Visiting Romania via Memory Lane

Forget about vampires.

Cameras are thieves of the soul.

You’ve probably at some point in your life watched a documentary or read somewhere about tribal people in remote jungles who rarely come in contact with humans from the modern world. When the modern humans bring out their cameras and snap a picture, the tribal people freak out thinking their soul has been sucked into the modern device. Having grown up in a fairly modern world, I have to laugh when I catch myself freaking out while looking at old photographs from some time ago. Usually I find myself lost in pleasant memories of a fun-filled birthday party, splashing around in a pool or wandering through an ancient ruin. Even then it is still funny to marvel at how a camera can capture some of our most intimate, cheerful and darkest events in our life. Today we will travel down memory lane…

I’ve decided to share some photos I’ve not shared here on my blog. These were taken prior to my blogging and digital camera days. They come direct from a photo album I created after my first international trip with Habitat for Humanity to Romania! This was in the summer of 2001. There were stops in Amsterdam and Budapest that are also seen here. As a bonus I included the text from the photo album. Back then I wasn’t all too descriptive. I think I still leave a little to the imagination and the rest for my more private journal off-line. My apologies.

No, not in Romania yet. This is in Los Angeles during the surprise trip send-off party.

Why Romania?

Many people asked when I told them about my trip. My question for you is why not? I admit I never ever thought about going to Romania, but the one thing I had always considered was doing a build with Habitat for Humanity. In fact it was even one of my goals in life. I’m proud to say I accomplished that goal and wouldn’t mind setting it for myself again. It was hard work getting there, hard work there and hard work getting back, but each experience will always be most memorable. After weeks and weeks of what I consider begging for money, I finally came enough donations to pay for the HFHI portion ($1,350). Thanks to all who donated something and helped me reach one of my goals! The only problem at this point was the plane ticket, which wasn’t a problem after all. (God always has everything planned out.) He even knew about the surprise party my sneaky, but most wonderful friends threw for me. It was a tremendous amount of fun and just what I needed after the horrible quarter I had in school.

Being in Romania was one of the best things that could have happened though. Away from all the stress and responsibility, I took on a life a little less glamorous than the one I’m used to. Although I expected much worse of Romania, it still was a third world country. What exactly does that mean to me? Um… to tell you the truth I’d need a little more time figuring that out. I know there were several things I wasn’t used to and would not enjoy back here in the States. The cold showers and hot milk were killers for me. The water was horrible there. It was brown before you even bathed in it. The toilets didn’t flush properly either. The whole bathroom situation was plain unsanitary! (To me at least.)

So with all this babble what is it I’m really trying to say? Well that’s the difficult part – finding the right way to tell it. The right words to go with the right emotions – how does one do it? I do know that I learned a lot from this trip. I challenged myself to do work I’ve never done before. I learned to work with a group of 14 very diverse individuals and I learned to love them all even when I hated them most. I took a two week crash course in Romania’s history (communism, the revolution in 1989) its people (they’re not the friendliest nor the meanest) and I saw so many things… Everybody keeps telling me I’m a really good person and a very kind person. I really don’t know if that is true, but I’d definitely do it again.

(Written in 2001)

Sadly this was all I took pictures of in Amsterdam. I was way too tired to have attempted this sojourn out of the airport, but I made it out. I also fell asleep on the tour bus.


Zoo trip in Budapest. The animals didn’t look too happy. In fact these camels looked the happiest.

Before getting to Cluj-Napoca, Romania I had to fly into Budapest where my GV team would take a train into neighboring Romania. While in Budapest I had the opportunity to check out a few sites. In the above photos I am standing in Hero’s Square and on Castle Hill.

These were taken in Budapest as well. Various shots from Statue Park and an icky Piggy King sign.

Finally on the train to Romania.

Some of the various accommodation we stayed in in Budapest and Romania. The top right is a college dorm in Cluj-Napoca. The center far right photo is from the Hotel Fortuna (boatel) on the Danube River in Budapest, and the bottom right is at the creepy hotel in Sibiu, Romania.

Meet the team!

The work site, bathroom and doing some dirty (good) work.

More work!

On this page I included some phone cards I used while in country. I took a fancy to them primarily because of the gemeni zodiac sign!

More shots from the work site.

One of the families we were building for at the top right. In the center is the team leader and team member Jen at another families home. Lots of palinca and Eric Clapton that night.

With most Global Village builds you eat a lot! Sometimes too much.

Shots from the dinner table.

Table shots and finally some good old architecture in Eastern Europe.

R&R time around Cluj-Napoca and outside.

Around Romania…

A little more R&R.