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Worldwide Trips
> Volunteer Journal > Beius, Romania Trip - Sarah's Journal
Beius, Romania Trip - Sarah's Journal
Day 1 - The travel day - June 30th
Crossing the border...
I'll start out with a quick introduction. My name is Sarah Palmer and I'm the Thrivent Builds Worldwide team member responsible for journaling about the Thrivent Corporate Trip to Beius, Romania. I work in the IT division and I’ll be joined on this trip by 15 other Thrivent employees from our two corporate offices and one person from our Pacific Southwest regional financial office.
Here’s the list of people on the trip:
Jennifer Martin, Human Resources – Executive sponsor
Tom Hussin, Building Operations – team leader
Kirk Nelson, Workplace and Collaboration Engineering – team leader
Mary Abraham, FSO Compliance
Deb Countney, FA Services
Dennis DeBoth, Field/Marketing Solutions and Release Team
Garrett Gleason, Corporate and Commission Systems
Tom Greinert, FA Services
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Rachael Howe, Pacific Southwest Region
Christine Nelson, Controller’s Office
Sarah Palmer, Field Commission Application Services
Troy Peterson, Creative Services
Rick Schwandt, Corporate Application Services
Danette Sturm, Financial Underwriting Services Team
Pam Wilda, Training
Gil Young , Research and Insights |
Coming together...
It took a little time for all of us to meet in Budapest, but the entire group finally assembled together at 10 p.m. on Sunday, June 30. I was the first one to arrive in Budapest late on June 29, and then eagerly awaited the arrival of the rest of the crew. The Appleton group arrived the next day around 6:30 p.m., with the Minneapolis group close on their heels – arriving later that night around 9 p.m. After many hours of travel, we were finally together as a group, and ready to begin our adventure.
Flexibility and Patience...
The trip has already tested our flexibility and patience, specifically for a few team members. One team member didn’t receive a passport until 2 p.m. on the day of the flight. Also, because of some Minneapolis flight delays, the whole Minneapolis group missed their connecting flight from Amsterdam to Budapest. So, instead of meeting up with the Appleton group in Amsterdam as had been planned, they had to take a later flight to Budapest. Of course, the process of missing the flight caused luggage issues, too! The earliest anyone from the Minneapolis group received their luggage was at 2:30 a.m., and two unlucky team members didn't get their bags! What international trip would be complete without flight and luggage issues, right?
Day 2 - Traveling to Beius - July 1
The day started out bright and early with a quick buffet breakfast at the Budapest hotel, where we were introduced to Emil, our Habitat for Humanity contact. Then we hopped on a bus to drive to the town near our building site.
Our bus trip was estimated to take four to eight hours, depending on crossing the border between Hungary and Romania. The drive was very similar to what you'd see in the Midwest, with crops like corn and wheat visible from the bus. We saw numerous sunflower fields, too. After an uneventful and quick border crossing (thank goodness), we stopped in the city of Oradea for our first sit-down team meal. We got a chance to walk through the town and experience our first restaurant menu with no English to be found. The ordering process was simplified when the wait-staff said, “Whoever wants beef, raise your hand," and "Whoever wants chicken, raise your hand." All in all, everyone was pleased with their meals!
We arrived in Beius in the early evening and got settled in. This is where we'll be for the next six days for the build.
The bus ride was a great chance for people to start getting to know one another as we talked, played cards, took pictures, and experienced the beautiful scenery of Romania. But, for the last leg of the trip, most of us couldn't keep our eyes open. We’ll get our rest so we can be prepared to begin our first day at the build site tomorrow. |
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Day 3 - Mizies, Romania Build Day 1 - July 2
Building walls, building relationships...
The city we're building in, Mizies, is about 2 km from Beius. We're doing an accelerated build, and for those of you who are not familiar with the term, that means our whole team is working on the same house to try and get as much done as quickly as possible. We're building the second half of a twin home, which is like a duplex. The current neighborhood already has a few completed twinhomes.
