When I came over here I had a goal of updating my blog once a week and letting yall know what is going with me. When you last heard from me I was stuck in an elevator in Mayors Office here in Ploiesti. I am happy to say that I got out of that elevator and have even ventured (hesitantly) into another couple of elevators since then. I have also started to do some traveling since then as well. Since it has been so long I have broken this latest blog into a couple different sections. I hope you enjoy reading about my adventures as much as I enjoyed experiencing them.
So what are you up to?
As of now I am still in Training, which means I have been learning Romanian for 4 hours each day and then attending sessions on everything from Medical Information, to how to do a SWOT analysis (business 101). As I have said before the whole thing seems like a mix between camp and high school. It has been a good experience but I am ready for the next step. This Wednesday (Mercuile) I will find out where in country I am going and what I will be doing for the next two years. While I dont know for sure there is a chance that I will be working marginalized people groups here in Romania who want to start small businesses. It would involve business training / Business Plan writing and review and possibly a micro-finance component. I have no clue where it is but from what I have heard about it so far the opportunity is exactly what I want! So for all of you that have been praying for me you can lift that one up. I will be sure to let yall know later this week what happens.
Brasov
The first trip I took while in Romania was to Brasov, a beautiful mountain city in the southern part of Transylvania. Unlike most of the country the city remained pretty much untouched during the communist era and much of the buildings were preserved instead of being torn down and rebuilt as bloc housing. It also houses the Black Church, a massive structure that took over 100 years to build. It sits in the center of the old city and dominates the landscape. Standing next to it you can not help but feel small as I am sure this was the intent. I went with a group of 6 people and began to experience the joy of public transportation and navigation with limited knowledge. It was actually a lot of fun. We took an accelerant train to Brasov from Ploiesti which took about 2 & ½ hours. The nice thing was that we had a cabin to ourselves and were able to talk, move around and be comfortable the entire way there. It seems to me that the secret to traveling here is to do it in a group if at all possible. As we are all traveling on the cheap we also crammed into the hotel room and real comfortable on twin size beds. When you are tired enough however just about any sleeping arrangement seems blissful. It was during this trip that I was able my first stand-up shower since leaving the hotel soon after my arrival in Ploiesti. It was everything I remembered it could be! I didnt even care that it was a shared bathroom for the entire floor. The sheer bliss of standing up and showering under hot high pressure water was enough to bring a tear to my eye.
We arrived in Brasov on Saturday afternoon and walked around the town a bit. A few of us even stumbled upon an Irish Tavern complete with Pizza and dulce ketchup (they serve ketchup as sweet or spicy here in Romania) and of course GUINNESS!!! So for the second time since I have been in Romania I got to experience the awesome goodness that is a pint of Guinness with all of it frothy goodness. I am sorry to say that because of the price it is the last one I have had. We continued to explore the town the rest of the day which included watching the World Cup in a completely deserted bar and having an honest to goodness cheeseburger for dinner with sweet ketchup of course.
The next morning we got up bright and early and had breakfast in bed. And because breakfast consisted of bread and cheese most of breakfast remained in the bed in the form of crumbs. It would be safe to assume that the cleaning lady was not our biggest fan after that little performance. After breakfast we headed up the mountain behind Brasov called Mt. Tampa. It was nice little 3000 ft hike with plenty of switchbacks. The view from the top was amazing as well! You could see for miles or kilometers whichever you prefer. They had a little restaurant on the top where we had a wonderful lunch of peanuts and chocolate along with some drinks, just what was needed after a nice long hike. A friend and I ended up taking the tram down the mountain due to her asthma kicking up and spent a few more hours exploring the town in search of Romanian patch and or sticker. Amazingly enough there were none to be found. It seems that tourist items such as stickers and patches are harder to come by then one might think. I suppose it is has to do with the development of the country but I am finding that little trinkets and the like are not found in the abundance that they are in the states. Another 2 ½ hour train ride back and we were home.
I have included some pictures of this trip on my online album at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jgoodell00/Brasov
Pitesti
A couple of weeks ago I traveled to Pitesti with a group of Peace Corps Volunteers to do some work with Habitat for Humanity. It was an unbelievable time and for once in my life I got paid to work with Habitat. The Peace Corps put us up in a hotel for two nights, and gave us money for travel there and back as well a good chunk of money for food and beverages. Talk about a rewarding experience! In all seriousness though, it was just nice to get out in the air and do some real physical labor. We had to dig a ditch around an apartment building for a new septic system, 2 feet wide and 3 feet deep from the foundation. The fact that there were mounds of trash another 2 feet high around the foundation just added to the fun. Nothing like a doll crawling with maggots to get your juices flowing. Aside from the maggots and the other creepy crawlers we unearthed the project went off without a hitch. That is until the heavens opened up and started to fill our newly made ditch with rain and the mud we just shoveled out. All in all it was a great trip and a lot of fun. With the extra money in my pocket I also got to enjoy a great meal and learn a little Romanian lesson. They sell liquor by the milliliter here and while I thought I knew what I was doing it turned out I didnt. I ordered a Jack and Coke thinking I was getting one shot of 20 ml. Turns out a jack and coke calls for 2 shots of 20 ml so my drink doubled in price. There are worse things that could have happened, but I could not help but feel that I was taken advantage of. I guess I had to learn sometime.
You can find more pictures at:
(Insert link here)
That is it for now. I will be posting another message in a couple of days once I know where I will be going and what I will be doing.
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