Week in review: So sore...but so worth it

Just returned from our last dinner in Oradea and tomorrow we make our way to Beius to work at another location and on other houses.  We will also move into different accommodations. In addition we have Saturday and Sunday "off" from work so we will be enjoying the Romanian mountains and hopefully hiking on Saturday with some sight seeing on Sunday.  And then back at it on Monday.
Living and working at Caminul Felix has been wonderful.  The accommodation and people here have been brilliant so I mixed emotions about leaving.  Although I am thrilled we will get to visit and absorb another torn and work with a new crew in Beius.

I can confess to being absolutely spent today and sore all over. But it feels amazing. Of course the two giant bottles of Ursus beer with dinner have helped tremendously with the muscle tightness.

The last few days have been physically demanding and I have loved every minute of it.  There was a certain sysiphean element to the last three days.  It seemed we were constantly shoveling rocks into ditches we just dug, and then shoveling sand with more rocks to make concrete...and as soon as we went for our lunch break or a short water break, more rocks and sand appeared!  So much digging, so much concrete...so many wheelbarrows!  There is a great sense of satisfaction though when you end your day with physical exhaustion brought on by being outside for hours being highly productive.

This was our team as we set off to work on  Day one -- clean and eager!

In our short time here we finished installing vapor barrier and insulation in the transition house project as well as installed dry wall boards to the ceilings and to 5 rooms in the house.

We built and  installed the molds for walkways, prepared concrete and poured the concrete for the walkways surrounding the first set of studio apartments.

We then removed the molds and filled the edges with gravel and sand to ensure proper run off.  This included pounding down the sand and gravel. The wood framing was started as well.

Foundation trenches were dug (by a machine ...thank goodness) for two more blocks of studio apartments.  On the first, we cleaned the trenches, filled them with 20cm of rocks, prepared concrete and poured it into the foundation.  We lay cinder blocks to prep the start of the wall construction for the exterior walls.

On the second we also filled the foundation with 20cm of rocks and prepared concrete finishing 2/3 of the foundation.

Considering we worked about an 8 hour day and worked Tuesday to Friday this week, we did pretty well I think!

In addition we met some great people.  I mentioned Mircea and Lydia who will be moving into the transitional house.  They started adopting children 19 years ago and have a family of 18 children and are now grandparents as well.

We met fantastic children and families who are part of Caminul Felix.

We worked with great Romanian crew: Ionuts, Mihai, Dan, Benny as well as some of the young families who will be moving into the studio apartments.

And of course my team-mates!  Great people who continue to work hard and make each other laugh!

Looking forward to a good night's sleep, the chance to sleep-in a bit...and the next Chapter as we head to Beius.