Coming Home Welcome home, team Romania! Your trip sounds great -- productive and educational, for you and the people with whom you worked and played. Thanks for being such good ambassadors of Thrivent!
Your blog Your team sounds like a hard working group. I could feel the aching muscles just from reading your detailed blog. What a great experience for everyone involved. Have a safe trip home; I hope you're all well and healthy.
Wonderful experiences Sounds like you are having wonderful experiences not only working on the house but meeting the people and interacting with them on a more personal level. Memories are built on things like eating at someone's home like you did. Take Care.
Thank you! You're all doing fantastic -- building for a wonderful family, sharing the culture, learning more about Romania, and being creative and flexible with tools! God bless you!
Kids I remember my team leader Brian saying in 2006 on the van ride to Radauti,Romania that kids are the same the world over, and it was pretty obvious from the subtext that they are always wonderful to interact with. Making life easier for the children of the world is always its own reward. Thanks for sharing.
BTW, kudos to whoever is contributing to the blog. You are being heard and appreciated.
Good work team! I'm so glad you all made it there safely and things are going well. How neat that you could meet one of the families you're impacting. Enjoy the rest of your time there!
A Few Questions... Hello,
We are a group of students in 5th and 6th grade and heard about your trip and are very excited for you!We are studying World Geography and wondered if we could ask a few questions about Romania? We've included a few below...
1) What does the food look and taste like?
2) What is the economy like in Romania?
3) What is the climate like?
4) What sports do they play in Romania?
5) What is the landscape like?
6) How do they dress in Romania?
We want to thank you for taking time to answer these questions. Tell our friends in Romania our class says "Bună Ziua"
To all you 5th and 6th graders out there! We have answers! Sorry it took the blog guy so long to figure out what I need to do to process the comments. I have Heather here with me to answer your questions:
1) The food has been delicious. We have had a lot of tomatoes, cucumbers, sausages, chicken, sheep and goat cheese. Not much for desserts or hot spice - think church basement without the sweets.
2) The ecomony suffers from the transition of moving to a free society from a socialist one, so people are used to working for others and not themselves. This leads to long hours for little money and no middle class (if you know what that is in 5th-6th grade). They have things we have like car companies (Dacia), chemical companies, farming, wood products factory (out our window), and a salt mine (we toured today - read today's post). Locally there are a number of gas stations (6.20 Lei per liter), quick marts and restaurants.
3) The climate has been confusing to us as we were expecting similar temperatures to Wisconsin/Minnesota/Colorado where we are from. It has been unseasonably warm with the temperatures in the 80's and no rain. Also, when we visited a house this week, we saw a peach tree, pear tree, grapes, plums, roses, magnolia tree -- all things we would associate with a state like Georgia or Florida. But - Romania does get down to -30 degrees celsius (-22 fahrenheit) in the winter and last year they had so much snow that the windows on houses were covered. We are thinking that since Romania has been around a long time that the plants have established themselves to survive locally in these climates (someone should research this more).
4) During a recent field trip we saw a soccer field, volleyball court and basketball court. From history though, we know that the Romanians are famous for gymnastics and the legendary Nadia Comaneci - who won the olympics in 1976. She is from the place we are currently staying and building. From watching local news, we would say that soccer and handball are covered on the sports report.
5) The landscape of Romania is similar to ours with lots of farm fields. In Comanesti where we are currently staying, we are on the edge of the Carpathian mountains, so our apartment we are staying at is built on a hill and we have sheep and cows that roam freely in pastures around our place. Today we also toured a monastery which was located at the top of a winding road, which caused a number of passengers in our van to have white knuckles as we drove the stick shift van up and down the mountain. Most towns are in valleys and the scenery is quite beautiful and suprisingly green for this time of the year.
6) Tonight we had a cultural experience with local youth. In their traditional garb, they have puffy shirts with long skirts for the girls and white pants for the boys with a cumberbun. But, when they are at school, they wear similar fashions to kids in the US, but more conservative - some kids look like they would be dressed for church, while a few others have America themed items like Bart Simpson, Hannah Montana, Disney, and American sports teams.
Greetings from the Thrivent Builds Worldwide Staff! Don, Pam, and team,
We are very glad to hear that you arrived safely in Romania. Keep those blog updates coming! We continue to keep your team in our thoughts and prayers and hope that you have an awesome experience in Romania!
Regards, Norman
Glad you all made it safe! Good to see the smiles on your faces. Have a wonderful week! Noreen - we miss you already, but know you will have an awesome experience. Can't wait to hear all about it . . . that and look at the 2000 pictures I know you will take.
Feeling Jet Lagged? I'm so glad to hear you've all arrived safely, even though you may be feeling a bit jet lagged. Thank YOU for volunteering your time, dollars and efforts on this special Thrivent Builds Worldwide corporate volunteer trip in Romania. Can't wait to see photos! Blessings to all!
From September 22-30, 2012, a team of 15 energetic and enthusiastic volunteers from Thrivent Financial will travel to Comanesti, Romania. As part of a Thrivent Builds Worldwide / Habitat for Humanity trip, we are helping to eliminate substandard housing. Scroll down to follow along and read more about our adventures! ... full info
Joyce Emery-Brennan
non-member comment
Where is the photo of full moon over Dracula's castle?
Love the detailed blog. Love the photos.