Saturday, Sept. 30, 2006: 9:12pm

Can you believe tomorrow will be October already? No to the cold weather.

Anyway...To continue with the overlapping stories: After we left the worksite on Tuesday, we stopped to drop off Vasilea at his apartment. His place wasn't as bad as Elena's. At least he had two rooms, but he also has three children: Two sons and a daughter. The oldest son is very inquisitive and can speak a bit of English. He asked me and a teammate, Lindsey, if we worked with his papa in Oarja. The blond middle son is very happy, always smiling or waving. And the youngest daughter just loves to run around. His need for things has got to be the greatest: Today at the sight as we were packing up and cleaning everything, one of my jobs was to divide our remaining food stuffs among the three partner families we were working with. He wanted everything, even the paper towels. Tough thing was, we had to divide everything, even the sugar packets. Nevertheless, he was always pointing and yelling for more. It's tough to see that desperate need right in front of you. And when I went to place the bags aside while we cleaned the tables, he acted like he thought I was taking his bag. The communication barrier is really big there.

Otherwise, it's been a comical few days. Wednesday was the best so far. We worked a half-day, ate our lunch on the bus, and went touring. It was a great time, but very tiring. First we went to Cortea de Arges to the monastery there. Unfortunately, you had to pay for pics there (What is up with that anyway?) and it was under renovation. But I still got some great photos. Next stop was Poienari Castle, Vlad Dracul's residence (yes, he is the real-life basis for Dracula). We climbed the 1,400+ steps to the top, and I was the first one to reach the fortress. Yes, it was kind of creepy. Being superstitious, I had a set of Aunt Helen's rosary beads in my jacket. It took me about 20 minutes to climb them all. The photos at the top were so amazing. Several times during the ascent, I saw no one behind me, thought I saw or heard things; it was raining and dark and windy. Right out of a movie. Poor Cheryl (a team member) couldn't make the climb. She is very overweight and can't do many physical things. Dinner was on a boat. Two hours and 100 steps down. After that climb to the fortress, Ursus beer never tasted so good. All hands went up in unison when John Chilton (a team member) asked, "Who wants a beer?" Poor Alex was running rampant as usual. The team ended up ordering three different dishes because it was just easier. It was pouring by the time we left. (In fact, it's rained a lot since we've been here.) There were several drenched dogs, including a puppy I would have loved to take home. I just pet him on the head and told him to be safe. Yeah, climbing those cement steps in the dark in the rain was not the most fun thing to do. But it was a fantastic end to a day spent shoveling rocks and sifting sand for three hours and not seeming to make a dent in the pile. I had wanted to blog that night after we got back to the hotel, but that was at 11:30--way too late.

In other news, Alex is getting very annoying. In fact, he's been that way for a few days now. We all liked him at fist (and still do), but he sits around doing nothing. Or he's interrupting our work telling us what to do. Thursday was the straw that broke the camel's back when he walked past two ladders and two brooms upstairs and didn't carry them down. Friday I yelled at him when he left dark-haired Elena (a partner family member) shifting sand alone. The team discussed this last night. Maybe Alex is just inexperienced. He's only in his early 20s. He's not used to working so hard. In fact, he told Christi (our construction manager) that he doesn't like manual labor. Rebecca also said he doesn't have to be working, which is true--none of my other volunteer coordinators have (especially Allison with her Range Rover and Coach bag in Hawaii). But when we are working so hard and he is at the site sitting around, you start to want him to do stuff. The comparison is right in front of your eyes.

One last ditty for the day: The grocery store nazis at the Pic. There are three or four people in suits before you leave the store. Even if you have only bought a snack bar, they have to stamp your receipt. It's so ridiculous. So much for the end of Communism in Romania.

Hopefully, I'll be able to blog one or two more times before I return home. We're only up to Wednesday, after all. Tomorrow, we depart for Sinaia; Monday we'll be in Bucharest. I should be able to locate an Internet cafe one of those days. I know our hotel in Bucharest has computers. It's the place the team stayed when we all first arrived. Otherwise, stay tuned. I'll blog after I get home as well. Miss and love you all!