The Weary Traveler
Disclaimer: The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.

As of Tuesday morning at 1:30 a.m because my train was late - I'm back in Deva. I left September 1st, and traveled for 12 hours to Suceava and then hung out at friends apartment for a few hours before another 3 hour train ride to the city of Radauti where I participated in the Habitat For Humanity Euro Blitz Build. 27 new houses were built in 5 days. One for every member of the European Union.

When I signed up for this trip I thought it would be fun to see another part of the country - Bucovinia, not Moldova as I erroneously stated previously, and that it would be good to get out of my town for a while, see my friends from my training class and do some manual labor for a change. I also worried that it would be too hot and I wouldn't have anything to wear. All of these things were good and fulfilling reasons to go to Habitat and my worry about not having anything to wear would come true - but not for the reasons I expected.

We stayed in a school "dorm" which was a large room with 8 cots in it. I wish I 'd known pillows and blankets were provided. Individual shower stalls were in the shower room at the end of the hall across from the latrines (which smelled like one) and there was also a "sink room" which was a room full of sinks. I guess the toliet seats and shower curtians had been purchased for us. We had been warned before our arrival that there were some problems with the housing but it was definately functional. Not bad for a Peace Corps volunteer - and I forgot to mention that we didn't have to pay. Other Habitat volunteers coming from the United States or Europe had to shell out something in the hundreds of euros for the honor of working on this project, so there were really no complaints from the Peace Corps volunteers. Except it was interesting that one shower controlled the temperature for all of them. It was a gift to have hot water available to us though. For some, it was too hot.

Along with not having to pay the Peace Corps volunteers weren't included in breakfast or the shuttle service to the build site - so we had a 40 minute walk to look forward to each morning and evening. As we got progressively more and more tired through the week it began to be an hour and 20 minute walk, but closer to the end of the week we were also able to hitch rides with the shuttle vans since it was likely we were soaking wet with rain and covered in mud, cement, plaster, or fiberglass insulation.

Some volunteers didn't stay and work the whole five days. That never occurred to me, but it would have been nice, since building a house is a lot of hard work. It was especially for me because I was on a team with 5 middle aged or older men, three Romanian high school girls, two women who were around intermittently but didn't show up until day 3 and me. So I threw myself into every task with a fearless vigor in order to prove my mettle to these guys and earn my right to swing a hammer. The second morning I defied a fear of hights and helped assemble the roof (this mostly involved lifting and grabbing sheets of that wood that's made of glued together wood chips and holding them while people who could reach nailed them down) until noon because after climbing down I doubted I had the strength left in my arms to haul myself up the ladder again or could trust my hands to grip a hammer without sending it flying off the roof. Also defied, fears of chainsaws and trucks...

The third and fourth day it rained. We got soaked. I brought only 1 pair of work pants, and 1 pair of boots. I was also out of socks and underware. Soon everything I brought with me was soaking wet. That last day I didn't relish the though of walking an hour in wet jeans without undies, but luckily a friend came through for me and lent me a clean dry pair, which made pulling on those cold wet jeans all the more bareable. Luckily the sun came out that day and my pants were mostly dry before noon.

I didn't mention that the first day Sunday - after the opening ceremony I ate some bad mushrooms and was sick with vomiting and on the toliet all night. I was actually feeling gross earlier Sunday since I hadn't eaten all day - except coffee. A lot of coffee. Therefore, after and hour and half of sleep on the train Saturday night and probably about four hours not spent in the bathroom Sunday - I slept in until 10am on Monday and missed raising the frames of the houses. That's as long as my sick spell lasted (thank God for my "emergency Amodium" in my personal stash) and I was able to work hard for the rest of the week, but I was not a happy camper Monday lunch time when they told me the caterer's forgot to prepare a vegetarian option.

