"he who drinks the water from here has to come back"

I am going back to Romania for the summer.  I will have a similar role to last year, helping to coordinate the ropes course activities at Viata, the adventure summer program.  When I told Ilie, the director of Viata, about my plans to return.  He said "I told you he who drinks the water from here [Romania] has to come back"  I guess may be its true in my case.  I always new at some point I would go back, but its exciting the opportunity opened up so soon.  

I leave in exactly a week-Wednesday May 28!  Through the summer I will keep up this blog with my experiences in Romania and with Viata.  Internet access will be limited to the weekends, but I hope to be consistent with updates! 

I will miss you Romania...

Hi everybody,

Its been in the back of my mind for a while to write a final post in my blog now that I am home, alas, procrastination and my parents super slow dial-up Internet have prohibited me to do so. For everyone who doesn't know, I am home, safe and sound in the states. I am living with my parents, working temporary at an outdoor store, and applying for more permanent positions for the spring. The possibility of going back to Romania is still in the back of my head, but I feel the need to give myself some time and room to really think and pray about whats next, before rushing to commitments.

The following is a entry from my journal, I wrote it while on the plane ride home over the Atlantic. In my first months in Romania I wrote similar journal entries about home, America, about missing coffee shops, and friends and things feeling familiar; I think this journal entry is symbolic to how much Romania become a new home to me over my 8 months.

I will miss the fresh bread, the ladies at the veggie stand and laugh at the kitchen table of Apartment George to the point of tears about cabbage. I will miss Laura's smile, Andreas cute, playfulness, and Davia's friendship. I will miss the little kids from downstairs, Andrea, Benu, Uccri, and their smiles.

I will miss dinners at Daneil and Jannelle's and how their apartments felt like a sanctuary where we could get away if we needed to. I will miss good conversations and laughter over maybe one too many glasses of wine :). And of course, becoming addicted to Arrested Development.

I will miss the mountains and straja. And the way the clouds looked over the valley in the morning waking up in FNO Cabana. I will miss Ilie's friendship and steadiness, and I will miss Vali's passions and crazy hugs. I will miss the way Alin made Davia and I laugh with OH MY GOD! and De Ce?! I will miss being at camp with the kids, hanging out at the ropes course, the discos and dressing up as an 80's skier.

I will miss screaming in our pillows and laughing ourselves to sleep. I will miss the walk to work and second hand shopping. The experience of maxi taxis and running into IMPACT kids around town. And Alex coming into the kitchen at 11 pm "I am hungry, food, food, need food" .

I will miss Pizza Planets with Beers that are SOO BIG! I will miss Brandi's gentle and warm presence and how she always seemed happy to see me, whether i was showing up for dinner or in tears in need of a friend. I will miss Briana's silliness and being such a joyful child!I will miss Moni's warm smile and watching Bobo running ramp around the office :).

I will miss Diane, for being Mother Goose and always looking out for me. I will miss Dana for how he always makes life interesting with awkwardness, but also for his passion in his life's work and following God.

I will miss homemade cartof prajittis (french fries) and Laura's amazing cooking. And sheep everywhere! I will miss Hallmark movies on lazy days. And many other little things.

Most of all, I will miss feeling like I am challenged everyday to be a better person... I will miss you Romania....

Thank you to family and friends who have been reading this for the past 8 months, and for all your e-mails, letters, thoughts and prayers. Love you all!!

Katie

Its always an adventure...

this is story worth telling that happen two weeks ago...

I am on my way to the office walking with my friend Laura. We split up to do some errands before meeting back up. I head to bank machine outside our favorite bread store. I walk up and about 5 people are standing around the ATM , but the ATM is not being used. I wait a few moments trying to figure out the scene, before turning to the grandma on the my right and say " "de ce?" (=why? ) shes spurts out something quickly in Romanian that i don't understand. Okay....so I look up thought the window of the store and inside the door is a policeman peering outside apparently looking for something/one. ( A note on Romanian policeman I am scared of them and their post communist legacy) So has the place been robbed, whats going on? Than the man in blue opens the door, points to me and says (in Romanian) "Miss, come here" i try to play it cool, he can't be pointing to me. But he points again "Come, come" Quite clearly he is referring to me. I apprehensively walk to the door "De ce?" I ask him with a puzzling look on my face (why the heck would you want me to come into the store) "Come, come miss" he says, as he opens the door I see the Bracu lady who works in the store, which eases my mind, she is a sweet and trustworthy women. So i walk in and the back of the bank machine is open. A man is stand over the machine with an open tool box at his feet. He says something in Romanian, I understand something about "small fingers" The Bracu lady repeats the same thing, something about "small hands, and "money" and points to me and then the machine. Okay, so I look into the machine and see 50 lei logged up inside it. I stick my hand into the machine "Like this" I say, you want me to try to free the money from the machine because I have small hands? "Yes, yes, yes" they all nod. I reach in a fiddle out the bill, they all clap in thanks. "Bravo, thank you miss" Fixing a bank machine, all in a days work in Romania :)


