Codlea Day Center

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Ok, I'm so far behind with this blog that I'm not even going to try to catch up . . . sorry!
Anyway, Dani and I went to Codlea today to meet with the head of an after school day care center for children. Dani had suggested that maybe I could work here a few afternoons a week since prior to Coleen and Erin coming, I had seemed so bored after finishing the day at the hospital. We took the bus to Codlea, a small town about 50 meters outside Brasov, and walked up to a small gypsy village, where the day center was. I was a little bit nervous about walking through the gypsy village because of what I had seen when I went with Kayleigh and Bogdan, but this one wasn’t quite so run-down. It was still a very primitive village compared to today’s standards. The houses were quite small, with thatched roofs, and clotheslines with clothes hung out to dry. There were also a lot of rugs hanging out to dry, and lots of people were just hanging out in the street. No one was at work or school, even though it was around midday on a Thursday. There were even horse-drawn carts on the street!
We went into the day center, and they showed us the areas where I could choose to volunteer. There was a kindergarten attached to the day center, but there was also a room with desks for kids to come do their homework, and lots of games, puzzles, toys and arts and crafts type things. They said that if I wanted to and had time, I could also go around with the woman in charge when she goes to visit the families of some of the children, because it might be nice for me to see where these kids are coming from. Unfortunately, I couldn’t, because she only goes in the mornings, and that’s when I’m working at the hospital. But, she did tell us a story about one family she went to visit, and she was offered a glass of water, and the woman poured her a glass of water from the same pitcher that the dog and cat had just been drinking out of. She said she didn’t want to accept it because she was afraid she would get sit, but she also didn’t want to insult the woman by refusing her offer, so she took it and drank it. But then a week later, she was so sick she couldn’t even come to work. And apparently that’s only one example of the horrible conditions in which these people live. Also, apparently the gypsy community never really has all that much money, but when they do have a little bit, they go out and spend it right away. According to Dani, they rarely ever plan ahead and think about the future, they only think about what they need right now. She said her parents own a small grocery shop in another gypsy village, and she was shocked to learn that they would come in and by a teaspoon of sugar or a tablespoon of flour; just enough for 1 meal. She was talking to the woman at the day center, Loredonna, about this, and Loredonna said that she finds it so strange that many of the gypsy families can hardly afford food or other essentials, but they are always very proud to have 1 new outfit for Easter, and the kids come in and show off their outfits as if it’s a competition for who has the prettiest new outfit. She said it was really sad that they put these sort of status symbols ahead of the essentials, and that it seemed to be more important to appear that they are well-off than to actually take care of their most important needs. Anyway, it was a very interesting conversation and a very eye-opening experience. I’m kind of looking forward to coming back.
We got a ride back to the town center, where we caught the bus back to Brasov. Then I went to meet Mikkel at the office to make transportation plans for going to Turkey. We quickly learned that there was no bus to take us from Bucharest to Istanbul, or at least not one that we could conveniently take, so we looked into trains. Looking at the train schedules, we realized that there was only 1 that went to Istanbul each day, and it left daily at 12:53 PM. This meant that we wouldn’t be able to leave on Friday like we had originally planned, and instead would have to leave on Saturday, cutting our trip a whole day short. Train tickets are also really expensive, which we were worried about, but we found that we could buy a Balkan Flexipass, which would allow us to travel on any train on any 5 days within a month period. When we discovered this, we had Alex, one of the native Romanians working in the office, call the train station to ask about it. Then we raced down to the office to buy the passes before it closed. We had to pay a little bit extra to upgrade to a sleeper car, because that was the only way to get to Istanbul, but it was still a really good deal. The woman asked for both our passports to be able to put the tickets in each of our names. When she handed us our tickets, they indicated that both of us were from the US, hah! Mikkel pointed out to the woman that he was from Denmark, but she said it didn’t make a difference. We then also made reservations for a train from Braşov to Bucharest. This made me feel a lot better that we finally had some mode of transportation worked out. On the walk back into town, we ran into Dani, and explained our plans to her. Then we went to an internet café so Mikkel could work on contacting people for accommodations, and I could take care of transportation within Turkey. I didn’t find too much, as all the websites were in Turkish, but Mikkel got a few contacts out. We were there for about an hour until I had to leave to go have dinner at Elisabeta’s. I asked Mikkel if I would see him tonight with everyone else at karaoke, and he said probably not because he had to pack, and promised to see me tomorrow. I went home to eat, and then back out to meet everyone else at 9 at Deane’s.
I got to Deane’s right at 9, but of course, everyone else was still a little bit late. I sat there by myself for a little while, until Connie showed up, and then finally everyone else walked in. We quickly realized that there was no karaoke this particular Thursday and decided instead to go to the Scottish Pub. When we got there, everyone marveled at the atmosphere, with all the tartan cloths on the walls and the really Scottish feel. The Dutch girls all got Tequila sunrises, Mike, Elliot and I got Ursos (beer), and Connie got a Cappy. On a second glance at the menu, Mike spotted shots of palinka, the Romanian national drink, and got curious. He asked Elliot if he would do a shot with him, and Elliot agreed. I warned both of them that it was like drinking fire, and they took that into consideration, but still decided to go for it.

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