Out of the darkness of limping around Radauti for a week in wet socks, wet boots, and going commando, covered with mud, there was a bright spot. I discovered: Hot wine. Hot red wine on the menu in this cool old fashioned bar called, in a combination of Romanian and English, URSO BREWERY which means "Bear Brewery". Hot wine is delicous and heated with just a few cloves, and you add your own sugar. It's just thing after a day of wandering around a muddy construction site in the rain hoping for someone to give you a job more dignified than "Wash these tools, or go find me a ..." (These things I did, however, but only for Harry our House Leader. I don't know where Harry was from in the U.S. but he was a nice guy and a pleasure to work for).

It was a good experience working on the Habitat Build and at times a lot of fun. At times it was a freezing cold, wet, pain in the ass, but I was never unaware that I signed up for this. I wanted to be there. I made friends with the homeowners who's house we were building Tabita and Daniel, and promised to come and visit them the next time I'm in the area. I hope to. They expect they'll be able to move in around October 1st, since at the end of the week I have to say our house was in pretty good shape! We had the roof on, the three layers of the exterior done except for the sanding to get ready for paint, and inside the insulation, drywall and joint compound were done, the doors framed and hung and the windows up and ready. The only things that still needed to be done were installing the fixtures like the toliet and sinks, and kitchen cabinets, the rest of the electrical wiring, the sub floor and the floor. So, ok, a lot still has to be done, but it was 5 days and we had put a house where before only a foundation stood!

After all this on Saturday September 8th I was quite ready to go back to Deva. We were all tired bruised sore and I was sorely missing dry clean clothes, my own bedroom, and a hot bath (although the week held plenty of hot showers with the rain and the messy sate we returned from the work site in. I don't usually shower every day). But a return journey home was not in the plan. We had to go to Bucharest on Sunday where Peace Corps had a hotel reservation for us. On Monday we had a Doctor appointment for the first of our HPV vaccines. So that meant Saturday we had to find somewhere to go to spend the night.

Turns out my closest friend by proximity (she's two hours away and we do a lot together) had come down with the flu by Friday night and wasn't feeling up to travel. We spent all day Saturday with two volunteers stationed in Radauti seeing if she would feel better enough for us to take the train to Suceava. Eventually I left with a bunch of other volunteers on a free Habitat shuttle to Suceava and let Dru spend a more comfortable restful night in Raudati. I accompaniend the gang to Dennis and Holly's where 9 volunteers were sleeping over in a two person apartment, one more was supposed to show up with his parents but their flight got canceled. It was estentially an all night party, but I'm not sure how long the hosts were up. I was thankful for an excellent Itailian meal a the local restruant that I splurged on, and a corner of the couch as I had to be up at 6:30 to get on the train to bucharest.

By 2:30 we were in Bucharest, 3:30 at the hotel. By five I was showered I spread my damp sink washed clothing around the room to dry and by quarter to six asleep. Dru was feeling better and we were both hungry so we explored Bucharest eventually finding some moderately priced traditional Romanain cuisine with a lot of vegetarian options.

The next day we raided the library in the Peace Corps office PCV lounge, recieved our vacinations, and ditched our bags long enough to search out a Thai restaurant in Bucharest at which to spend our Per Diem money on lunch. We ended up treking around for quite a hungry-have-to-pee while, but the trip resulted in the purchases of new handbags, backpacks, and sneakers for everyone but me (I'm set in the shoe and baggage department). Eventually we stumbled upon an Indian restruant and abandoned our hopes of Thai food. It was a delicous, filling, and expensive (but well worth it) lunch - and not too far from the Peace Corps office. Afterward, it was only my sitting down to chat with our program manager and not watching the time that made us nearly late for our train. A short sprint and three metro stops later we were in pulling out of Bucharest and thankfully heading home - after an eight hour train ride.

But I made it back! So far the weather in Deva has greeted me with cold and gloom, but I even made it out of my apartment yesterday - an accomplishment in the pouring rain, after a hot (well, warm) bath and two loads of laundry. Now, I'm about to put a pot of soup on the stove and celebrate that by the cold and the rain Autumn has come to Deva, but thankfully, I don't have to leave again until the begining of October.