Soo....wow, I am leaving Romania in less than a month. 8 months passed so quickly. My last major project with the foundation was a 7 day backpacking trip with students in the abroad program. We traveled in Retezat National Park in the Carpathian Mts. The mountains here are more craggy and rugged looking than those in the east, the landscape was beautiful. The trip was going great, until four days in two of the girls started pucking their guts out (we think food poisoning or bad water) it was a long night and a very exhausting next two days, waiting for them to get healthy enough to hike out. As I leader it was one of the most stressful trips I have experienced. I am glad to be back to civilization. Another volunteer here was having a rough day yesterday, one 'those' days that we have all had here, she said 'its not easy living here, sometimes I forget that, its not suppose to be easy' Its true. Romania, the valley, Lupeni are not easy places to live. But when I think about leaving my heart is sadden. Romania has taught me and changed me. Many things I will miss; the community I built here (both Romanian and N American), the purpose i feel in my work, the simplicity of life, the random craziness that always happens upon us in Lupeni (for example like fixing an bank machine), and more. In Romania, I struggle with things, in my young and idealistic mind, that I want to struggle with. "its always an adventure" is Davia and I's saying for living in Romania. I am not sure what waits for me back in the states. And that almost seems more scary than staying here. Yet there are somethings I am so ready to be home for to see friends and family and indulge in a few N. American treats...maple syrup, coffee shops, Mexican food, soy ice cream...yumm.

Romania and the EU

A cool article about Romania agrarian lifestyle and the changes that might come with the entrance to the EU
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6977597.stm.

First, I want to apologize for not blogging all summer. Tabara Viata is over, and it was full of challenges, surprises, inspiring moments and lots of laughs, I will miss being up in the mountains. As Viata just ended, another exciting time for the FNO just began. On Monday August 27, 7 students from Northwestern University (in Iowa, not Chicago) arrived for a 3 month study aboard program. This is the first (of hopefully many) fall study aboard programs the foundation hopes to host. Alot of ground work has gone into this fall, but lots more is still need so my last months with the FNO will be busy. Luckily we have a great staff, I especially appreciate the three other N. American volunteers-Davia, Janelle and Daniel, we all compliment each other well with our skills. The students all seem great, flexible and eager to learn! So I have a feeling these last months will busy, but fun! My main contribution to the fall will be with the experiential education class, we are in the midst of finishing plans for a 7 day backpack in Retezat National Park! I feel so torn about leaving in October, I am so happy to be able to go home for to see family and I have some close friends getting married around that time. But I will be leaving half way through the semester, which makes it hard for me to really try and invest in the students. Leaving Romania will be so bittersweet. I struggled alot here, but through all the struggling I have found a community, a "Ro-family" as Davia and I call it, that I deeply appreciate. Romania has taught be so much. I hope that I will be able to come back someday.

I almost hyperventilated in a bread store today

Today, the capacity of my little town of Lupeni just exploded in my mind. I saw a sight I never thought I see. It happen this afternoon as all the leaders were walking home from a week in Viata. A bread store on the corner across from the office has been under renovations for the past few weeks. It was open as we walk by so we stopped in to check it out. The store was very cute on the inside a bakery counter, yellow flowers on the wall and filled with lots specialty items- also free samples of pastries! (which is a step in itself b/c Romania is not know for its customer service) But as I turned the corner the real surprise came, upon the shelf to my amazement was....one 11 lei, blue-liddet, brown jar of Cinderella PEANUT BUTTER!!! Now to some of you this may seem like nothing to get excited about none the less hyperventilate over. But to those of you who have been overseas and love peanut butter know my plight. And the sudden sunshine that has come into my life.

(This is an especially great thing for the summer time as most of lunches in Viata consist of mystery meat and Paeta- a meat like substances that looks and smells similar to cat food, yet Romanian's love it- peanut butter is my one escape from such a lunch)

Viata is in full swing....

I feel there is so much I can write about that has happen over the last three weeks since I came back from vacationing with my family in the states. One of which I will leave you to read on Davia's , my roommate, blog, at http://www.daviainromania.blogspot.com/ , I think she adequately describes how we were all feeling when the cultural differences between America and Romania were thrown into our face.

But on to better topics...Viata began, and I am still trying to find my place among the staff. I have been mainly at the rope course the last three weeks and that's were I will remain for the rest of the summer. It will be in more of a support positions than other lie a group leaders, but I feel this is were I will be most useful. I was thinking last night I been planning to come to Viata for more than a year, almost a year and a half, and now here I am in the midst of it. When I realize what Viata is trying to accomplish with these kids, it gives me chills. Viata's goal is to change the attitude of nation through the youth. It is trying to rebuild trust, motivation, and integrity in an cultural that lost all these values due to the harsh realities of communism. The youth who come are so cute and so excited to be at camp. They lack the sense of privilege many American kids carry and I find that quite refreshing. These kids might not have much but they have a free spirit- which I wonder for Romania to become more developed do the youth have to lose that spirit? Time will tell.

One short story before I have to sign off...this past week at Viata we had an blond hair and blue eye 8 year old named Maria. Maria wanted so badly to do ballet performance for everyone in camp. So on disco night-every Thursday night we have a dance party in camp, everyone dresses up and dances like crazy (so fun!)- we made it happen. Maria walks in with a pink shirt and a tutu made of white trash bags and ribbon. Despite her make shift attire she was the picture of dignity as she took her position in the center of the circle. The music starts...a instrumental versions of Hotel California.. and Maria begins her dance, you can tell by the look on her face the she is in her own world were she is the most beautiful and graceful ballerina. The whole camp is circle around her cheering and yelling... its like from a movie, but a really good movie. It was one of the most magical moments since I been to Romania. I not sure if my words properly capture it. This little girl had so much courage and dignity despite any circumstance...I think I could learn something from her. I will always remember Maria, the ballerina.