September 2, 2009
After 24 hours of traveling by bus, then plane, the bus again, we finally arrived in Romania. The squad was split up between different contacts and two buses going opposite directions. Through some miscommunication, the wrong team went to our original contact, so we ended up in (what seems like) the middle of nowhere.
We were dropped off at a small two bedroom house (a kitchen and a living space) and were greeted by Gabi and Neilu, a couple in the early thirties. We toured our new home and learned that we will be using an outdoor toilet and a bucket for a shower. The house has no running water, so we will be responsible for retrieving our water from a nearby well.
our new home
A few of us are having a hard time adjusting to this new lifestyle, but the culture shock hasn’t hit me (yet). I love it so much here already and for some reason it just feels like home. There’s just something about raw simplicity that’s so liberating. I am not naive enough to think that I wont get tired of this way of living, but for now, I am enjoying it.
After our breakfast of some sort of sausage, white bread, a hard cheese, tomato, and ”go-go-shard,” the boys went exploring and the girls took a nap. I was too excited to sleep, so I went outside with my journal to enjoy some alone time. As soon as I stepped outside, I was surrounded by 5 kids, Roxanna, Gabi, Gabi, Daniel, and Raul.
Neilu cooking for us
Roxanna was the first to approach me and with her outstretched hand, in her best English, she said proudly, ”Hello, my name is Roxanna.” I introduced myself and the other kids did as well. We sat and exchanged a few words and I received my first Romanian language lesson.
Then Neilu came by and in his very limited English asked to show me his garden. He guided me through the garden and prompted me to repeat every vegetable in Romanian. Then through his hand motions and broken English words and phrases, we sort of had a conversation.
I played with the kids for a little while and the lack of sleep finally caught up with me. I went inside to join the girls for nap time. A few hours later, the boys woke us with ice cream bars. They were concerned we wouldn’t be able to sleep that night if we slept during the day. We ate the ice cream bars in our drowsy state and then slowly, one by one, slipped back into sleep.