For our first day on the site, we actually accomplished quite a bit. We raised all of the exterior and interior walls and laid all the exterior chip board. (This included numerous trips to town to get the necessary supplies.) By the end of our first day we could see how much progress we’d made and felt pretty accomplished! Emil, our Habitat leader, has been very organized and great to work with. He is always making sure everyone is keeping busy, which helps makes the day go by fast.
Our team is coming together and we're all getting to know one another. I know I'm enjoying the new friends I'm making, as well as getting to know people even better that I work with every day. We've shared meals (including a community order of fried brains), great conversation, walks around Beius, and played dice games together. It's been a great experience so far.
Day 4 - Mizies, Romania Build Day 2 - July 3 
Team work produces results...
Today, the skies were threatening to rain, and we weren't sure what we'd get done. But thankfully, we didn't get any rain and were able to continue to make great progress on the house. The house we're building will have stucco on the exterior, and by the end of the day we'd finished the first two steps of preparing the walls. We also got all the trusses up and in place on the roof and the entire fascia stained and ready to be put on. The home is really coming together!
We had a great dinner tonight with the whole team and extended an invitation to a professor from Romania. We learned about Romania under communism and their break from it in 1989. It's amazing to hear the stories and the situation that Romanians were faced with. It's very hard to imagine, since we live with so much freedom in the United States. The discussion definitely made me feel lucky for everything that we have and the freedom of choice we're blessed with. I can't imagine living in a world where you can’t make personal choices.
 
Day 5 - Mizies, Romania Build Day 3 - July 4
The 4th of July...
It was another busy day. The exterior of the house is almost finished. We put on the finishing coat of stucco and it looks great! We also finished up the roof with the concrete tiles. It looks great as a result of lots of team work, with assembly lines going a few times throughout the day to get the tiles and bricks in the right place. We ended up only working half the day in order to take time to celebrate Independence Day!
The 4th of July was a bit different for most of us this year, but it was a very enjoyable one. We took a leisurely ride out to the Bear Caves in Transylvania, Romania. We stopped off at a few different places: the Wooden Church in Bradet, a private museum collection of many different things from Romanian ethnography (farm equipment, clothing, flags, and pottery) and finally the Bear Caves (an amazing tour of caves within the hills of Transylvania). The Habitat Beius Team made us feel right at home by grilling out and enjoying the nice weather at a park near Bear Caves. We had a fun time hanging out with the crew from Habitat.
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Waiting for the cows to come home...
Our ride home from the cook out was an interesting one, as we had to keep slowing down for cows in the road. After about 10 or so cows, we realized – the residents along the road were waiting for the cows to come home! We saw numerous houses along our path with a door open and a watchrul eye looking for their cows. I guess we now have a personal reference for the phrase. |
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Day 6 - Mizies, Romania Build Day 4 - July 5
Dancing queens...
Well, tonight we had the pleasure watching children perform a few traditional Romanian dances for us and then, at the end, we were each picked by a child to go out and dance with them. It was fun... but slightly embarrassing for some of us. It was enjoyable to see the traditional instruments as well as the children dancing. We finished the night off with a traditional Romanian meal. It was excellent, and I'll just add that if any of us were expecting to come home a few pounds lighter, I don’t think that will be the case!
The build slowed down a little bit because of rain, but we still got a few things done. We had planned on heading out to the site around mid-morning after visiting the market in Beius. We strolled around for a bit as it was POURING! Our group got together around 10 a.m. and decided to send just a few people out to the site until lunch. The group that went to the site put up the final vapor barrier and then headed back into town for lunch with the rest of the group.
Amazingly, the weather cleared after lunch so we all headed out to the site. We transported sheetrock inside the house and were able to get a good start. By the end of the day, we had all but one room sheetrocked and taped, with the first coat of mud on the walls. We also got the exterior soffits up and the gypsies came to put up the eavestroves. The day had started out slowly with all of us chomping at the bit to work. The day ended with us catching up from the bad weather delay. We're ready to prepare the house for the dedication ceremony tomorrow!
Day 7 - Mizies, Romania Build Day 5 - July 6
It's the final countdown...
