Saturday, April 18, 2009

So what happened at night?

Well after our dinner and showers, we had free time and then CLUB!!

First we had announcements and we found out where we would work the next day. Then we had our head leaders, Scott and Londi, amuse us with what we thought were uncoordinated speeches. :)

Then it was Scottie 2 Hottie! :) He would play the "creme de la creme" of music, ranging from "thriller" to "sweet home romania" to "banana pancakes" to all my loving" and to our favorite "sweet caroline"

Then it was Future Steve and Gloria- The Time Travellers- The Travellers of Time, who rocked the stage with their future-styled games. “Random yet totally volunteering people” were called up to play games such drinking coke out of another person’s sock .

Finally, we got to listen to world’s BEST stand-up comedian: named Lord Christopher Richard Leeland Enos O' Shaughnessy. Chris told the story of the life of Jesus in a way I have never heard it before. He was amazing.

Then it was cabin time where we talked about what Chris had talked about.
Then bed!

Most memorable thing about Romania-Sasha

Everything was memorable, but this stuck out the most. (its an english project i wrote this week, but it has to do with this)...

At the beginning of Project Compassion, my week-long mission’s trip to Tauts, Romania, I knew I would work with very poor people. I and eighty five third culture teenagers would go to the little village, remodel some of the homes, and do other various projects. By the end of the week, however, I realized that these gypsies and townspeople have more wealth and riches than we do. These Romanians and gypsies have nothing: no money, no possessions, and, at times, no food to eat. They all live in tiny huts made of mud, manure, and hay that constantly fall apart. They have no electricity, no running water, and no floor. We, on the other hand, have money, possessions, and a house with running water and electricity. We have a closetful of clothes and shoes, three meals a day, and a bed to sleep in at night. Yet they, who have nothing, posses so much more than we do. When NetWorks Romania, one of the organizations planning our trip, went out and asked the community what projects they needed help with, all pointed away to two elderly people and the gypsy village. Although everyone could have said that they needed the help, they chose the people needing the most help. Both the gypsies and townspeople place what little they have as their riches. Their strong community and friendships that they own surpass everything that we have.

sam's will be here soon!

Friday, April 17, 2009

Our schedule

A typical day in the life of a PC camper!
This is the schedule of my team and two other teams Mon-Thurs:

8:10 AM wake up (first day we got up at 7:30, by 2nd, we were exhausted)
8:15 AM breakfast
9:00 AM work begins
12:30 PM Lunch
1:30 work resumes
5:00 PM showers
6:00 PM dinner
7:00-8:45 PM free time
8:45-10:30 CLUB
10:30 PM-11:30 PM Cabin time
11:45 Lights out (sorta, we got to talking a lot)

Meanwhile, this is the the other three teams schedule:

8:10 Wake up
8:30 breakfast
9:00 work starts
1:00 lunch
2:00 work resumes
5:00 dinner
6:00 showers
7:oo-8:45 free time
8:45-10:30 CLUB
10:30-11:30 cabin time
11:45 lights out

Saturday was for travel, Sunday orientation and games, Friday half day and then we drove to the city for a nice dinner. Saturday travel. More to come!

Our five projects

With 85 teenagers split into 6 groups with 2 leaders per group, YC gave us 5 projects. All teams rotated each day, giving us a chance to work at each site.

My team, the Rubber Duckies, was the best team. Sam disagrees.

1. Ana's House: Ana is a very sweet old lady who had a stroke last year, and has been handicapped since. She has two houses across from each other, and both do not have running water inside. Since her stroke, Ana has not been able to pump water from her pump, so our job was to run pipes from the well into both houses and put a sink in. Ana now has running water!

Oleku's House: Oleku was an elderly man who is paralyzed from the waste down and is in a wheel chair. In order for him to leave his house, he had to crawl out of his chair and down the stairs and pull himself up into his other chair outside. We built him a concrete wheelchair ramp so that he doesn't have to crawl.

NOTE: Ana and Oleku's projects were small compared to the others, so 1 team would be divided between the two houses.

2. New Park: Across the street from Ana's houses, we began the construction of a park. We had to level out the dirt, pour concrete, dig trenches for a fountain and a path. The team that was there this week completed it, and set everything up.
Two teams were here

3. Road: At the camp where we stayed, the road there was bumpy and messed up. We evened it out and poured concrete on it.
One team was here

4. Demolition: At the camp there was an old brick building that was falling apart. We demolished it, and then cleaned all the bricks of the concrete and stacked them in tractors that would take them to the park site and gypsy village.
One team was here

5. Gypsy village: We dug 3 new wells, put up a wall around 2 other wells, planted 2 huge gardens, and re-mudded an old lady's house. They use hay and mud mixed together as their "stucco" with a lime wash over.
One team was here

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Youth Compass

Sit back, relax, get a bowl of popcorn.

The first video you are about to see is about the organization, Youth Compass, that organized our trip, Project Compassion, last week. The video explains who they are better than I could. Here you go:



This video is of the 2008 trip to Tauts, Romania. YC partnered with NetWorks Romania to make PC happen. We will get one similar this summer of our trip. Here's this video to give you an idea about the week. This summer, we'll show you ours:



Check back later this week for more details!

Monday, April 13, 2009

Sam and I are back

We're back and I have some great posts in the line up for this week!

The trip was AMAZING, we are going again next year, but I'll leave the rest for the post.
Not many pictures, but lots of words....

:)

Monday, March 16, 2009

Tick Tock

Only 3 weeks until Sam and I go to Romania and 6 weeks until my Uganda trip! As the trips get closer and closer, we get more and more excited!

Week (s) Review

It has been awhile since the last post, so here is a recap from the past couple of weeks--we have been soooo busy!

--Last weekend we had our youth retreat at the dacha. Pics are:
HERE
and
HERE

Then this week Pa had his big 4-0 birthday and we got him a portrait of everyone:


Then mom and I made a spiderman cake for my 3 year old buddy, Max:



And then yesterday we went to the circus! That's whats been going on lately....
:)



Thursday, February 26, 2009

We’re BAACK!!

and pictures will be posted THIS weekend! We had an amazing time in Egypt: resting, tanning, and if I tell you more, I’ll ruin the posts you’ll see to come!

=)

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Kuznetsov Evening News


EDIT: Only watch the first segment. The second one "live from egypt" will be published while we are there. Don't know why it combined. Ignore it for now!

Monday, February 9, 2009

Apparently, I’m cool too.

Snapshot_20090207_2

Daisy’s not the only cool one! I found a COOL new way to post things, much easier and faster! It made my day…not.

=)

t-minus 5 days until Egypt!

Happy Birthday, Sam!

Happy Birthday, Sam!

Saturday, February 7, 2009

I'm just that cool.

Who does she think she is? Trying to budge into MY camera time? Huh, huh? How could she possibly think she's cooler than me! No one, and I mean no one, is cooler than I am. No way.
Well, I'll be! She doesn't even look happy! If anyone is going to be in any picture with me, they HAVE to look happy. Therfore, I'm kicking her out.

Now it's just me. You can enjoy my coolness. I am just that cool. Sportin' the shades is what I do best.
I'm even that cool to wish Sam a happy Birthday tomorrow. I'm so awesome--I added the party hat too!

In case you don't hear from me then, (which you probably won't because I am so cool that I have cool things to do) I'm that cool to wish you a Happy Valentines day.
Ta ta!
-The Big D

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

It's a little messy right now.

I'm changing some things, so excuse my mess. There'll be a new header, etc. sometime in the coming week.

=)