well).
We were well fed. Melissa organized us breakfast and we had fresh milk from the cow kept out back.

We were hard at work, discovering where out talents lied. I failed at stapling to the high ceiling (I am short), but I excelled at cutting dry wall (thanks Mom! for having us practice all our own home remodeling!).

We met another volunteer from South America who is currently studying in Romania (why? I don't know, but okay) and we're facebook friends now.
We worked pretty hard, with few breaks, but Melissa was always making sure we took our brakes: drank some water, ate some snacks =D We agree that Melissa is the larger, older, whiter version of me, because if I were her I'd be doing the same thing; amongst other reasons, but I had a worry-free time having her watch over us.

We got along great with the future house owners. There was a bit of awkwardness at first at figuring how we would all be working together, but we all had the same goal so it became fun.

And what's a Cynthia's Blog without the mentioning of what we ate?!?
On our first night, Melissa hosted us and we had a cooking party! Italian-American =pasta, garlic bread, salad, and ice cream!

During our stay there, Melissa claims the families were actually ...demanding?/were insistent that each of them would be given the opportunity to host us.

We had lunch in the empty houses, and the families brought in food from relatives.

We were invited to people's relatives or current residence to be served dinners. I ate sooooooooooo many stalks of onions and garlic. Apparently that's a different tradition that my region. You can see the stalks of onions in this picture. They dip it in salt, or in soup: sip of soup, bite of onion, sip of soup, and repeat.

I had caffeine to help me blog AMAP today! I am writing at last!!
Here we are at dinner!

While we were at this home, they mentioned they had a cow, and someone? maybe me? It could have been me..because I would ask something like this, but I don't remember cause it's been 6 months. Anyway, that we'd never milked a cow, so we all went back there and tried to milk the poor dear. I did better than some, but this was still my first time and I didn't get much out of Steaua (Star - the cow).
There was some GREAT foods!
Someone even served giant tubs of ice cream! I'd never eaten ice cream served after dinner in tableware before that night. Someone also made something like BBQ sauce on chicken, but it was made with tomato sauce and red peppers? Crazy.

See how much I enjoyed the food? We enjoyed the food?

On the last afternoon, we had a large BBQ where there was lots of meat served and beer, and someone kept stealing my pear juice and replacing it with a draft of beer, but in a joking manner because we'd bonded that much and it was okay.
We got diplomas for our hard work (my first and only diploma in Romania), and we took some fun group pictures.

Oh, and the kids there liked me. Like I mentioned, we slept at the sport's hall, and that means we were sleeping in the middle of school grounds. Yes, they were curious kids and I gave them my yahoo messenger ID. Can you find me among them? 5 points to you if you can do it within 10 seconds.

So that was that.
My type of Volunteering: to do something good for others, being well taken care of and loved while working, and having a unforgettable experience with old and new friends =D

I dedicate this blog to Dan and Nancy. I'm glad I convinced you to play hookie (in a responsible manner) and I'm sure you guys thank me too. We were so hard core.

Oh, and special thanks to the families that let us use their showers to clean ourselves, which was nice because we didn't have an alternative way to stay ungross (sweaty, itchy, powdery, yucky) otherwise.