Although the weather was threatening us with rain again, we prepared the house for the dedication later in the day. We sanded the first coat of mud, finished sheetrocking, hung doors, tiled the bathroom, started laying brick for the chimney, finished the exterior fascia and laid the flooring. We had groups working together trying to prepare the house for the official dedication ceremony later in the night.
The dedication ceremony was quite interesting. Orthodox priests blessed the house and were speaking and singing for the whole event. I couldn't understand most of it, but did understand the blessing of the house with incense and holy water. The priests, a member of the board of directors from Habitat Beius, the recipient family and finally a few speakers on behalf of Thrivent all helped with different parts of the ceremony. We had to move into the house mid-ceremony as a downpour started; but that didn't rain on anyone's parade – we were all here to celebrate the dedication of the house, rain or shine.
Because we're finished with this house and still hungry for work, we'll be working again tomorrow pouring a concrete slab for the start of another house. All in all, the accelerated build has been a great experience. We were well organized and it's been great to work with everyone on the Thrivent and Habitat Beius teams. It's an exhilarating feeling to look back on where we started and how far we've come in five short days.
Day 8 - Mizies, Romania Build Day 6 - July 7
Save the hardest for last...
We worked pretty hard the first five days on the build and decided that we’d be up for working a bit more on Saturday morning. We spent the morning moving concrete by wheelbarrow to pour a foundation for a new house being built. It was hot outside, and the work was hard and exhausting. I have to say, I'm glad that we only worked half a day. Between the shoveling, wheelbarrowing and carrying water, our whole team worked hard and when we finished around noon, I think we were all happy to call it a day!
The rest of our day was spent traveling back to Budapest, Hungary for some much-deserved rest and relaxation. The bus ride back was mixed with reading, talking, games and quite a bit of sleeping. I know that I really enjoyed the ride, chatting and playing games with some of my teammates. By the time we got to our hotel in Budapest, everyone was hungry and tired, so we settled for a late dinner at a restaurant close to the hotel. The food was good, but by the time dinner was over around 10 p.m., I was ready to call it a night.
Day 9 - Budapest, Hungary - July 8
A cruise up the Danube...
After the busy day yesterday, we all had a chance to sleep in a little bit and get some much needed rest. At least those that could sleep through the noisy, outside world of downtown Budapest got some rest. I'm one of the lucky individuals that could sleep through the noise, so it worked out pretty good for me! I got up for a quick, refreshing run down to the Danube River and then met up with the rest of the team for our team boating trip on the Danube.
We took a two hour ferry ride up to a small village that has lots of arts, crafts and food. We had a great meal and then all broke into groups to explore the town. After a few hours, we headed back to the ferry and floated our way back down to Budapest. The rest of the night was on our own, and I spent time with a few teammates walking up and down the chain bridge in Budapest. The bridge was closed off to only allow pedestrian traffic on weekends, since it was filled with wonderful crafts and foods, along with different bands at each end of the bridge. A group of us headed back closer to the hotel to grab a relaxing, long dinner. I'm not sure any of us minded that it took about two hours for us to eat because the service wasn't great, but we weren't really pushing them too much, either!
Day 10 - Budapest, Hungary - July 9
Our final day...
We had a free day in Budapest so all of us broke out into groups doing different things that spiked our interest. We had people riding on city bus tours, visiting the Parliament, climbing the Basilica of St. Stephens, going to the famous thermal baths, and those who were walking and biking the city. I was in the group that rented bikes and tooled around Budapest. We had a great day to enjoy the weather, got some exercise and saw quite a bit of the city. I had a great time. To top it off, we ended the day of biking by soaking our bodies in all different temperatures of the thermal bathes and saunas. It was a great experience and very energizing.
We came together as a group for our final night and had a team meal. It was fun to get together to hear about everyone’s day. It's funny how just a bit over a week ago, a bunch of people with different backgrounds came together, many of us not knowing one another. Now, on our final night, it’s interesting to reflect on the bonds we've formed, the friendships that have blossomed and the relationships that have deepened. I know I've personally grown on this trip and have enjoyed the time that we've spent together as a group. I appreciate all of my teammates and have learned, expanded and cherished the time we've spent together as we’ve worked to make someone’s life better while enhancing our own.
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