A WEEK TO REMEMBER
We have made the LONG journey from St. Marcellin to Bucharest, Romania and let me tell you, it is not only a lengthy flight across ALL of Europe, but Romania is a WORLD away from anything we westerners know.
We made the trip without a glitch, and upon arrival our Winston-Salem friends (Ken, Wade, Maria, Andy and Carrie) were also arriving from their very long journey from the US. Their trip had been glitch free as well, until they arrived at the beautiful new (now notorious) Heathrow Terminal 5. Our friends had none of the 9 pieces of luggage they left Greensboro with! Amongst those 9 missing items were 3 trunks of art supplies that had been gathered for our week of work at the Project Ruth School in Bucharest.
Missing luggage was FOR THE MOMENT working to our advantage. We had a wonderful driver, (Vasile), and he was patiently awaiting our arrival at the airport in a VW van. Sans luggage, our group could all fit into the van which was a good thing! Off we go, heading into the city to eventually land at our destination on the complete opposite side of Bucharest. A quick reminder here ... this arrival day of ours is 5 days before the much anticipated NATO Summit that Bucharest is hosting. So we have one van packed with a bunch of weary Americans trying to go from the extreme north side of the city to the extreme south side of the city. Road travel is difficult at best on this one and only north/south highway, but with the traffic reduced to 1 lane going north and 1 lane going south, we could only move at a snail's pace. Police and army personnel were standing along every few feet of roadside, machine guns, armored vehicles and all. We were not sure if that was to bring us a feeling of welcome and comfort or not. It was certainly a scene we had none witnessed before.
Our driver, Vasile
Our place of lodging was The Ruth Center which is a part of Providence Baptist Church located in the midst of the Ferentari area of southern Bucharest. Our Romanian "home" was certainly a place requiring adjustment for we lovers of our Western comforts. We were now experiencing cozy communal living, running water but often not hot, sporadic heat which always seemed to be nonoperational following the COLD shower, but then all it took was one look out the window and we knew we were THE LUCKY ONES!
The Ruth Center
Cozy Living
Street Scenes outside Ruth Center Compound
View out our window
A Neighbor
Morning Chat
The city of Bucharest is full of an estimated 200,000 stray dogs. There is no Humane Society, no spay and neuter program, just sad sights all about the city. This was one cute pup that did have a home!
Creative Architecture in Sector 5
Although Sector 5 has extremely sad and dilapidated housing for the most part, one does occasionally see some creative architecture. Despite the poverty, it is fascinating to see the creativity, energy, and pride used in creating a home.OUR WEEK'S WORK
The focus of our week was the Project Ruth School - a school for gypsy children. This school has grades 1 -8 with the largest number of kids in the lower grades. By the time the children reach 8th grade, the class usually has no more than 5 students, one of which may go on to high school. Education is culturally not valued and attendance is quite sporadic. The Project Ruth School does an incredible job of giving very positive things to children that in most cases are faced with incredible life challenges. So our week's focus was to do fun art projects, which is an activity the school rarely is able to do. We had 110 children, ages 6 to 18, and NO ART SUPPLIES. We had gathered a lot of art supplies in the US and had 3 trunks worth of things to work with for our week at the school. But the trunks only made it as far as Heathrow's Terminal 5 - they never made it to Bucharest. This of course presented a huge challenge - but on a wing and a prayer, we were off and running. Here is where photos tell the story far better than my words can.
Throughout the week, we took multitudes of pictures of the kids because they LOVE to pose for the camera. At the end of the week Dick set up the computer and a projector, and had MOVIE TIME. The popcorn we had planned on having for the show, was still stuck in London!
Even without the popcorn, the event was a HUGE success!!
TO THE GYPSY CHURCH WE WILL GO
Two excursions we had during the week were outside of Bucharest - destination, 2 gypsy churches. The first visit was a one room church for children to come on Sunday mornings. We sang, played games, and colored and again the photos tell the story.
Sunday morning in Bolintin, Romania
Ready for church
Gypsy Church in Glina, Romania
Fabulous music with accordian, fiddle, and lots of happy voices.
Gypsy Funeral flowers (all real)
Bucharest
A gypsy funeral is quite elaborate - thousands of flowers, a feast (note large grill)and live music
It came time to leave Romania and it was a bitter sweet departure. We were ready for a hot shower, but during our week, we had made many new friends (especially Walker). It was hard to say good bye and I think we will always think and wonder what life will be like for these kind people.
On the plane, I was seated next to a NATO sharp shooter that had also spent his week in Bucharest. I was very struck by the fact that we had been in the very same city, but had seen two totally different worlds. Mine was a world I will never forget.
On the plane, I was seated next to a NATO sharp shooter that had also spent his week in Bucharest. I was very struck by the fact that we had been in the very same city, but had seen two totally different worlds. Mine was a world I will never forget.
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