Romania – July 11, 2023
Tuesday was another early start for the Romanian team. Up for a wonderful breakfast of French Toast at 6, and then in the van laden with tools on the way to Tinca at 6:30. Today the team tackled more of the house as early as possible to beat the heat and sun! Alan was on the roof installing the structure that will support the metal roofing, with George assisting from below. Daniel and Graham started installing the clapboard siding that the team painted yesterday, and the rest of the team jumped on the painting of the remainder of the planed boards.
Once the process of installing the clapboard was installed, the front walls started to go up quickly. Alex and John who are locally leading the construction efforts installed the new window we picked up yesterday evening. Stacey painted the new door for the house a wonderful red color to accent the earth tones of the house itself. Becky, who was told specifically not to operate power tools, successfully cut many clapboards to length for the side of the house without removing a single digit.
By lunch, the roof was largely ready for final metal layer, siding was nearly complete on three sides, and enough clapboards have been planned and painted for what we hope is the rest of the job.
Lunch arrived, made by a local family with connections to REMM, which consisted of potatoes, a type of pork meatball, and wonderful fried cheese bread which was amazing! The kids from the village started to show up shortly after and the team lead a great lesson followed up a butterfly craft that turned out very nicely. Most importantly, the kids seem to understand the point of the lesson and crafts a bit better today as Alex translated for us. The outdoor activity was once again the beloved game of soccer, where the much more skilled village kids once again soundly beat the men on our trip.
By this point in the day, everyone was quite worn out, and we headed to the van to make the trek back to Beius. As we wound through the mountains, we saw a tower in the woods, which Alex said was an easy detour from our path home. Even though everyone was tired, we agreed it was worth it to see the remains of a fortified monastery from the 13th century.
The road to the site took us across a very old, narrow, wooden decked bridge which was quite exciting. The scare was worth it to see the remaining tower overlooking the surrounding valley.
After making the return trip back we arrived at REMM HQ to hear the great news that our missing eight bags would soon arrive! For Daniel, Patti and Becky it was a welcome chance to wear some of our own clothes!
As the afternoon turns into evening, a cool breeze settles into Beius, but tomorrow’s weather points to highs of 92F and another sunny day that the team can tackle the remaining items on the house.
Thank God again for the wonderful weather that makes it possible to work outside on the house, and the safety he has provided the team as we travel back and forth to the site and while we are working each day.
– Daniel for the Romania team
