When I asked people why they went on this trip, I got two answers, “because I want to get closer to God”, and “because I want to help people.” My answer though was “I don’t know why I want to go, but I think by the end of the trip I’ll know.” Sure, I had reasons why I wanted to go – help people, meet people, see a different culture (which I then discovered was really a different world) and have some fun. But it’s been so much more than that.
In Lupeni we taught English, built a skate park, improved hospital facilities and built a sewer. It was quite an adventure with long and tiring hours, though never short of fun and laughs!
We got to know the Romanian locals, and we had translators varying from ages 14-20 who were delightful and not only did a great job translating, but actually taught us some of the language.
The town was poor (just to give you an idea, I gave in 10 euros to be exchanged and got back 350,000 lei,) and many of the children were thin. Everywhere we went we were thanked and the children asked for our autographs. We got all our jobs done, and at the end of the week the skate park was spic and span, and the hospital looked a lot better, the sewers’ water flowed freely and the kids were singing “Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.”
This trip was amazingly life changing, and I advise anyone to go next year in the Easter Break!
