Concrete,rebar, stairs and a foundation plus a new roof and an amazing HFH Affiliate in Beius

The 2011 Global Village team of Canadians(and 1 American)  to Romania has officially come to its close. I am not entirely sure where the two weeks has gone but when I reflect back on the memories and all that we did, it is not surprising that I am exhausted and elated!

We started work on the site in Beius on Monday morning and returned to the very familiar rock shoveling, wheel-barrowing and concrete mixing to complete the foundation for a second house. We also worked on building re-bar framing for the foundation. This work continued into Tuesday as well and in addition to finishing the foundation, we built frames for two other homes for their entrance stairways. (which you can see in the first photo)

On Wednesday we went to the site of some of the very first Habitat homes to help a homeowner who wanted to switch his concrete tiles that originally made up his roof to ceramic tiles.  I had the great pleasure
of spending most of the two days on the roof in the thick of the building action.

To accomplish this we needed to remove the old tiles.  Habitat for Humanity collects them and stores them in their warehouse for re-use.

We then had to reinforce the roof structure with more 2x4s, cover the frame with plastic barrier, build and install the strapping and then install close to 1500 tiles.

This took Wednesday and Thursday but we got it entirely complete.  Truly rewarding. The homeowner's family treated us to elderberry drinks, homemade donuts and even beer on the last day.

On Thursday night we celebrated with the Habitat staff with a traditional night of folk dancing, another amazing meal and ridiculous amounts of palinka -- a homemade moonshine made from plums.

Working with Emil, Mihai, Marcel and Nelu  all week and a very welcome surprise return for our last night by Ionuts was a treat!  Habitat in Beius is a impressively strong community and organization.  The people make the place...and the experience. The people working here and the people on my team made the work, the learning and the giving an unforgettable experience. For this I am truly fortunate and grateful.