Romania Day 2

So here is a quick update on Chads trip to Romania before I head off to work. I will include a few pictures and an part of his e-mail. The 1st thing I noticed when looking at the pics is how small the beds are...

Now for part of his e-mail. He is great at making me laugh even when he is so far away. I guess that is why I love him so much!

Well, it is now 10:30 and day 2 is ending. I am not tired and really feel pretty acclimated to the time/travel. I know it sounds too soon for that to happen, but I feel normal. Somewhere in the back of my head I feel like a bit of a badass for not being more jetlagged =).

I woke up today at 8am and had an hour before our “in country training”. That meeting consisted of learning quite a bit about Romania, Buckner, and the orphanage. Really, it is not an orphanage at all; it is a day school for kids. There is an orphanage that we will visit, but we are not working at it until Saturday. The kids are apparently dirt poor and behind in their schooling, but not technically orphans. Most of the kids are in fact Gypsy. I learned quite a bit about the Gypsy communities and am not particularly impressed with them. There are three classes of Gypsy. There are “traditional” gypsies that are permanent residents. They are rich, due to their ability to trade goods, and live in tight nit family units. The second are the “traveling” sort. They are the real black sheep of the group. Witchcraft, theft, and lacking of moral value are their strong points. Then there are the final group which are a bit more of an oddity. They seem similar to our white trash. They have lost most of the Gypsy traditions in their lack of traveling and they certainly aren’t rich. They live in the slums on the outskirts of town, in isolated communities. They don’t seem to contribute to society in any positive ways, but enjoy living off the goodness of others.

After the training we headed to a local pizza shop for lunch. Amazing. I ate at least 4 pieces and only stopped so I wouldn’t be the only person still shoving food in my face. After lunch we rested for an hour and then headed over to the CDC (Center for Child Development). This is the “day school” I mentioned earlier. This place was a trip. The building is three stories and looks like most of the buildings in Romania, run down but not tragic. Upon entering I thought of you. I though that you might not be able to do this trip due to the smell. It reeked of bug spray and the opening stairwell had 1000 mosquitoes flying around. The school is on the second floor, but it was such a strong odor that I almost didn’t even want to see the school. I bucked up and proceeded up the stairs anyways. We opened the doors to the school and I was impressed with the cleanliness and new conditions. I will get pictures for you to see. It was decorated just like a preschool in the U.S. The smell was still present, but a tad less potent. After a short tour of the second floor, we headed upstairs to the third floor. Honestly, I don’t have words to describe the smell, but it was far worse than the chemical smell downstairs. It was more like death and rotted cheese with a scoop of ass mixed in. The 3rd floor is a mess. The building used to be a hospital 50 years ago, and then was abandoned. It had been abandoned for decades and was looted and virtually wrecked over the years. It is as big a mess as a building can get. Though they have “picked up” a bit, the walls look like they have been hit with a bomb. It blows my mind to think they turned the second floor into such a nice area having started with such a mess. Someone was very busy in order to make such a drastic change. The hope for the third floor is that it will someday be renovated…I pray for the people that have that job.