Day Four: Community Building

This day of roof-tiling and wall plastering was in a huge way a day of community and communication. From very early in the day, most of the group was involved in spreading concrete stucco on the insulated exterior walls of the house, and the sounds of laughter and conversation filled the construction site.

First look this morning. Insulated walls and partial roof.

Camille, Jason, Thomas and Michael work on perfecting their stucco skills.

Kevin and Joe show some teamwork bringing a bottle of water to the ladies.

Herr Kieffer pops up through the roof!

It has been truly delightful to experience the exchange of culture and the building of relationships here in Romania this week. On the construction site there is a mix of four major languages: Romanian, English, German and "Irish English," spoken by the team of Irish volunteers who have been working with us this week. While many of the Romanian workers speak some English, many others speak none at all. We are all learning how to communicate with few or no words, and realizing again how much good nature can be expressed by a smile or a helping hand.

Angela and Camille work with Lindsay from Northern Ireland.

Three groups playing a game during lunch break.

Within the Kandern team, we have all deeply enjoyed this opportunity to unite, from two groups of German and English-speaking students and staff into one bonded group, working together on a shared goal. As we learn to build bridges to our new Irish and Romanian friends, we are also excited to be forming friendships between Kandern neighbors from home.

After lunch, a major assembly line forms to transport the ceramic roof tiles up to the roof.

One side of the roof is nearly complete!