Day Two: Spring Snowflakes and Habitat Street

Since we got to Oradea at almost midnight Eastern European Time, we've saved some of our travel day pictures for today, along with some stories from our first day in Romania.

Fuat, Laura, Fabienne and Thomas boarding our flight to Budapest

Loving Swiss Air for their free Butterbretzeln and chocolate!

Jumping for joy along the Danube River

The team in Budapest

This morning, we woke for our first full day in Romania to cool weather, ready for a Sunday excursion to nearby Beius. We were able to walk around the small university town, then visit an 18th century wooden Orthodox church, where a service was just ending. The church, located in a small village among green hills and wintry, leafless trees, was colorful and full of people coming to worship.

Wooden Orthoxod church, built around 1760

The church inside is small but colorful, with a roof curved to look like the inside of a ship.

To our surprise, we left the church to discover that it was snowing! It continued snowing off and on for the rest of the day, as we drove to the Bear Caves, which have the most stalactite formations of any cave in the world. We were excited to marvel at the waxlike sculptures inside the cave, imagining what the odd shapes looked like.

Some students huddle together like penguins, trying to stay warm in this surprising "spring" weather.

The sheep are well dressed for a snowstorm.

Lena, Cynthia and Laura H. smile as we wait for lunch.

April Fools' Snow!

Our day finished with a visit to Habitat Street in Beius, a neighborhood in which the original Habitat for Romania homes were built in the early 1990s. Our project coordinator, Emil, showed us the various types of houses they've built for families in need. He reminded us of the requirements of Habitat for Humanity, that families are both able to demonstrate need and also able to invest some of their time and finances into helping to build and purchase the homes with interest-free loans. 

It was exciting for us to visit this small community, and see the homes being lived in by people who have benefitted from Habitat's work in their lives. We are excited to go to our own work site in the morning, where we will meet the three young adults for whom we are building apartments this week.