The curse of the Gypsy woman

During my first week in Romania I had a chat with one of the Romanian volunteers from Millennium Center. She told me how she believed in the curse of the gypsy women, and how it once happened to her. She had been feeling ill and tired until she discovered the curse by doing some kind of trick with matches.

I had to think of this superstition when I suffered some personal incoveniences (better known as travellers disease) last week. This revealed the huge differences between Dutch and Romanian attitudes towards health issues. While I'm used to taking my own measures, eating extra bananas and drinking extra mineral water, all Romanians around me immediately wanted to take me to the doctor or even the emergency department of nearest hospital (not without mentioning the horror stories from that same hospital). On day number 5 I surrendered; I finally met the village doctor - and i have to say: the medicines he prescribed did their job. Just in time to enjoy the celebration of my hosts nameday.

Where the streets have no name...

Life in a village has its own rhythm. And for every season there is another speed. Spring is advancing very fast. Three weeks ago it was still the end of winter; the start of this week felt as if summer was coming. Fresh lilacs are decorating my room. It makes it hard to grasp that it has been only one week since my arrival here.
One week with a lot of new experiences and small observations. Especially the latter ones I have to write down, before I’m taking things for granted. The 20 km long tram ride between Arad and the nearby town of Ghioroc for example, with the sign: forbidden to eat sunflower seeds. The fact that everyone greets each other on the streets. Some older people even get offended when it slips your mind. The omnipresent animals: chicken, ducks, geese, dogs, cows, sheep and horses. The local accent, in which n becomes nj. The fact that there are no street names, just numbers. And above all, the hospitality one may find even in places like the kindergarten, where they served us some traditional food and drinks.

Secondly, there are the small annoyances. Because they’re working here on a new water system, we don’t have running water during large parts of the day. Something typical for every small community is the social control. For us foreigners, it has limited itself so far to an occasional awkward look. The kindergarten teacher, who lives in another town, explained us on the other hand, how she experiences the judgment of the people.

Then there are the bizarre palaces in the village. Covăsânţ has a strong Roma community. Most of them are working abroad. With the money they earn over there, they build huge kitschy palaces in the village. One is bigger than the other. In most of them only one room is used. There seems to be a big difference with Suplacu. Here there is no obvious separation between Roma and Romanians. At least, children of both communities are attending the same school.

Last but not least we have the Big Invisible: politics. In June there will be the local elections. Behind the scenes the campaigns already have started. Everything turns out to be political, even in a village like this. And especially in a country like Romania, where a visible clash exists between old and new generations. Between people who prefer a status quo and people who want change. (To put it bluntly.) And if you want to get things done, you’ll have to be member of a political party. In this way, even the local youth center here is part of that game.

On the other hand: there is still at least one event bigger than the elections, and that is Orthodox Easter. The countdown for the 27th of April is running. Coming Sunday marks the start of the Holy Week, with every day a special sermon. The (holiday) week after Eastern is filled with all kind activities (tournaments) for the village youth. The summer weather might be useful then.

Babylonian garden

The intercultural rollercoaster-ride of the past two weeks seems to have stopped in the village of Covasant. Before my arrival here I stayed eight days in the visitors centre of Natural Parc Lunca Muresului , where the on-arrival training for new volunteers from Arad and Oradea was organised.

Eight days of intercultural learning, lectures, workshops, a canoe trip, beer, wine and other beverages and above all the cultural shocks - both in theory and in practice. Wireless internet and modern bathrooms 300 meters from hardcore poverty in a Roma village. A natural park with a lot of waste.

Now it's time to see whether this Babylonian garden, with all its languages and contrasts has been a good preparation for the near future.

Next blog: Life in a Village

Planet Petrom

Currently I'm having my on-arrival training in Natural Park Lunca Muresanului, close to Arad. A lot of intercultural learning, games and drinking. Campfire included. The training will last until tuesday, after which we still have two days for a workshop in photography and video. I might write a seperate message on this world in itself.

Before leaving to this beautiful forest/river-area, Kaie and I had the chance to visit the third possible destination: a village called Suplacu de Barcau, 70 km. from Oradea. It took us almost seven hours to reach it (including a three hour stop in border city Oradea). The spring sun did its best to make us forget the lack of sleep due to the pubquiz the night before. After leaving the bus in Suplacu, our noses took over. It wasn't possible to avoid the smell of petrol. Everywhere in and around the village we stumbled upon oil installations and chimneys, runned by Romanian oil company Petrom. The volunteers ( a French girl, two Spanish guys) we met there told us that one can get used to it. As a compensation for the omnipresent oil money came available for a new youth center.

A second peculiarity of the village is the number of ethnic communities. Romanians, Hungarians and Slovaks are living next to each other. The Roma part of town however looks like a completely different world. We had the chance to see the volunteers in action during an English lesson in the Roma school. It's hard to stay clear from the cliche images when describing it. Fourteen year old girls taking their babies into class, a fight between two boys. The volunteers however did manage to make small steps in breaking the stereotypes.

All in all was this a very impressive day. I got to a see a new side of Romania and it made me wonder where I'm going to stay.

(see slideshow for pictures)

Time is flexible

Only a few days in Arad and I already have to admit that the title of this blog is not entirely accurate. Romanian time is very flexible and not necessarily always flying. Sometimes it walks, it crawls or it takes a tram. Sometimes it's caught in a traffic jam on its way to one of Romania's new palaces of consumption, the hypermarkets. And occasionally it stands still.

It happened when I had to wait in a minibus at Ferihegy Airport for the last customer to arrive. Four hours is a lot of seconds. Since friday I'm discovering Arad and surroundings. I arrived together with Estonian girl Kaie and we're waiting for the rest of the volunteers for our project to arrive. This means that our one-week on-arrival training will start this friday and that we still don't know where we will end up after that. O sa vedem, we will see. A large part of the project is carried out in three villages (far) outside Arad: Covasant, Abrud and Suplacu de Barcau. So far we visited the first two, to get an impression of the work in the local youth centers.

Two funny facts to conclude: the first pub I visited here is called Time to Time... And the clock of the city hall plays Vangelis on every hour (but don't ask me which song it is).

Arad City Hall